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 Approximately 2,000 organisations make up Milan’s voluntary sector, 1,162 of which are on the provincial register for the voluntary sector, with 54,000 volunteers working for them. They range from small to medium-sized organisations, half of them formed by 20 people. Most of the volunteers are aged between 30 and 54, with young people making up 20% of the number. Over half of the organisations are funded by private donations. The voluntary sector is organised into several sectors of activity. Most of them (51.8%) carry out activity in the social sphere, i.e. they care for people with difficulties such as the elderly, the sick, disadvantaged youth, prostitution and immigrants. For the most part they deal with social and health problems, emergency interventions, assistance in hospitals and giving blood. Other, currently expanding forms of voluntary work exist, however, such as the fostering of active citizenship, and environmental and cultural voluntary activities, especially for the elderly. In the Milan area there is a deeply-rooted tradition of voluntary work in the sports sphere, through amateur youth sports coaching, fulfilling the task of prevention and providing an important education for future generations. The voluntary sector needs information and tools in order to “have its papers in order”, to gain access to funding, to be qualified to operate as effectively as possible. |
