Milan

Urban poverty

WISH MI - Wellbeing Integrated System of Milan

Milan wants to address the urban challenges of child poverty, inequalities and segregation, by rethinking and integrating the local policies and strategies for the wellbeing of all children and young people. To do that, we will develop innovative and engaging solutions to improve accessibility to all the available opportunities. We think that the multidimensional wellbeing of minors is fundamental: for this reason, we will work to recognize and empower Milanese youth as key players in shaping the future of our city.

Cosimo Palazzo - Director, Rights, Inclusion and Project Area, Social Policies Department, Municipality of Milan
The project in numbers
1/10
minors live in absolute poverty in Milan, but more children suffer from inadequate nutrition, healthcare and housing conditions, and lack of places of aggregation
47,239
children (0-6 yrs) do not have access to early childhood education and care (ECEC) services
10,6%
school dropout
24.8%
of third country nationals residing in Milan are minors
EUR 4,973,880.00
Total ERDF budget granted
Challenge addressed

It takes a village to raise a child but, most importantly, it takes children to make a village.

Milan Municipality seeks to envision new opportunities to ensure no one is left behind as the City grows, by increasing social cohesion, building vibrant communities and reducing educational and economic disparities. 
Recognizing our youth (0-18yrs) as the main players of Milan today, we will build the Wellbeing Integrated System of Milan (WISH MI) for all our 225,000 minors towards an inclusive and cohesive Milan, a city which:

  • offers wellbeing opportunities to all minors and their families;
  • places minors at the heart of the construction of the Milan of tomorrow; 
  • listens not only to the needs but also to the wishes and resources of minors and their families;  
  • re-composes its resources to build an integrated system of services that are co-designed with minors and their families.

WISH MI seeks to address the main urban challenges of:

  • Income inequality and social marginalization               
  • Multidimensional child poverty     
  • Unequal access to education     
  • Social isolation and weakening social and family networks     
  • Integration of immigrant communities      
  • Fragmentation of resources     
  • Limited use of digital technologies in educational/social services   
Solution proposed

WISH MI will face the aforementioned challenges through an approach aimed at promoting the multidimensional wellbeing of all children. 
Wellbeing is evaluated using 7 pillars: social relations, physical activity, healthcare, access to education and training, opportunities to express talents and creativity, self-determination, and access to quality common spaces.
We aim to achieve our goals through the following actions, guided by the wellbeing pillars:

  1. Design of an integrated set of policies and strategies;
  2. Co-design of the system  visual identity;
  3. Re-composition and aggregation of wellbeing opportunities in a connective participatory digital platform;
  4. Community hubs to promote the re-composition of opportunities at local level and the experimentation of innovative services co-designed with minors and their families.

  
 

Partnership
  • Comune di Milano
  • Milan Polytechnic -  public research centre
  • Milan Polytechnic Foundation - private organisation 
  • ActionAid - private organisation 
  • Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
  • ABCittà s.c.s - cooperative
Expected results
  1. Increased access to city services for all minors (0 -18 yr), with particular attention to the most vulnerable;
  2. Decreased number of minors (0 -18 yr) living in poverty;
  3. Increased access of 0-6 yr children to early education;
  4. Lowered rate of school dropout;
  5. Increased social cohesion;
  6. Decrease in school segregation.
Main milestones

March 2020: First sharing of the framework of the Integrated Wellbeing System.
November 2020: Aggregation and re-composition of opportunities for minors’ wellbeing both on the WishMi Platform and in the three pilot territories.
February 2021: New system to enhance accessibility to wellbeing opportunities launched.
October 2021: Community tools launched: digital Platform as a playground and Community Hubs.
February 2022: New approach in the wellbeing system for the city of Milan fully operational.
August 2022: Integrated Wellbeing Strategic Plan: systematization.
 

The project in numbers
1/10
minors live in absolute poverty in Milan, but more children suffer from inadequate nutrition, healthcare and housing conditions, and lack of places of aggregation
47,239
children (0-6 yrs) do not have access to early childhood education and care (ECEC) services
10,6%
school dropout
24.8%
of third country nationals residing in Milan are minors
EUR 4,973,880.00
Total ERDF budget granted
Contact of the project
Emanuela Losito
Project manager
Eddy Adams
UIA Expert

Project news & events

Image from one of the WISH-MI murals

WISH-MI Final Journal

...
La Fille Bertha- image courtesy of Tommaso Berra at Collateral

Harnessing art to enable youth participation: the WISH-MI experience

Podcast with Action Aid...
La Fille Bertha- image courtesy of Tommaso Berra at Collateral

WISH-MI Journal #3

This is the third WISH-MI journal and the first that has been produced since the full implementation of the project. ...
Giardino Felice

Giornata del Gioco: World Play Day as a launchpad for the WISH-MI missions

The City of Milan is opening new avenues in its drive to improve youth well-being in the city. To coincide with World Play Day, WISH-MI has launched a...
Milano youth co-design

Stimulating design innovation at the local level

WISH-MI aims to improve levels of youth wellbeing in the city of Milan. Improving the quality of, and access to, available services, is an important p...

Going Digital: The WISH-MI online platform gets the green light

The City of Milan has launched a digital platform to offer wellbeing services to its young people and families. The platform is now operational, comp...
Milano Wish-Mi hubs article

Wish-Mi hubs ready to hit the ground

Wish-Mi is an ambitious wellbeing strategy for the young people of Milan. The model comprises a digital hub, enabling access to services, combined wit...
WISH-MI Journal #2

Preparing to land: WISH-MI about to go live

The second WISH-MI journal presents the state of play as the project prepares to go live. It draws upon material gathered during the expert visit to M...
Wish-Mi article #4

Mapping the UIA innovation challenges with the Wish-Mi stakeholders

...
WISH-MI article

Building youth wellbeing through community hubs

A sneak peek of the WISH-MI hubs. City of Milan Director, Sabina Banfi. Shares her thoughts on the project’s new youth spaces with UIA Expert Eddy Ada...
WISH-MI

Money talks: How Milan and other UIA cities are stimulating behaviour change using financial proxies.

Milan is one of a number of UIA cities exploring innovative financial tools to nudge behaviours. This article explores the Milan vouchers model, and t...
WISH-MI ZOOM-IN 1

Co-designing services with young people. WISH-MI ZOOM-IN

This slide deck shares the content and learnings from the WISH-MI youth co-design webinar held on 9th June 2021. ...
WISH-MI Journal 1

WISH-MI Journal 1

Milan is a city of 1.4 million people, 230,000 of whom are minors. It has a wide and growing rate of inequality, with 30% of its population either in ...
Politecnico di Milano Visual Identity Study

WISH-MI: Resetting the wellbeing dial for Milan’s youth

Like many cities, Milan faces the challenge of widening inequalities. This risk particularly affect the city's most vulnerable young people. The ...

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