UNIONE DEGLI ASSESSORATI ALLE POLITICHE SOCIO-SANITARIE, DELL ISTRUZIONE E DEL LAVORO

Unione degli Assessorati

UA is an Union of Municipalities located in Sicily (Italy), created in 2005. Its legal form is a no profit-making organization. Today it counts more than 30 Municipalities active members, located in the Italian South Regions. The mission of Unione degli Assessorati is to support Municipalities member in drawing up and manage innovative projects, implementing alternative solutions to cope with specific social and environmental challenges, improve skills and competencies of civil servants belonging to the Municipalities member as well as to support its members with studies and researches focused on local development, local government, good governance and citizen participation.

Below the Union structure description:
Offices/Sectors:
The Sector of Technical Assistance for Local Public Bodies pursues the following main objectives:
• to acquire elements of knowledge regarding local and foreign initiatives and to transmit these to the member administrations;
• to promote the information exchange between the administrations’ members;
• to carry out social, socio-cultural, socio-environmental studies and researches;
• to develop, propose and carry out social interventions, projects, initiatives and evaluation experimentations, proposing integrated services to the administrations;
• to promote, sustain and carry out training activities and projects in the social sector addressed to civil servants professional improvements.

The Observatory Sector gives support to public administrations in order to plan socio-sanitary and employment policies in order to optimise the use of financial and human resources. The Observatory aims to offer to public officers in charge of socio-sanitary policies management an information system that, by specific investigation activities of the territory, carries out a supporting role in the process of planning an integrated system of interventions. The final aim is to support public authorities in the delivering of social services, to create the conditions for the development of a local welfare system based on identified needs (according to the provision of the Italian National Social System).

The activity of Publishing:
Publishing House – Social Books. UA has established an own Publishing House in order to give visibility to its researches and analysis carried in the field of social affairs and labor policies. Most recent work: 2017: “Current Models for the management of refugees and asylum seekers in Italy, Spain and Romania: training needs for working with this group” (September 2017). ISBN 978-88-95279-08-4. SOCIAL BOOKS publishing house. First Intellectual Output under the PARIS project. Edited by: Antonino Di Liberto and Gevisa La Rocca, with the contribution of several authors. The Periodical “Città in movimento” (since July 2006): the quarterly editing periodical about the social updating, which trying to outline in every issue one social emerging phenomenon, bringing out the social bases of the malaises which often characterizing big cities. The first number containing one testing of the new styles of drug consumption and drawing the starting point for the annual report for the Parliament about the state of the drug addiction to outline the literature from a sociological viewpoint.
Social Sciences Library: created inside Unione’s legal office, it counts more than 3000 contributions among books, papers, viewpoints on several scientific fields: statistics, sociology, communication, social policies, public policies.
Since its foundation, UA has always worked in an international context, applying and submitting project proposals under the main European Programmes, aware of the importance of transnational cooperation in a wider sense. Thanks to its constant collaboration with Research Centre, Socio-Sanitary public Institutions, Universities, and no-profit organizations the UA activities have been always marked by high-quality level, receiving also specific awards (such as the STAR project award). The Training Sector of Unione contributes to the execution of initiatives with social purposes, developing targeted training programs and specific action models and carrying out targeted activities that allow the individual to develop further, through the growth of his or her own skills. These interventions may also involve the initial preparation and execution of a specific function or the continuous improvement and updating of knowledge, abilities, and professional skills, in an ongoing process in pursuit of excellence. To this scope, during each working year, UA organizes specific training session addressed to civil servants members in order to update their skills. To this, we must add the effort of UA in organizing and managing mobility projects for the Educators, social workers, and youth workers currently permanent staff of the Municipalities members. Usually, UA counts around more than 30 learners per year.

Contact Person: Marco Marchese e-mail: segreteriagenerale@unioneassessorati.it