Ten Choices to Make to Relaunch Social Work
A manifesto, ten choices. This is the proposal launched by the social cooperative La grande casa as part of the Civil Week in Milan. Ten points to reaffirm the meaning, dignity and necessity of social work in a historical moment in which deciding to undertake a caring profession means facing (also) a list of critical issues.
From a path that aims to add signatures and new pieces, a shared commitment was born to build a society based on the enforceability of inalienable and universal rights and on the non-derogability of the duties of political, economic and social solidarity. "It was a collective path", said the president of the cooperative Valerio Molteni during the presentation. It was born inside La grande casa and opened up to the outside world. This was explained by the director Liviana Marelli , who strongly believed in a project that is the result of intense work lasting a year, with the active involvement of members and workers. " We questioned ourselves on the meaning of our actions as something that cannot remain inside someone's mind but must translate into a posture and assume a political responsibility. For us it is necessarily collective and above all it cannot be closed within fences". Hence the decision not to keep the experiment within the perimeter of the cooperative, but to try to communicate it and invite anyone who wants to sign it .
"We started from an initial input," explains Dr. Marelli: "the document approved in Pisa at the national assembly of the Coordinamento nazionale comunitàaccoglienza - Cnca in December 2023 on how to regenerate social work. Are there a shortage of educators and social workers? It's true. We asked ourselves: what do we have to do with what's happening? Do we have a constructive role or do we limit ourselves to observing what exists?" The first response was not to deny the critical issues on welfare but to invest in a path of awareness: "We started with an internal seminar at the cooperative in which we involved all the members, young, old and with long experience. We asked each other why we had chosen to work here, in the cooperative, and in the social sector ."
The big house was founded in 1989 with the aim of promoting the social and work integration of the most vulnerable people. 413 workers (mostly educators, psychologists and social workers) work in favor of women, minors and families, young people, migrants and communities in ten areas of Lombardy. In 2023 alone it reached 14,700 beneficiaries, accompanied more than 1,700 families, involved 7,400 people in training initiatives and managed 52 facilities . «We started from individual experiences with a narrative perspective. We asked ourselves how that document produced by the CNCA communicated with individuals and with the network. The idea of writing a manifesto has accompanied us from the beginning ».
Is this work at risk of becoming poor, poorly paid, poorly "thought out" today? We can restore its value if we manage to translate it and make it visible in terms of concrete, daily action.
Liviana Marelli, director of the social cooperative La grande casa
Marelli and the board of directors had the task of reworking the material that was gradually emerging: "Many sent contributions, we relied on the external gaze of the pedagogue Ivo Lizzola who was our trainer for a long time. There were a series of meetings between March and October with informal discussions in the places where we work, we gave ourselves the opportunity to say ". The result was a shared document of five pages, from which the ten voices that make up the manifesto were extracted.
No dogma, here it is about choice. Aware, of posture, personal, ethical, professional, cultural, political, cooperative, entrepreneurial, for the future . Each of these adjectives is associated with a point of the manifesto of La grande casa. Choice is undoubtedly the key: «You don't get to do this job by chance, everything comes from a choice and this choice refers to the theme of being there», continues Marelli. « For us, social work is a professional way, and not just a human one, to make people's rights enforceable . It is work of relationships and care. The choice we have focused on is that of knowing how to translate and make all this evident in the daily exercise of our profession, in relationships with the people we welcome as well as in institutional dialogues».
Choice is a strong word: «It is not a framework, it is an organizational model. For us, social work is political action with a high professional content . This is the meaning of what we do. Is it a job that today risks becoming poor, poorly paid, poorly “thought out”? We can give it back value if we manage to translate it and make it visible in terms of concrete and daily action. A resource capable of activating a social recomposition, of connecting and supporting bonds, activating and reading signals, giving them a voice. Active citizenship is restored through guarantees of forms of participation and listening, also at the level of research and study. We must be capable of inverting the paradigm to change the thinking on social work, the narrative and investments ». And he adds: «A social worker is not a worker but a political subject with high professional capacity. If we are workers, we are replaceable. If we talk about relationships, no».
The presentation of the manifesto, on May 9, was a starting point rather than a point of arrival. "We don't stop at a full room." The large house wants to broaden the horizon of reflection to other cooperatives, consortia, universities, trade unions and representative organizations of the Third Sector and the public body. "Internally, we will work on our ethical charter and processes, to make them as consistent as possible with the manifesto," adds Marelli. "From the outside, the CNCA, people and other cooperative entities have already signed the manifesto (you can read and sign it here ). It is a gesture that is a little more than symbolic: it is a sharing of intent."
As for the contents, he says he is «also available to modify them over time because change is the soul of social work . It does not end with a completed task, it unfolds in the context in which we live. The collective is inherent to our profession».
What remains in the imagination of those who have lived such an intense year? "The emotion of seeing members of different generations, together, towards a goal, really listening to each other and activating dynamics. This work has sedimented other thoughts, has broadened our gaze, has made us more aware of how our daily work is related to the context. A year in which we have taken on the gaze of the future , we have opened ourselves to the possible by pursuing the opposite of indifference. Being there".
The May issue of VITA magazine is dedicated to work and how young people approach professional life . If you are a subscriber, you can read it right now here . If you want to subscribe, you can do so at this link .
The opening photo is by Juliane Liebermann on Unsplash. In the text, the images are by Roberto Morelli for the social cooperative La grande casa
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- social work
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