The phenomenon of poverty is closely tied to the concept of social exclusion that is relevant to the fragility, vulnerability and loneliness of individuals, carriers of serious hardship, find themselves living conditions for breaking the so-called normality. In this context, the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs is devoting serious attention to marginalized and homeless people in big cities.
In order to deepen the analysis of this phenomenon in the Italian territory, through greater knowledge of the statistical data, the needs, the causes and progress of the "careers of poverty, as well as delivery systems offered to these categories, the Ministry is developing a program of surveys and studies in view of the 2010 European Year for Combating Poverty. With this objective is being implemented:
- the first national survey of services for homeless people (with Istat, Caritas and the Federation of the industry, the FIO.psd)
- five ethnographic research among the largest cities - Milan, Genoa, Bologna, Rome and Bari - daily living conditions of homeless people, their survival dynamics of the relationship with the services of first asylum, in order to bring out the phenomenon to identify appropriate policy and promoting, through social workers, the best approaches for such a complex phenomenon and difficult to manage
- a partnership with the research center of the hip (CITTALIA), to increase in large cities to design services that are best suited to relational and social reintegration of persons in state severe marginalization;
- a collaboration with a major European network of Association - European Anti Poverty Network, and their Italian antenna, the CILAP - to create a project for mapping and creating a network of observatories on poverty and 'exclusion at local level. These bodies have the function to support the understanding and analysis of the phenomena of social marginality and of poverty in the various territories, and the responses offered by their local services. The study and analysis, in addition to the exchange of good practices and experiences, can be highly effective tools to provide useful indicators to the development of appropriate policies;
- the first Italian experiment of People Experiencing Poverty, a national trail entertainment and participation of people living in poverty and their organizations, to analyze and evaluate social inclusion policies in the light of the words and life experiences for those involved in programs of social inclusion.