Milano Metropoli was one of the first agencies in Italy to engage the Social Economy in local development processes. The non-profit world and especially social enterprises are vital for promoting sustainable development, compatible with the aims of social cohesion, as well as a strategic economic sector creating value and jobs for the province of Milan.

Since 2006, we have coordinated the Round table for the social economy devised by the Province of Milan to involve profit and non-profit organizations in working out effective and shareable strategies that help boost the potential of social enterprises.

To promote the social economy, Milano Metropoli Development Agency has created two advanced services centres:

• Resource Centre for Social Business (CRIS), operative since 1998 at Cinisello Balsamo
• Social Economy Resource Centre (CRES), operative since 2006 at the north-west area of the Milan city .

Via the Lnet project - European Learning Network (2004-2007) - Milano Metropoli took part in an exchange of ideas on the subject of "entrepreneurship and the social economy in Europe's disadvantaged urban areas". 

The project website - http://www.thelearningnetwork.net/ - gives access to the network's findings and to a rich database of European best practices and experiences.

Welfare and social policies

Milano Metropoli also promotes and takes part in national and international projects designed to identify policies, instruments and best practices in the field of social services. Milano Metropoli involves the local authorities in these projects along with other local players interested in comparing notes with players and political decision-makers from other European urban areas or in experimenting with new instruments for public welfare. Key projects in this context include:

European Cities Against Child Poverty (2007-2009). A European project co-funded by the European Commission DG Employment and Social Affairs. Its aim was to compare the metropolitan areas of London, Amsterdam, Helsinki, Budapest and Milan, in order to identify the best public and private policies and instruments to combat child poverty and protect minors and families in difficulty.

Talent Box (2009). A project devised in cooperation with the Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione of Milan's Catholic University and with the contribution of the Province of Milan to experiment an innovative didactic-educational instrument that tries to offer minors suitable means for coping with hardships and difficulties in resilient ways. By using "talent boxes", workshops are organized in difficult contexts in which children and teenagers, of all nationalities and cultures, can express their creative skills and learn to appreciate beauty through art in all its manifold expressions.