Social innovation practices in rural Italian towns are helping revitalize communities. Young people are returning to agriculture through initiatives like the National School of Pastoralism. Its "Young Shepherds" program provides training in traditional and sustainable practices to support developing entrepreneurial ideas. Policies should invest in these young innovators through funding, education, and networking opportunities to foster social change and stem population decline in small towns.

1. Revitalising town centres trough social innovation: practices and policies
Daniela Storti, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics – CREA , ITALY
OECD Rural Conference, Ireland 2022

2. - Social Innovation is a transformative action supported by change
makers who are creating communities that are more ecologically
sound and socially just;
- In many cases these innovative experiences relate to pastoralism
and agriculture and increasingly involve young people
- returning to land, growing wheat, breeding animals is a cultural
process
- The ambition is thinking to rurality in a logic of protagonism
supported by models of cultural differentiation;
1
Social innovation

3. - It is necessary in order to create welcoming and attractive
communities;
- It allows improving participation of young people in community
changes, creating an anchorage to “places” and overcoming the
sense of disorientation that leads many young to leave small towns
in rural areas;
- it allows recapturing the dimension of the relation with the food,
with the land of the practices and the actions, with the relation
between individuals and with the ecosystems
2
Why social innovation is crucial in
revitalising town centres

4.  The relations between producers and ecosystems, with a rapprochement
of the human farmer to the cultivated and farmed species (a closeness
that had been lost with industrialization) that produces greater
sustainability;
 the action of local networks and social and agricultural cooperatives, that
are producing a change in farming communities through the sharing of
practices, the use of organic farming techniques and the initiation of forms
of mutualism capable of improving the wellbeing of the community and
building a more supportive local economy;
 the centrality assumed by the recovery of traditional practices (with the
grafting of new knowledge and high sustainability profiles on both the
environmental and social fronts);
 the diffusion of new sales models (Farmer’s Market, CSA, GAS)
3 Main areas of ongoing innovation
processes in rural Italy

5. The value of the relationship between farmers is at the centre
of many innovative experiences in Italy, such as that of the
cooperative Terra di Resilienza or the rural hub Vazapp. These
experiences, in which the drive to cooperate is rooted in new
models of sociality, foreshadow a true cultural revolution and
require new keys to interpretation.
For change makers agriculture does not mean working on the
economic sector but it means supporting these social and
community contexts in a cultural matrix of innovation and
contemporaneity
The experiences that innovators are activating are practices
moving along the relationship with the soils, the relations
between individuals, and with the ecosystems

6. - difficulty in accessing training and assistance consistent
with needs
- lack of places to compare and share operational practices
and knowledge useful for developing one's own projects
- poor access to credit and lack of lines dedicated to
agricultural start-ups in fragile areas (high credit risk
profiles)
- networking
4
Change makers’ needs

7. - Invest on young people projects
- putting investment in the human capital of these areas back at the
center of public policies
- supporting the capacitation of young people through actions
providing training and assistance consistent with their needs
- support innovation processes with multisectoral policy actions
- build a new approach to public policy based on the adoption of the
practice of co-planning between public administrations, local actors
and the third sector to define projects and strategies;
5
What policies can do to support social
innovation

8. It is a national place-based policy that finances integrated territorial
strategies supported by permanent coalitions of mayors, it aims to reactivate
the territorial capital to stop population decrease in small municipalities and
mountain areas
The SNAI method works on processes to trigger innovation in rural territories
The logic behind the SNAI is based on the realisation that the integration of
development funds alone is a necessary but not sufficient condition if it is
not accompanied by a reorganisation of essential services that guarantee
acceptable levels of quality of life in small municipalities, contributing,
together with the fostering of innovation processes (social and productive) to
the improvement of the attractiveness of these places
A policy fostering social innovation in remote
areas : the Italian Inner areas Strategy
6

9. Action and policies to foster social innovation
A case of social innovation :
The National School of pastoralism andtheproject«Young shepherds»

10. ” Young shepherds” : Training and
co-design of innovative ideas
Young Shepherds is an
action research project,
focused on young people
living in Italy’s mountain
areas, promoted by the
Association Riabitare
l'Italia and CREA
Donor: Fondazione Cariplo
- training offer linked to the needs
of enhancing extensive livestock
farming in marginal areas;
- support to the development of
entrepreneurship ideas in
interactions with local
communities;
- assistance for the design of
breeding farms ecologically
sound
- adoption of interactive and
experiential approaches;

11. ” Young shepherds” : Training and
co-design of innovative ideas
The School on livestock farming practices, processing techniques and
design for young or aspiring shepherds has started on 26 of September.
There are 15 young participants, men and women who will have the
opportunity to join a network of exchange between shepherds,
operators and researchers.
The offer, completely free of charge, includes 2 weeks of in-presence
training, 1 online and a transversal accompaniment path for those who
want to develop their own business idea.
for more information : https://www.reterurale.it/giovanipastori

12. THANK YOU!
daniela.storti@crea.gov.it