Childcare as a mean to sustain families within the European

Childcare as a support to families
in the financial crisis:
the role of voluntary associations
in Tuscany facing local welfare retrenchment
International Conference
“Participatory local welfare, citizenship and third sector. What is at stake?”
Pisa, January 31st - February 1st 2013
Stream 6
Participation for what?
Social cohesion and citizens strategies in the context of economic crisis
Coordinator: Marisol Garcia (University of Barcelona)
Authors
Rossana Trifiletti*, Elena Elia*, Luigi Remaschi**
*DISPO, Political Science and Sociology Department, University of Florence
**ANPAS Tuscan Regional Committee
Childcare services: an underestimated community value
Italy is one of the European countries where a widespread awareness of the relevance of a
specialized childcare from an educational standpoint started precociously, at least in the early '60s,
and was seen as means upon which to build the growth of the entire social system and societal
equity. This sensitivity comes, first of all, from a public debate which preceded the set-up of
kindergartens as a public service in 1971. Its roots can be found in the thoughts and reflections
carried on by political actors such as UDI and, later, CIF 1 and by trade unions after WWI, and
became part of the political culture of local governments by the end of the '60s (AAVV 1964;
Comune di Bologna 1972; Comune di Mantova 1973; Trifiletti e Turi 1996). Famous pedagogists
like Loris Malaguzzi (1971, 1982) and Aldo Fortunati (2002, 2006) or scholars who dedicated their
studies to education such as Mario Lodi (1977, 1983) also looked at the development of the system
and at how interventions directed to the creation of a more diffused equality should be core in the
public discourse. In particular, the connection between educational interventions and prevention of
an excess of social inequality has been a theme upon which movements and thinkers from different
disciplines and political beliefs (School of Barbiana 1986; Lodi 1983; Barbagli and Dei 1969)
converged. More recently, within the great comparative researches carried out by OECD “Babies
and bosses” (2002-2009) and Starting Strong (2001-2006) childhood was put at the centre of the
reflection on work-life balance and the “Reggio Emilia model” was referred to as a specific and
fortunate mix of cultural stimuli and local intervention strategies (Boje, 2009). The fact that this
theme is nowadays partially blurred within the Italian public debate is therefore quite surprising and
reasons need to be found as to why it dissolved while there's a tendency by voluntary associations
to broaden their original range of activity to include new and different areas in which their
activities could be experimented. It is also surprising that while new and different forms of
participatory democracy are experimented (Paci 2008), these themes appear to be absent when they
were core within the the “consciousness raising” of the '70s. The phenomenon is even harder to
explain if we look at the explicit and clear increase in relevance that effective interventions directed
to the safeguard of childhood had at European level in the last few years - particularly since the
beginning of the new millennium – and a theoretical elaboration of the social investment approach
(Esping Andersen et al. 2002, Esping Andersen 2005; Vanderbroucke et al. 2011) was taken up by
several documents both realized by the European Union and other International Organizations
traditionally grounding their thoughts on more economic approaches, such as OECD (Mahon
2004). After 2002 our country was forced to chase all of a sudden - and without great success Barcelona standards on childcare services, whereas other countries which were traditionally far
behind in the planning and carrying out of interventions on this matter like UK, Germany, Spain,
dub-lapped us both in service coverage and funding effort.
1 UDI stands for Unione delle Donne Italiane (Italian women's Union) and CIF stands for Centro Italiano Femminile
(Italian women's Centre), both feminist organizations born in Italy in 1944, the first to “unify all Italian women in a
strong organization able to defend particular interests belonging to women and to solve the most urgent and relevant
problems female workers, housewives and mothers would face” (L'Unione delle donne si è costituita a Roma, in
L'Unità, 21 settembre 1944, cit. In Patrizia Gabrielli, La pace e la mimosa. L'unione donne italiane e la costruzione
politica della memoria (1944-1955), Donzelli, Roma, 2005, p.3) and the latter: “as a network of women and
associations with Christian roots to contribute to the rebuild of the Country through democratic participation, human
promotion and solidarity” (trad. from www.cifnazionale.it).
Graph 1 – Estimated childcare statistics: childcare coverage rate (0-3 years): recalculated and
harmonised
Source: Plantenga 2007
Graph 1 clearly shows how Italy is one of the least countries within Europe (25) regarding service
coverage, not to mention its being far away from the Barcelona target. Graph 2, instead, shows
how the difference in the amount of money invested for children 0-3 is much lower than the one
directed to 3-6 years old.
Graph 2 – Public expenditure on childcare and early education services, per cent of GDP,
2009 - Public spending on childcare including pre-primary education
Childcare spending as a % of GDP
% GDP
1.8
Pre-primary spending as a % of GDP
Total*
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
Ic
De elan
nm d
Sw ark
Un
e
ite N den
d orw
Ki a
ng y
d
Fr om
a
Ne Fi nce
w nla
Ne Zea nd
th lan
er d
l
Isr and
ae s
Bu l (3
)
Ro lgar
m ia
an
K o ia
Be rea
l
Hu gium
ng
ar
y
Ita
La ly
M tvia
ex
ico
Lit Chi
h le
Au uan
s t ia
ra
S lia
Sl pai
o n
Ge ven
rm ia
an
M y
Lu Ire alta
x e la
m nd
bo
Cz
u
ec
h Japrg
Re a
pu n
Aublic
Un Po stri
ite rtu a
d ga
S l
Sl
ov E tate
ak st s
o
Cy Rep nia
pr ub
us lic
(1
Sw Po ,2)
itz lan
er d
lan
d
0.0
Source: Social Expenditure database 1980-2007; OECD Education database; Eurostat for non-member countris; US
Department of Health and Human Services.
This persistent incoherence in public intervention, which fragments so clearly families' life cycle
based on the age of children, is one of the least considered phenomena by our family policies
(Saraceno 2004; Commaille and Martin 1998; Del Boca an Rosina 2010) and proof of this can be
found in the particularly unbalanced situation our country is in regarding prevailing care and
custody means for young children (see tab. 1).
Tab. 1 - Who takes care of young children
Grandparents
Former spouse, former
live-in partner
Other family members
Other free care means
Paid personnel within
their homes or at child's
house
Free-of-charge care
services outside home
Paid care services
outside home
Children left home
alone
No need, one parent is
al home all the time
Other
Total
Austria
41
Denmark
12
United Kingdom
25
Hungary
42
Poland
31
Portugal
29
Italy
60
Sweden
2
3
11
0
2
4
2
2
13
1
3
15
2
8
7
1
1
9
0
2
6
1
1
1
1
5
3
7
n.p.
2
4
5
7
2
1
2
1
1
4
0
2
7
44
9
2
5
22
2
50
2
11
1
5
4
2
2
12
27
3
100
13
8
100
40
1
100
30
1
100
39
3
100
25
5
100
23
1
00
24
1
100
Source: European Social Survey 2004
Italy, of course, registers the highest percentage of grandparents who care for grandchildren - as it
has been well known for decades - but also, as it is too seldom considered, records the minimum
level of help given by ex-spouses or former live-in partners or, as should be more surprising, a
scarce contribution given by other relatives and absence of free childcare service. Another quite
surprising fact is that very few fathers and mothers stay at home (Italy is after Denmark in tab. 1)
showing how “long parental leaves” are a socially widespread myth more than reality. In such a
picture, where insufficient and incoherent answers are given to children’s needs, social research
testifies how traumatic the moving of a child to primary school can be for work-life balance
(Addabbo 2005; Riva 2009; Trifiletti 2003; 2006). But the issue is the efficiency of the Italian
school system the most controversial issue, including its excessive separation from society.
Graph. 3 - Educational effectiveness and rebalancing results of school system
Source: OECD 2009
As we can see from graph 3, the most recent study from OECD (2011) shows how Italy is still
below average compared to the other developed countries regarding school results. This means that
the warning raised by the first PISA studies (OECD 2001) has not ceased, yet, and our country has
today the fourth worst result (after Mexico) in terms of distance between students with good grades
and students with poor ones (as indicated by the diamond shape in the graph).
It is without any doubt possible to state that today Italy lacks a specific attention directed to postschool services interventions dedicated to children between the age of 5 and 11 - the so-called OSH
services (out-of-school hours of care) (OECD 2007)- in spite of their being recognized as crucial
among interventions aiming at effectively preventing poverty, the risk of deprivation (Unicef 2007;
EU 2008) and its being seen as a warranty of children's well-being (Tarki 2011).
Even considering the renewed efforts which have been put in place by the Tuscan Regional
Administration in the last few years to tackle poverty and vulnerability (also considering their
reproduction in time) - most of which are rooted in the traditional attention to educational and care
services provided by Tuscany – it seems appropriate to conclude the description of the issues that
the research wanted to examine with a quote from a deliberation of the Tuscan Regional Council
which, in 1996, stated: “One of the issues regarding the entire area of social services is represented
by rigid timetables which are more functional to paid personnel rather than users, and are therefore
unable to effectively answer to family needs. An increase in efficiency for the system will then be
obtained by introducing a higher flexibility in the system, for instance by giving some of the
supporting activities out to students and volunteers, besides seniors”.
1.2. ANPAS Voluntary Associations and local communities: an evolving role
As seen in the quote above, “civil society” - intended in a broad sense - appears to be strategic in
designing new ways to build an effective educational system for youngsters, and, more extensively,
a new sense of community, seen as a mean to strengthen the relationship between citizens and
public institutions and to build a more cohesive and inclusive society for all. Voluntary associations
can be pivotal points in building such a path and those adhering to the ANPAS movement 2,
historically rooted within the Italian - and Tuscan – society, started to reflect upon this issue, which
in the end gave birth to the present research project. It all started from the consideration that
globalization is modifying our lives and lifestyles while changing the word around us. Thinking
then about new and more effective means to better understand contemporary society is a way to
determine what kind of educational goals we can set – especially directed to the youngest part of
our society – and, in a wider sense, to set new and stronger communitarian marks, to develop
collaborative practices with which to fight social isolation and tackle vulnerability. Cooperation
becomes a strategic mean to put together different interests, functions, paths and thus to build
relationships and projects: the more a society is able to stimulate cooperation, the higher the chance
for it to grow will be. Identity, reciprocity and trust are key points around which the strategy is built
and education must then return to be a communitarian duty, since educational “places” are those
where values such as belonging, identity and passion are transmitted to the youngest parts of our
society. To work on an educative community is, though, an intentional process and a choice that is
always renewed by experiences and interpretation of the needs expressed by the people. In the
community it creates no-one is a stranger, marginal or powerless: everyone can contribute to the
richness of the collective thinking. To reflect on these issues, then, becomes mandatory for all
2
“ANPAS is a national-level independent unitary movement that grounds its associative and institutional activities
on democratic constitutional principles, community participation and volunteer work. […] All member associations
provide unconditional assistance to anyone in need, and are generally open to anyone wishing to participate in their
activities. Present in 19 of the nation’s regions, ANPAS currently represents 869 associations, with their 222
Sections. Involved daily in services ranging from emergency medical care and transportation to social programs,
healthcare programs, and disaster prevention and relief, ANPAS 90.000 volunteers and 400.000 members make up
the largest volunteer association in Italy, an active subject and point of reference for all of those who work towards
the goal of a more progressive and caring society.” (source: www.anpasnaszionale.org)
public and democratic institutions who care for their citizens - especially the youngest - and for all
organizations (such as voluntary associations) who are born within society and find their reason to
be in the real instances regarding people's lives. But what is the role that these associations could
have within a structured and organized system such the educational one is in Italy and what kind of
contribution could they give to the system, given that their core activity is in social and sociosanitary services mainly directed to adults? How can they functionally contribute to a renewed
commitment by public institutions and private organizations on such a matter such as this, which
requires specific abilities and competences that are seldom possessed by regular volunteers? How
can ANPAS associations integrate with local educational systems daily carried out by public
institutions and other third sector organizations (mainly social cooperatives) without an overlap but,
instead, with a functional coordination with them? How can their specific approach and experience
give an original and effective contribution to the services already existing locally? How, in the end,
can voluntary association belonging to the ANPAS movement stimulate the resources embedded
within the civil society and in local communities to take action towards childcare provisioning and
childhood well-being? This are only some of the questions that the research tried to answer and the
main results it came up with will be illustrated in detail further on.
1.3. Main aims and methodology of the research
Given the picture above, the objective of the research project was to investigate, in five Tuscan
contexts, the possibility to design and implement new educational services directed to children
between the age of 5 and the age of 11, or else to strengthen existing ones. In particular, the
research focused on:
•
giving a contribution towards a further qualification of voluntary intervention – particularly
ANPAS' – regarding childcare service provisioning;
•
highlighting distinctive elements, if there are any, that are embedded in voluntary
interventions on supplementary childcare services - either out-of-school or educational with a special focus on their ability to network with local communities and to contribute to
the growth of local social capital;
•
getting together other voluntary organizations' experiences regarding services directed to
minors within the Tuscan territory and which could be helpful both for the public system
and for local administrations;
•
stimulating cooperation between third sector organizations and between them and public
institutions on the subject, so that the achievement of goals set by local plans can be
reached;
•
creating the conditions under which the role of the voluntary sector can be strengthened,
the social involvement enhanced and the production of solidarity stimulated.
This is the reason why the research particularly focussed on:
•
an in-depth analysis of the offering of out-of-school, supporting or educational services
directed to children 5-11 within each territory;
•
an analysis of the real possibilities to plan and implement services directed to children by –
or in collaboration with – voluntary associations from the territory, with particular reference
to ANPAS associations;
•
the creation of means of integration and sharing of local networks by soliciting and
strengthening the dialogue between different local actors and the ANPAS associations;
•
the detection of needs and necessities which are specific to every territory, as regards to
childcare services and their families, therefore identifying the needs of local communities
which are yet not covered by the institutional service offer.
•
the promotion of sharing and confrontation means which local actors could use to plan (and
afterwards implement) supporting services directed to minors, creating synergies and
integration between all actors involved.
The five contexts were chosen in accordance with the Regional Tuscan Administration (which
economically supported the research project) trying to represent the territorial, social, economic
differences within the Tuscan regional territory. In particular, the criteria for the definition of the
case studies were (WERE):
•
a strong presence within the territory of at least one ANPAS association;
•
interest, willingness, sensitivity and attitude towards the research topic showed by the
association and its volunteers;
•
heterogeneousness of territories (geographical, demographic, sociologic, etc.)
•
a presence of former/actual experiences on childcare services carried out by voluntary
associations within the territory.
That said, a neighbourhood of Siena (Taverne d'Arbia), a small town in the outskirts of Florence
(Pontassieve), a former heavily industrial city near Pisa (Pontedera), a working class
neighbourhood in Viareggio (Varignano) and Portoferraio - the main city on the Elba isle - were
chosen to become case studies.
The research methodology used a qualitative approach based first on a document analysis which
tried to bring to light the specific features of each territory and to highlight existing services carried
out by public and private organizations against known needs and their changes over time. Then, a
set of in-depth interviews was carried out (an average 15 per territory) in order to allow local key
informants to express their thoughts and feelings regarding the matter, as well as describing to the
researchers the local context from their public or private point of view, their evaluation of the
present situation and their perspectives for the future. Key informants were at first identified thanks
to the contribution of local ANPAS associations who indicated the subjects to interview to the
research team. Subsequent adjustments by snowballing and by completing the eventual institutional
lacks were made and thus different points of view were integrated with the aim to completely
reconstruct each context. A certain equilibrium between territories (respecting the specificities of
each one) was then obtained by balancing interviewees as regard to function, role, profession etc.,
so that each local context could be covered by, more or less, the same number and type of
privileged speakers. All interviews were afterwards fully transcribed verbatim and analysed to
come up to a specific reconstruction of each context especially regarding:
•
the perception of service provisioning;
•
known, blurred or else unknown needs;
•
the evolution in the perception of needs and services over time;
•
the estimated quantity and quality of services provided against the needs observed;
•
characteristics of services providers;
•
the integration between service providers within the local context and between them and
public institutions;
•
changes in the society and the community;
•
community involvement and participation (occasions and means).
1.4. Main findings from the research
Although many of the findings of the research are tightly linked to the specific characteristics of the
contexts where they were produced in, and thus should be read as such by consulting the five
separate territorial reports which were realized, some common results deserve to be mentioned,
mainly to give a wider perspective to the research and a contribution for reflection also at a regional
level regarding policies and planning of interventions.
The following factors were noteworthy:
•
the persistence of the theme of childcare services within the Tuscan community
notwithstanding a traditional “familist” welfare system and the presence of consolidated
experiences in which services are built upon an effective collaboration between public
institutions and third sector organizations;
•
an evaluation of existing OSH available activities in terms of their being mainly costly – and
therefore unaffordable by a growing number of families also due to the present economic
crisis – too competitive - especially sport ones - and too structured, thus not enabling
children to express their full potential in a broader way;
•
a higher concern among respondents regarding adolescents and pre-adolescents compared to
to the one for younger boys and girls, even if the latter are not offered much services either;
•
the predominant role that voluntary associations could have within the system due to their
intrinsic characteristics and modus operandi;
•
the willingness to experiment and work on innovative solutions – provided by a network of
subjects with different characteristics – shown by local administrations, and not only due to
scarcity of resources they are facing, but rather due to the awareness of the intrinsic value
which is added to interventions by this cooperation.
Each of these results will be detailed further below, with the aim of pointing out its value for the
system as a whole and connections and interconnections between ongoing and future policies,
especially those involving local public institutions. We believe this could – as it has already shown
to be during the project – act as an effective stimulus on local contexts to reinforce their social
capital and therefore to grow as a whole.
1.4.1. Childcare services in Tuscany: a tradition within a tradition
Childcare services are traditional in Tuscany, where a specific attention to the youngest and to their
education has always been put in action both by public institutions and communities. Among the
most relevant experiences which are rooted in this tradition the Barbiana school by Don Milani is
but the main example. It's not surprising, then, that this tradition has reached the present day, and
interviews carried out during the project testify it. What is more surprising, instead, is how this
tradition clashes with another one, which is also very much present in our Italian identity: a
traditional “familist” welfare system which requires families to care both for youngsters and elders
even when this care-work becomes unbearable or impossible to be balanced with other life spheres.
A contrast emerges then between the “naturalness” for citizens to be provided by public services –
or private ones granted by the public through conventions – which are effective and of good quality,
and the same “naturalness” in seeing parents – and especially mothers – as the ones who are mainly
in charge of caring for children in their out-of-school time. This double-sided perspective requires
public institutions on one hand to keep up with their tradition of providing good services at
affordable costs, chasing the changes occurring in the daily agendas and in the structure of families
which are much more fragmented than in the past, where grandparents are often still working and
thus unable to provide a supporting care for children and where parents are often struggling with
temporary jobs, if any at all. On the other hand it imposes to do so in a scenario where resources are
scarce – when still available at all– and therefore where the increase in the needs is widening the
gap between what is required and what can be provided. Outsourcing is then an obligation, and
many third sector organizations, especially social cooperatives, have sometimes taken the challenge
up, providing qualitative services with professionals and thus helping the system to resist the shocks
produced by the crisis and often keeping its quality at high standards. On the other side, voluntary
associations – and especially ANPAS associations – while still helping the public system by
providing social and socio-sanitary services - by proving their ability to work on the fringe and
foresee some of the needs, can provide a real added value for the system, taking actions to prevent
them from becoming evident and pressing. The ability to do so even with this project confirms this,
as many interviewees – and especially the ones belonging to public institutions - showed by being
very pleasantly surprised by the research but at the same time relieved – in some way – by the
initiative taken by ANPAS Toscana. While cooperatives and especially social cooperatives, as
already mentioned before, can in fact provide effective services at reasonable costs both for
institutions and for families, they put professionalism first, and they still need the money to cover
costs and expenses. Besides, their being so embedded within the institutional system of education,
prevents many energies to be spent in “inventing” new services, but rather to struggle – just like the
public system – with keeping up with existing ones facing costs reduction and, sometimes, their
cancellation. Voluntary associations, instead, cannot always provide professionalism, but can be
more flexible, low-cost and even free to experiment new activities and services, not being tied back
by institutional service provisioning. Moreover, their ability to build networks and partnerships
could be a further asset for the system, thus enriching it as a whole.
One should keep in mind, though, as we did when giving the results of the research back to public
administrations especially, that a system where different organizations are called to bring their core
competence and their identity in, could work at the best of its abilities only if all different subjects
are key players from the very beginning – i.e. integrated and leading characters from the very
planning stage of services -. It is only in this way that the system can work at its best, preventing
frustration and letting its positive effects to spread properly3.
1.4.2. Costs, competitiveness and rigid structure of out-of-school activities: a challenge for
innovation
Activities which cover the out-of-school time for children 5-11 are, our findings show, mainly
artistic or athletic. This means that they are, in the majority of occurrences, paid activities. And this
also means that only families who can afford to pay for them can offer them to their children. This
can of course be seen as a mean of exclusion for some other children whom the formers share most
of their school time with, but on the other hand, it can be normal for a country, like Italy, where
social mobility is still frozen, related to families resources and where – as we've already seen from
tab.1 – free-of-charge care services are absent.
Moreover, these activities, and in particular athletic ones, are too competitive, and let the urge to
make young champions emerge prevail over, for example, aspects such as psychomotricity and
socialization which should be preferable when children of a young age are involved.
They are also said to be too structured, rigid and hard to be seen as moments in which children can
express themselves, learn their potentialities and limits, their talents and interests in a wider
perspective. All things that are seen, instead, as very important in the development and growth of
the younger ones.
1.4.3. Adolescents “vs.” children
Across the region, our interviews show a growing concern for the way pre-adolescents and
adolescents – rather than young children - spend their out-of -school time. This is mainly due to the
fact that children's life seems to be well covered either by families and/or by activities that the
parents (who can afford it) fill it with. Adolescents instead are more independent in choosing how
to spend their free time but not always able to make the right choices, or ones that are not
dangerous for them and others. They seem to lack the tools with which to make smarter choices
which could turn out to be investments for their future and the refusal of parental guidance in this
phase of their life doesn't help at all. Providing them - or better younger children - with spaces
where to learn how to experiment what they like and don't like, to discover and express their talents
could therefore be a way to guide this path, to let them understand how to make the right choices
for themselves on their own, and having their autonomy grow. This can be said by taking into
consideration the following point of the list, where characteristics of these “free spaces” link well
with the identity and modus operandi of voluntary associations, and could therefore identify one of
the places where this effort to care for children by ANPAS associations could manifest itself.
3 For further reference on the subject it can also be seen Carboni, Elia, Tola 2012.
1.4.4. Intrinsic characteristics and modus operandi of voluntary associations: how they could
represent an added value for childcare services
Connected to both themes mentioned above is the discourse on how voluntary associations perform
their activities and how they produce social added value in doing so. Contra the rigid and too
structured activities told in several of the interviews conducted, voluntary associations seem to be
ideal subjects to offer “lighter services”, services that are less structured and yet complementary to
the others. Maybe even not necessarily provided by people with specific professional skills - like
volunteers often seem to be, regarding educational and childcare matters - but who are well
equipped with openness of heart, sensitivity, great listening skills and the empathy which is a
prerequisite to build relationships and trust. Optional training courses could support them when
necessary.
These services would represent spaces where children could express themselves more freely, where
the lower degree of structuring of the activities that are offered could create a testing ground for
their talents and preferences, tastes and attitudes. Moreover, these could be places where autonomy
is built, and its acquisition produces a stockpile from where to draw in older age as well. Some of
the risks seen and expressed regarding adolescents who endanger themselves with wrong choices
could be in this way prevented or reduced, and children could increase their self-awareness. At the
same time values like solidarity and altruism -which are core in voluntary essence and action could be communicated, thus enriching the children's experience and contributing to strengthen
community bonds and social capital.
Moreover, the ability of voluntary associations to “work on the fringe” and to experiment could be
seen as a resource for the system in a twofold perspective, since it could be a way for communities
to anticipate some of the needs before they become evident and to prevent them from bursting out,
while services evolve as needs do, guiding them – so to speak – to their coverage.
Examples of this become evident through interviews which told of a post school service which
evolved into a sort of “educational centre” to follow the children as they grow older - as it happens
in Taverne d'Arbia – or through interviews which told that in Pontassieve the local Pubblica
Assistenza prevented a crisis of the local school by providing volunteers to guard children during
their lunch break, thus allowing teachers to be reallocated in afternoon shifts which, due to the
shortening of funding, would have been cancelled otherwise. This way, moreover, the association
“discovered”, so to say, the fact that they have a priceless treasure within its walls, made up of
retired teachers who joined the association after retirement but never had the occasion to put their
professional competence for the community since then.
Last but not least - particularly today, when the economic crisis is hitting hard – lighter activities
provided by voluntary association could also aspire to be free of charge for children and their
parents, thus allowing participation also to families who otherwise would strive to provide out-ofschool activities for their kids.
1.4.5. How to work together on innovative solutions with an added social value and why
networking is the issue
In a scenario like the one described above, where needs are growing and changing against a
reduction of the resources with which to satisfy them, the issue of how to build a system where all
available local resources work together on childhood needs, integrate and therefore enhance their
effectiveness is obviously central. A certain level of integration of voluntary associations – and
especially socio-sanitary associations like those adhering to the ANPAS movement - has already
been reached, related for instance to supporting actions like transportation, but great steps forward
could be made, and most territories seem to be ready for it. Some of them, in fact, already use
round-tables to put together public institutions, third sector organizations, voluntary associations
and civil society on specific issues or themes, but yet too seldom these meetings have been
specifically focussed on childhood issues. What is still missing is therefore, on one hand, how to
give more structure to existing experiences and, on the other, how to diffuse the method across the
entire Tuscan territory. Too often interviews indicate a widespread lack of knowledge regarding
what is offered locally to children, thus preventing both them and their families to access all the
possibilities, while services are reduced or cancelled due to scarcity of resources even where these
resources could be provided by other entities from the same territory if only a higher level of
coordination could be achieved. This is quite surprising when the small scale of the local contexts
that the research investigated is considered, but testifies quite well how difficult a real collaboration
at a local level can be and how an efficient coordination of all available resources can be hard to
achieve.
Effective and significant networks are in fact necessarily those where all subjects contribute from
the very beginning to the planning stage of interventions, where a real participation of all actors is
set up and realized. This allows all resources to be used at their full potential, all competences to be
integrated, all specificities to be valorized and thus more effective results to be achieved.
Specifically referring to voluntary associations this means that both their strengths (i.e. ability to
experiment, to take the risk and to work on the fringe, to build community cohesion and to enhance
social capital, to look at needs that become global and involve the entire family together with the
child) and their weaknesses (i.e. lower level of professionalism etc.) can be seen as different
resources to be used in different ways, and can be valorized for what they can provide to the
system, given that everyone's area of competence is respected.
1.5. Conclusions
The research showed how the issues of childcare and children's education are still very present and
relevant within the Tuscan territory and this, far from being surprising, is comforting, considering
how the reduction in funding that national and local public institutions are facing endangers the
complex of social services which were built in the past. It also showed how much local traditions of
intervention and different histories of service provisioning can influence the birth and development
of new experiences and initiatives. The five different contexts where the research was realized, in
fact, chose different paths along which to build their tradition regarding the subject, rooting it on the
distinguishing characteristics of each territory: economic and social, geographical and
administrative. But, in the end, even if socio-economic features have an important impact of the
possibility of developing new services, what seems to have more weight is the communitarian
tradition of each context and especially a strong link between local institutions and third sector
organizations as the initiatives mentioned above testify. The common feature represented by the
presence and active participation of ANPAS' associations in all five contexts undoubtedly could
constitute then an added value, even only considering the stimulus this research was able to give.
We can affirm this after giving the results back to all interested key informants and local institutions
during a number of meetings that the researchers held in every local context and during which a
great interest both for the research as an initiative and for its results were shown. The results
produced may not have been particularly new to people who are directly or indirectly involved on
the subject everyday, but surely had the benefit to pinpoint some of the themes and issues, widening
knowledge and focusing on specific – either known or unknown – needs. As mentioned before, key
informants often showed to have an incomplete knowledge even of the services provided within
their own territory and of the resources to count on, ANPAS included, whereas the present situation
imposes to increase knowledge to build networks, review expenditures and appropriately allocate
resources. This is even more true when we consider that the needs regarding the age span
considered (5-11) go in different directions, and include both structured and unstructured activities,
cultural, athletic or educational ones, directed to all children or else to only some of them (i.e.
migrants), and thus require different competences, experiences, stories and modus operandi.
Getting back to the questions we started from, the first one regarded the role that voluntary
associations, and especially those adhering to the ANPAS' movement, could have within the Italian
system and what kind of contribution could they give to it. The research results say that the
contribution can be substantial and effective, given that it goes in the direction of covering needs
which are at present uncovered, low structured and could be conducted and supervised by
volunteers without any professionalism, only supported by some basic training courses. These
spaces would well integrate within the present offering of services, completing it by giving the
children new spaces where to grow up, where to prove themselves and to experiment with their
talents. They could also be places where solidarity, altruism, and all the core values upon which
voluntary associations and volunteers fund their action upon are transferred to young generations.
The more this places are then open, low structured and “free”, the more they would be able to
integrate different stimuli coming from the local community, aggregating different subjects such as
local institutions and other third sector organization, civil society and individual citizens. Thus,
resources embedded within local communities could be stimulated to take action towards childcare
provisioning and childhood well-being and keep the system functioning and growing.
Bibliography
1. Atti del Convegno sugli asili nido come servizio sociale, Ufficio stampa del Comune di
Sesto San Giovanni,1964
2. Addabbo T., Genitorialità, lavoro e qualità della vita: una conciliazione possibile? Franco
Angeli, Milano 2005
3. Barbagli M. e Dei, M., Le vestali della classe media. Ricerca sociologica sugli insegnanti, Il
Mulino, Bologna 1969
4. Bimbi, F. e Trifiletti, R. (a cura di), Madri sole e nuove famiglie, Edizioni lavoro, Roma,
2006 European Commission Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal
Opportunities Unit E.2, Child Poverty and Well-being in the EU. Current status and the way
forward, Luxembourg, 2008
5. Carboni S., Elia E. e Tola P., Anziani e non autosufficienza. Ruolo e servizi del volontariato
in Toscana, Quaderni Cesvot n. 57, Firenze, 2012
6. Comune di Bologna, Un asilo nido di tipo nuovo. Analisi di un’esperienza, atti del
Convegno del 3-4 dicembre 1971, Bologna,1972
7. Commaille J. e Martin C., Les enjeux politiques de la famille, Bayard Editions, Paris, 1998
8. Del Boca D., Rosina A. (2010) Figli e lavoro: due regioni, due storie diverse, Lavoce.info,
19/02/2010
9. Esping Andersen, G., Why We Need a New Welfare State (with D. Gallie, A.Hemerijck and J.
Myles), Oxford, 2002
10. Esping Andersen, G., A Welfare State for the 21st Century. Sakurai-Shoten, 2002
11. Esping Andersen, G., I bambini nel welfare state. Un approccio all'investimento sociale, La
Rivista delle Politiche Sociali, 2(4), 2005, pp. 43-86
12. Fortunati, A., Orientamenti per la qualità dei servizi educativi per i bambini e le famiglie,
Junior, Bergamo, 2002
13. Fortunati, A., L’educazione dei bambini come progetto della Comunità. L’esperienza di S.
Miniato, Junior, Bergamo, 2006
14. Hantrais L. (ed.), Gendered Policies in Europe. Reconciling Employment and Family Life,
Macmillan Press LTD, London, 1999
15. Hantrais L. e Letablier M.T., Familles, Travail et politiques familiales en Europe, CEE/PUF,
Paris, 1997
16. Hantrais L. e Letablier M.T., Families and Family Policies in Europe, Longman, Paris, 1996
17. Hoyuelos Planillo, A. Loris Malaguzzi. Biografia pedagogica, Junior, Azzano S.Paolo, 2004
18. Jenson J. et Sineau M. (a cura di), Qui doit garder le jeune enfant? Modes d’accueil et
travail des mères dans l’Europe en crise, LGDJ, Paris, 1998
19. Lodi, M., Cominciare dal bambino. Scritti didattici, pedagogici e teorici, Einaudi, Torino,
1977
20. Lodi, M., La scuola e diritti del bambino, Einaudi, Torino, 1983
21. Mahon, R., Babies and Bosses: Gendering the OECD’s Social Policy Discourse, in R.
Mahon & St. McBride (eds), The OECD and Transnational Governance, UBC Press,
Vancouver/Toronto, 2008, pp.260-275
22. Malaguzzi, L., Esperienze per una nuova scuola dell'infanzia: atti del seminario di studio
tenuto a Reggio Emilia il 18-19-20 marzo 1971, Editori riuniti, Roma, 1971
23. OECD, Starting Strong, Early Childhood education and care I, Paris, 2001
24. OECD, Starting Strong, Early Childhood education and care II, Paris, 2006
25. OECD, Doing better for children, 2009
26. OECD, Doing better for families, 2011
27. Paci, M., Welfare locale e democrazia partecipativa : la programmazione sociale nei
municipi di Roma, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2008
28. Plantenga J. e Remery, C., Reconciliation of work and private life:
A comparative review of thirty European countries, Office for official publications of the
European Community DGV Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities,
Luxembourg, 2005
29. Ranci, C., Oltre il welfare state: terzo settore, nuove solidarietà e trasformazioni del
welfare, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1999
30. Ranci, C., Il volontariato. Il Mulino, Bologna, 2006
31. Riva, E., Quel che resta della conciliazione, Vita e pensiero, Milano, 2009
32. Saraceno, C., De-familization or re-familization? Trends in income tested family benefits, in
Trudie Knijn & Aafke Komter (eds), Solidarity Between the Sexes and the Generations:
Transformations in Europe. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2004, pp. 68-88
33. TARKI Social Research Institute, Child Well-Being in the European Union - Better
monitoring instruments for better policies, Tarki, Budapest, 2011
34. Théry, I., Couple, filiation et parents aujourd’hui, Editions Odile Jacob/La Documentation
française, Paris, 1998
35. Trifiletti, R. e Turi, P., Tutela del bambino e “famiglia invisibile”. L’analisi di una politica
sociale in Toscana, Franco Angeli, Milano, 1996
36. Trifiletti, R., Dare un genere all'uomo flessibile. Le misurazioni del lavoro femminile nel
post-fordismo. In: Bimbi, F. (a cura di) Differenze e diseguaglianze. Prospettive per gli
studi di genere in Italia,Il Mulino, Bologna, 2003, pp. 101-159
37. Unicef, Child Poverty in perspective. An Overview of Child Well-being in Rich Countries,
Unicef Innocenti Centre, Firenze, 2007
38. Vandenbroucke, F., Hemerijck, A. e Palier, B., The EU needs a Social Investment Pact,
Observatoire social Européen, Opinion paper n.o 5 maggio 2011, www.ose.be
39. Volterrani A., Bilotti A. e Tola P., Il gusto del volontariato, Exorma edizioni, Roma, 2009

Download Report