Green light for the “Regional plan of interventions and services to combat poverty in the Calabria Region 2024-2026”. It was approved in the last council meeting, on the joint proposal of the president Roberto Occhiuto and the councilor for social inclusion, subsidiarity and welfare, Pasqualina Straface.
The Plan was drawn up in compliance with the provisions of the decree of the Minister of Labor and Social Policies in agreement with the Minister of Economy and Finance of 2 April 2025, with which the national plan of interventions and social services for the three-year period 2024–2026 was adopted.
The document, approved by the technical consultative table for the fight against poverty and by the regional table of the Social Protection and Inclusion Network, provides clear guidelines to the social territorial areas, indicating the range of interventions that can be implemented to guarantee the essential levels of social benefits throughout the regional territory.
“For its implementation – informs councilor Straface – the Plan can count on 79,076,318.85 euros from the 2024-2026 poverty fund. Calabria, as we know, records higher levels of economic fragility than the national average and new and complex forms of social marginality, as emerged both from the work of the technical consultative table and from the analysis shared with the local authorities, and, therefore, today, it requires a coordinated and multilevel, capable of simultaneously addressing material poverty, isolation, inequalities and lack of services. Therefore, these significant resources will allow the Region to consolidate essential services, strengthen social areas and implement structural and continuous interventions for inclusion and combating inequalities”.
“A central role – continues the representative of the Occhiuto Council – is entrusted to the newly established Regional Observatory on Poverty, strengthened and fully integrated in the planning and monitoring process of the Plan. Thanks to the collaboration between Regions, social sectors, the third sector and the research system, the Observatory allows the collection of updated data, monitoring interventions, evaluating the impact of the measures and promptly directing public policies, guaranteeing a unitary and transparent information system. In this regard, the contributions were fundamental of the technical table, which brings together local authorities, institutional representatives, planning bodies, the Third Sector and technical components, and which has made it possible to define shared priorities, a common reading of the needs and the most appropriate tools to combat the multiple forms of poverty present in the territories”.
Councilor Straface – further underlines – that “the document places emphasis on the need to systematise all available resources, strengthen the professional social service and consolidate the functions of the territorial social areas, called to plan, design and implement interventions in a logic of integration between social, health and employment services. The new Plan – finally reiterates Councilor Straface – represents a crucial step in building a modern welfare system, capable of approaching the territories and responding to the real social conditions of the Calabrian communities”.