Taking effective action to improve health means actively engaging project beneficiaries: from establishing their needs and identifying priorities, to designing and implementing initiative and assessing their outcomes. I supported local authorities in all stages of this process, adopting and combining the most appropriate field research methods (data analysis, qualitative and quantitative research), participation and consensus-building techniques (brainstorming, focus group, World cafè, Nominal group, Swot analysis, Creative problem solving, …), and communication strategies and media (social media, photography and other creative competitions, …) . Some examples: “Guadagnare salute in adolescenza” (Gaining Health in Adolescence): a national project to promote national strategies for prevention and health promotion in adolescence with the active involvement of adolescents and adults working at contact with them (social workers, health workers, teachers, driving licence teachers, bartenders, …). “Profili e piani di salute – PEPS” (Health profiles and plans) (Piemont Region): a participatory project aimed at improve the health and wellbeing of the community. One example: http://www.aslcn1.it/prevenzione/educazione-alla-salute/la-salute-e-il-peps/ Social Housing “Crocevia46”: Consulting, technical and methodological support for the development of a process of participatory planning for the integration of the social housing project in the life of a local community.

“Profili e piani di salute – PEPS” (Health profiles and plans) (Piemont Region): a participatory project aimed at defining the health profile of the community with participatory methods, and in a second step the action plan in order to improve the community wellbeing. The regional guidelines did not provide any specific indications about methods and tools, so that my role was to provide local policy makers and professionals of the more active tools in order to reach the aims. For the definition of health profile I suggested to act at two level: a) to analyse and summarise all data useful to have information about the wellbeing of the community (demography, labour marker, mortality and morbidity, risky behaviours, life-styles, environmental situation), b) the perception of the health provided by policy makers and active citizens (focus groups). For the definition of the action plan: meeting groups with policy makers, health and social professionals and institutes, active citizens, NGO’s, and voluntaries were conducted using SWOT analysis and Nominal group technics. The monitoring tools: a) the local health units and municipality have the possibility to update the health profile in order to see changes in health and wellbeing indicators and in the health perception, b) the collection of data about the projects based on active participatory methods activated on the territory. One example: http://www.aslcn1.it/prevenzione/educazione-alla-salute/la-salute-e-il-peps/

I am part of different networks of institutes and professionals working the area of health and social promotion at the regional, national and European level. I subscribed many newsletters aimed to inform about EU funds, and also EU developments and trends.