People strategy in Cesena. Strategic plan for family well-being, territorial attractiveness, and social innovation.

By mandate of the Municipal Council of Cesena, the People Strategy was launched in March 2025 to implement a plan in Cesena (an Italian municipality of 95,570 inhabitants) to make the area attractive to families, as a tool to counteract the prolonged decline in births and the progressive aging of the population (the “demographic winter”). The project is coordinated by Dr. Luciano Malfer, Research and Family Development Manager of the Bruno Kessler Foundation in Trento, in collaboration with the Cesena Family Agency. The project’s bodies were first established:  a steering committee, comprising the Councilor for Social Services (representing the entire Municipal Council), Dr. Luciano Malfer, the Director of Social Services, and the Head of the Family Agency;  a scientific committee, including university professors and subject matter experts  an operational committee, consisting of local stakeholders (public agencies, public administration, NGOs, businesses, healthcare providers) who have agreed to join; – the Network. First, we worked to share the Project with the Network and to develop a Manifesto of Intent. The Manifesto identifies the following strategic and value axes, which serve as a framework for the Network’s action: – strengthening the community, the territory, and the common good, through participation and subsidiarity; – promotion of a territory and a community as a common good, through participation and subsidiarity; – affirmation of inclusion, rights, and equity; – enhancement of education, growth, and co-construction; – support for local development, the culture of change, and local networks. The Network, made up of local organizations, is understood as an intangible common good, essential to making the community increasingly inclusive and attractive to families. It represents an innovative form of local cooperation aimed at shared care of collective needs and the construction of a generative welfare system. Work has been conducted with the Network to examine the dynamics of relationships (sociogram); this work will be repeated periodically to monitor the Network (growth, strengthening relationships). A Voluntary Membership Agreement was then shared among the network partners, signed at a training event (April 16, 2026); other local entities are requesting to join the Agreement and become members of the Network. The next meetings will focus on defining the operational actions to be implemented to make the Cesena area attractive to families. The actions will be defined by 2026, with implementation beginning in 2027.