FPI: funding for policies of inclusion of people with disabilities begins

The Minister for Disabilities, together with the Ministry of Economy, Infrastructure, and Labor, has issued a legislative decree to regulate the procedure for accessing funding for the benefit of municipalities from the Inclusive Peripheries Fund in favor of people with disabilities. The Decree of May 26, 2023 was published in the Official Gazette at number 167 on July 19, 2023.

The Fund is intended for municipalities with a population greater than 300,000 inhabitants, therefore the municipalities of Rome, Milan, Naples, Turin, Palermo, Genoa, Bologna, Florence, Bari, and Catania are eligible to apply for funding, provided they submit an intervention program structured in projects in favor of people with disabilities.

The maximum amount that can be granted to a single municipality is six million euros.

The aims of the project

The resources of the Fund are intended to improve the condition and quality of life of people with disabilities and their families, increasing social inclusion and the level of autonomy, improving the quality and accessibility of services especially in peripheral areas of the territory, and promoting the opportunity to involve the entire community in participating in the strengthening of the culture and equal opportunities for people with disabilities.

Municipalities may submit their funding request within 120 days from the publication of the decree and exclusively online, sending all documentation to the Department for Policies in favor of people with Disabilities of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

Specifically, the Municipality will be required to identify the needs of the recipients, the methods of their involvement also in relation to interventions already active in the area, they must describe the objectives of the intervention program and specify the purpose of the project in favor of the social inclusion of people with disabilities in the suburbs.

Public administrations must also define the expected results with particular reference to social inclusion, specify the duration of the project and the composition and coordination methods of the various Public Entity partners.

In this regard, the peripheral areas involved in the program will be identified in advance, the estimated number of people with disabilities residing in the area will be communicated, and above all the total cost of the program.

The granted funding and eligible expenses

The Municipality will be required to finance 10% of the project on funding that will cover 90% of the expenses. It will be possible to contribute with goods and services made available to the Municipality, but resources intended for expenses related to the purchase of real estate or movable property or to support extraordinary maintenance interventions may not be used.

The funding will be granted in favor of policies for people with disabilities at the end of an overall evaluation by the Ministry which will concern the quality of the project, the actual number of individuals with disabilities residing in the area, and the innovative nature of the project itself.