Report 2025 - Focus ITALY - Work IS Progress

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The experience gained in Italy over the past 15 years has shown that job insecurity is rarely an isolated phenomenon, but rather the result of multiple vulnerabilities that require an integrated and multidisciplinary approach. Born in Milan, the programme has gradually expanded across multiple municipalities in Lombardy, in response to the emerging needs of local communities.

From the outset, Work Is Progress Italy has pursued a clear objective: job placement alone is not sufficient unless it is accompanied by the conditions that ensure long-term stability and growth.

Over the years, the programme has encountered complex situations of vulnerability, where employment-related difficulties intertwine with family, psychological, housing and legal challenges. For this reason, the Italian model places listening to the full range of individual needs at its core.

A multidisciplinary team – including job counsellors, legal advisors, linguistic and cultural mediators, and psychologists – ensures integrated support and the design of personalised guidance and professional development pathways, aimed at strengthening employability in the medium to long term.

Empowerment pathways, guidance towards local services, and the promotion of opportunities for socialisation and understanding of the local context are an integral part of the activities, alongside initiatives dedicated to younger people, delivered in schools and local communities.

Work Is Progress Italy also operates through a systems-based approach, contributing to the development of integrated local networks together with institutions, third-sector organisations, employment services and companies. Partnerships with businesses are central both to the co-design of integration pathways and to the promotion of an organisational culture oriented towards inclusion and respect for diversity.