Municipality of Campobasso

Campobasso is the chief town of the Molise Region of about 49,000 inhabitants and with its maximum altitude of 792 meters above sea level, it is one of the most important cities of the Province and the highest in the Region. It rises in a territory between two rivers of central-southern Italy, the Biferno and the Fortore, a few kilometers from the Matese mounain and from the Adriatic coast.

The term “Campobasso” derives from the toponym of the contrated Campus Vassus (or Bassus) or Campus Vassallorum which indicates its feudal matrix, as well as its lower position with respect to a fortification that dominated it.

The City, probably of Lombard origin, is formed by an ancient part of medieval origin, placed on the slope of a hill dominated by the Monforte Castle, and by a more modern part originating from the nineteenth century, situated in the plain at the foot of the ancient center.

One of the most singular cult events in Italy dates back to the beginning of the sixteenth century: the “Procession of the Mysteries” which takes place every year on Corpus Domini day. The original secular taste of the representation dates back its newer developments in the year 1740, when the brotherhoods of the City commissioned to Paolo Saverio Di Zinno some sculptures of sacred subject to be paraded during the festivities. The artist created real machines to suspend statues in “flesh and bones”, composed of a wooden stretcher in which an iron and steel structure is inserted which, growing vertically, branches and leads to each end of the slings , in each of which a child is placed.

The children represent angels, devils, saints and madonnas and seem suspended in the void because the harnesses are hidden by the costumes and the structure becomes an integral part of the decorative elements of the Mystery or Ingegno.

The thirteen Mysteries are carried on shoulders in procession through the streets of the city and the cadenced step of the porters, swinging the iron structure, creates the illusory sensation of seeing angels and devils flying several meters from the ground.

IRPPS – National Research Council

Institute of Research on Population and Social Policies

The IRPPS is an interdisciplinary research institute that carries out studies on demographic and migration issues, on welfare systems and social policies, on the politics of science, technology and higher education, on the relationships between science and society, on creation, access to and dissemination of information and information technologies. As part of the restructuring phase of the National Research Council, a part of the IRPPS, the Institute of Research about Population based in Rome (IRP) was merged in April 2002 of the Institute of Studies on Research and Scientific Documentation (ISRDS) and the Institute of Research on the Dynamics of Social Security (IRIDISS) of Penta di Fisciano (Salerno).

The research activity is based on three main lines:

• study of the relationships between demographic trends and social and economic development;
• study of social dynamics and policies in welfare systems;
• study of the change in society related to the dissemination of information and information technologies.

Ares 2.0 – Economic and social research – Institutional communication

ARES 2.0 is a company specialized in socio-economic research, institutional communication, complex project management and training.

Currently the company operates through a network of 35 research experts in statistical, economic and social sciences, trainers, communication creatives, videomakers, designers and management experts.

The areas of consolidated interest of ARES 2.0 are: labor market and professional training, sustainability and security, welfare, social policies and citizenship, undeclared economy and criminality, local development and business competitiveness, industrial policy and Made in Italy. With this configuration, ARES 2.0 has elaborated 71 research products, 43 communication activities and 81 audiovisual products over the last five years.

Since 2013, following the challenges and opportunities coming from the global market, Ares embarked on an internationalization path and establish a European project unit. Leveraging on the expertise and the network developed in the management of complex national projects and alongside the new resources specialized in the management of European projects, today ARES 2.0 is a company able to seize and exploit the heterogeneous financing opportunities coming from the Community system and to develop research projects and social intervention in different areas.

Opera Nomadi

Opera Nomadi was established in Bolzano in 1963 as a regional association of Trentino Alto Adige, in 1965 it became a national association, in 1970 it was established as a Moral Body (D. P. R. No. 347 of 1970).

The Association has always promoted interventions in favor of the Roma, Sinti and Camminanti population; it is a non-sectarian, non-denominational association that welcomes volunteers engaged in a task of social promotion, mediating between public authorities and gypsy groups, for the protection of their rights and to favor specific interventions aimed at remedying disadvantaged situations.

Center for Sustainable Communities Development

Center for Sustainable Communities Development (Former “Gender Project for Bulgaria Foundation”) is an independent, non-governmental organization in public benefit, founded in 1994 by active professional women. It has won recognition as an Advocacy group working to:

• raise Bulgarian society awareness of gender equality issues;
• raise civil society intolerance of violence against women at home and in workplace;
• change the legislation to protect women and children victims of domestic violence;
• educate children and young people in human rights and the national and international regulations guaranteeing those rights;
• get media involved in gender issues discussions;
• acquire successful practices of foreign NGOs and adapt them professionally to the Bulgarian reality;
• promote and encourage women in starting-up their own business;
• achieve more active women’s participation in politics and decision-making, and create a national women’s lobby.

IASIS NGO