Voice Italia, the first community dedicated to longevity, is launched

The Italian startup, part of an international project launched in the UK, actively engages people in coming up with solutions for a healthier and longer life.

On May 14, we officially presented Voice Italia—an Italian startup that is part of an international project launched in the UK—at the MEET Digital Culture Center. The startup actively engages people in devising solutions for a healthier, longer, and more fulfilling life.

It isa social enterprisefounded by the National Innovation Center for Aging (NICA) and the Ravasi Garzanti Foundation, with support from the Cariplo Foundation and the Amplifon Foundation.

Voice isa physical and digital platformthat engages citizens of all ages—with a particular focus on older adults, their families, and the communities they are part of—with the goal of putting their experience and knowledge back into circulation to benefit research and social innovation.

A community is forming around Voice—made up of people who are open to innovation, passionate, and eager to contribute their ideas to the development of innovative solutions for living better and longer.

Throughco-design methods,workshops, and events, the Voice Italia community helps identify needs, priorities, and aspirations that are often overlooked or unmet, offering public and private organizations a fresh and unexpected perspective on products, services, contexts, and experiences.

Voice Italia aims to shape the future of healthy aging by listening to people’s voices and valuing their lived experiences. It aspires to become a model for engaging Italian citizens and to foster a network of exchange and collaboration with Voice members in countries around the world.

Voice Italia actively collaborates with universities and research centers, public institutions and local communities, as well as public and private sector companies,in the belief that only by co-innovating and co-developing products, services, and experiences together with those who will benefit from them can we accelerate innovation and transformation for an increasingly long-lived society.

“Faced with the ever-growing and widespread phenomenon of aging worldwide, Italy and Great Britain have come together to address it,” saidNic Palmarini, CEO of Voice Italia and Director of NICA. Together, they decided to pool their experiences and networks by creating Voice Italia, a social enterprise modeled after the participatory approach in the UK, serving those in our country who wish to tackle the challenges posed by this major transformation from various perspectives.”

“In Italy, the Ravasi Garzanti Foundation—born of the philanthropic spirit of publisher Livio Garzanti—has been working for years on issues related to aging, combining research, cultural initiatives, and field experiments in Milan and beyond,” explainedFelice Scalvini, Director of the Ravasi Garzanti Foundation and President of Voice Italia. “It was therefore only natural for the foundation to be involved in the founding of Voice Italia, which was established as a center of expertise and action and aims to engage citizens in all its initiatives through a proven platform for online community engagement. It will be a tool that facilitates people’s involvement and the sharing of their experiences, and will connect Italy to other international communities.”