Over the last few years there has been a growing attention to innovative welfare policies and services, in order to try to provide effective answers to the emergence of new forms of economic, cultural and social inequality on the one hand, and to a demographic scenario in great transformation on the other, as the recent ISTAT survey on 2019 demographic indicators clearly shows.

The explosion of old and new needs, the heterogeneity and complexity of services, a regulatory framework still evolving, the growing awareness of the many actors involved in various ways in the welfare chain: what support can be provided by digital technologies to face these challenges? In order to strategically and practically support its Partners, Lepida is developing a range of interventions tailored to their needs and focused on the innovative design-thinking methodology. Design-thinking is a particular approach to service innovation that focuses on the creative involvement of the team and on the empathy towards the users, balancing traditional techniques (project management, service-design) with a philosophy more oriented to the overall and participatory design of the service. The objective is to provide effective and rapid tools to achieve a fast and precise "prototyping" of innovative digital services in the welfare sector.

With the support of Lepida, some Partner Bodies have already started applying the methodology to a first range of real cases: the redesign of the service chain for fragile subjects, in particular young people; the integrated management of protective hospital discharges, with particular attention to caregivers; the relaunch of territorial structures, through their qualification as a reference point for digital culture. A common feature of these first experiences is the active involvement of local knowledge and experience on the issue under discussion, for a real approach of citizens by design.