Franca
Beccaria
Ad-Hoc Expert
Generic Skills
B.1. Understanding of integrated and sustainable urban development:
I am a sociologist with experience in social research, especially related to life-styles and risky behaviours, such as drugs, alcohol and gambling. I have been working on participatory policies projects with local and health authorities since the 2009 in particular with Piani di zona (Local areas social plans), Profili e Piani di Salute (Health Profiles and Plans), Mental Health Regional Plan. These projects imply to analysis, define and implement integrated and sustainable social development.
As Urbact Ad-hoc expert I have been involved in Health&Greenspace project (https://urbact.eu/healthgreenspace) as co-author of the thematic report on ‘Social wellbeing and urban green spaces” and with the participation at the Health&Greenspace Academy session on ‘Social wellbeing and urban green spaces’.
B.2. Understanding of exchange and learning processes at transnational level:
I have been involved at European level in designing a European master on drug and alcohol study, the project was led by Middlesex University (UK) and produced the European Masters on Drug and Alcohol (www.emdas.it) that at the moment is run by the University of Piemonte Orientale (IT) and Aarhus University (DK). I participated at different European research projects: among them, ALICE-RAP (http://www.alicerap.eu), AMPHORA (http://www.amphoraproject.net). I am used to collaborate with Scandinavian research institutes for alcohol research (Helsinki University, Sorad Institute University of Stockholm) I’ve also collaborated at a project Urb-Al – Eurpean Commission, run by Torino municipality.
B.3. Proficiency in English:
My English level is C1 both in understanding, reading and writing.
Expertise support to local authorities and other stakeholders in designing & delivering integrated and participatory policies
E.1. Knowledge on participatory methods and tools for co-production and implementation of local polices :
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.
E.2. Knowledge on integrated approach for the design, delivering, monitoring and evaluation of urban strategies/policies:
“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/
E.3. Awareness of the main policy and funding schemes for sustainable urban development at EU and national level:
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.
E.4. Ability to understand specific local situations and adapt tools and content to different local realities:
In the project “Guadagnare salute in adolescenza” (Gaining Health in Adolescence), there was an action dedicated to drinking and driving prevention. I have been working as sociologists on alcohol researcher for 25 years, especially on cultural and social aspects of drinking cultures in Europe. My research experiences provided me the knowledge to support my colleagues in defining prevention actions based on Italian specificities of drinking styles. So that in this project I worked in order to involve in drinking and driving prevention also those stakeholders who have some interests in the alcohol market, such us those working in the night economy, alcoholic beverages producers, along side to social workers and young people associations, with the aim of defining together harm reduction shared aims.
Summary Expertise:
In my professional career I had different experiences in supporting local authorities and stakeholders in designing and delivering integrated and participatory policies. I worked mainly in social, health and wellbeing areas, in project targeted to the whole community, or to specific targets such as young people, children, students, or marginal people. My role was mainly to support local authorities in focusing the goal, defining methods and putting them into practice. I assisted the project leader/s in all the phases of the projects, until the evaluation. The main difficulty has always been to convince local authorities that it’s worth to involve citizens (at different levels) in local policies. In fact, too frequently even at local level the participatory policies are mainly written words in beautiful projects but rarely transformed in real active actions.
Informations
Residence location:
Italy
Languages:
Italian - Mother tongue
Foreign Languages level:
Foreign languages:
Email:
beccaria@eclectica.it