Learning-Growing-Living with women farmers – Trentino Alto-Adige, Italy

trentino_1© www.kinderbetreuung.it
CS team:
EURAC research

The CS in a nutshell:

This case study describes the creation of an organized network of women farmers providing social care services (childcare) on the traditional South-Tyrolean farm (Bauernhof). The network was formalized through the founding of a social cooperative in 2006, which represents the first organization doing social agriculture in South Tyrol. The concept of social agriculture was brought to the province thank to the activities of the social cooperative, which helped mainstreaming this social practice. Successively the social cooperative became active in the working group of the provincial law on social agriculture for the implementation of the national law (approved in 2015). Moreover through the lobbying power of the president of the social cooperative at the national level, an improvement of the working conditions of the providers of childcare services was achieved through the implementation of a new type of contract (Kollektivvertrag).

More information is available here.

On the area:

The cooperative has its head office in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen (South Tyrol), where all the social services (childcare and elderly care) are offered. South Tyrol’s territory covers a total area of 7,400 km2, has 511,750 inhabitants (at 2011), and a mean population density of 77.4 people/km². Population ageing has become noticeable in recent years, though to a lesser extent compared with the situation in Italy and in other countries. Over 90% of the territory is covered by mountains and many scattered settlements and villages are located 1000 meters above the see level. In terms of accessibility, villages located at high altitudes are connected to the major city (Bolzano) and low valleys by roads but the travel time is high, making the accessibility of those areas very low. The accessibility becomes even lower during the wintertime where most of the villages remain isolated for the snow. The remote valleys in the province can therefore be considered as marginalized for both its physical geography and its infrastructural features.

More information on the area
Administrative website
Tourism website

trentino_mapLocation of the study site. © Google Earth Pro & mapbox.com .

trentino3© www.kinderbetreuung.it

News and events:
EVENTSMarch 16th 2017 – Approval of new collective contracts for Tagesmütter
(providers of childcare services)
November 14th 2017 – Focus group with local stakeholders
December 7th 2017 – Social farming: The story continues
January 30th 2018 – Approval of the provincial draft law for social farming in South Tyrol