Siracusa Digital Inclusion
A digital user-friendly tool able to provide info useful for disadvantaged and ‘excluded’ people: poor inhabitants, elders, people with disability etc. The info will include: existing public social services, healthcare reservations;job and training opportunities; architectonic barriers as well as services and care provided by Third Sector’s associations/NGOs – with a special attention to woman.
Description
The Challenge launched by the Municipality of Siracusa aims to implement the digitalization and use of public services in the city and also to allow people living in conditions of ‘exclusion’ (due to their cultural, economic, gender, age, physical ‘status’) to have a better access to services and to other opportunities of welfare and social inclusion.
Having a better access and use to social services and to other existing opportunities means, in the longer term, to improve the quality of life and to reduce the existing gaps.
It is well known (i.e. microcredit) that even small but concrete opportunities (of jobs, care, etc.) can make the difference in a situation of (personal, economic, physical) crisis.
Siracusa – as all cities – provides social services and assistance. There is also an existing third sector ecosystem offering diverse opportunities of care.
But there is also a lack of information and connections that doesn’t allow people in need to benefit to the greater extent of these existing opportunities.
Target
Siracusa is a medium-sized city (wonderful and sunny) on the coast of Sicily with UNESCO sites. Sicily has the characteristics common to several southern regions: slow economic recovery after the 2008 crisis; a weak labor market compared to the Italian average, with the tertiary sector being the main source of employment for the active population. These aspects also characterize Siracusa, which has a depressed social and economic dimension.
The breakdown by age group of the city shows an increase in the elderly and an inadequate public service function in favor of fragile categories. This segment of the population represents the target group to which the challenge is addressed. There are many associations and voluntary organizations in defense of the rights of these disadvantaged categories but are not able to meet all their needs. Siracusa started a series of interventions aimed at promoting the social inclusion of fragile categories, also looking at EU projects.
Competencies
This challenge comes from a participative process started some years ago. In 2015, as partner of the Urbact project GeniUS, the city experimented an Open Innovation method, focused on the renovation of a disadvantaged neighborhood. Diverse pilot projects have been co-designed.
Since 2016, it is part of the Urbact Network Techtown (http://urbact.eu/techtown), facing Digital Economy as an opportunity to grow and create new jobs. Following the GeniUS approach, some priority challenges have been identified with a Local Support Group. Among those, the digitalization of the Municipality and its services has been considered a leading challenge for the digital revolution of the City as well as opportunity to reduce diverse forms of exclusions.
The Municipality of Siracusa will follow the process and the implementation of the solutions via the “Innovation Policies” office: a dedicated task force who is in charge of projects and procedures targeting innovation at several levels.
Innovation
The tool needed should be easily accessible and user-friendly, in order to allow to the ‘complex’ target group – composed by elderly people, woman and young often with a low levels of education, people with disabilities, etc. – to have a clear and easy access to the info required.
It should take into account also the diverse characteristics and abilities (es. In term of reading, listening etc.) of the different groups targeted.
The tool should integrate - in a ‘easy to read and easy to find’ way- all the different information contained, reducing the lack of information and connections that doesn’t allow people in need to benefit to the greater extent of the existing services and opportunities.
Commitment
The Municipality of Siracusa is committed to work in close contact with the solution providers who will be selected by the jury. Through the Innovation Policies office, the city of Siracusa will support the winners by providing data, experiences, information and material required, as well as access to a wide network of partners to increase efficiency and effectiveness of the solution implemented.
We will also support the connection with the community of practitioners we work with, and with several experts, in order to make the solution as better and sustainable as possible.
The digital tool provided – considering the digital divide – could also be integrated into specific ‘social points’ available around the city, as gate of access and information for the citizenship.
Compliance
The challenge is 100% compliant with the ethical standards of the program.