A good range of activities for leisure time is one of the key factors that can protect us from the risk of social and cultural poverty. How does the City of Milan take care of this important aspect of it's own citizens' life? This map analyses the leisure time system from the institutions' point of view.
The Milan city council manages this system in a very fragmented and non-coordinated way. Although in the council there is a specific department appointed to manage directly the leisure time, there are in fact many different departments that contribute with organizing activities, courses and events. Locally the most interesting organizations are the ones referring, for example, to the welfare department and the devolution department. These organization are managing to keep an eye on the population of the area they are responsible of, they can get connected directly to the citizens and therefore provide activities that better respond to his effective needs. In general the opportunities offered by the city council departments are variegated. Taking a deeper look at the target they are directed to, the trend is to have more courses and activities for adults (sometimes also for young children), even thought Milan's population is increasing in the "65-..." age group.
Many major events are organized by the different departments, as they represent a good way to get a lot of advertising which could benefit also the rest of the activities. Advertising and communication is, in fact, always a big gap between the institutions and the citizen: a lot of the activities are not reaching the citizens at all! Maybe a better communication not only externally but also (mainly) internally between the different departments could help making the offer of the council more correspondent to the citizen's need?
Many major events are organized by the different departments, as they represent a good way to get a lot of advertising which could benefit also the rest of the activities. Advertising and communication is, in fact, always a big gap between the institutions and the citizen: a lot of the activities are not reaching the citizens at all! Maybe a better communication not only externally but also (mainly) internally between the different departments could help making the offer of the council more correspondent to the citizen's need?
