Psychiatric disorders among young people, in Sardinia the demand for treatment grows by 50%

It's the glass half full of volunteering. Or half empty, depending on your point of view. Certainly the Third Sector of our island needs new life. Especially young people. For this reason, CSV Sardegna, the service center that provides support to associations, has included a "Plan to promote the culture of solidarity, starting with schools" in its 2024 programming.

Franco Marras , the director of the CSV which is the reference body for over two thousand associations, explains it to L'Unionesarda.it. They are all registered in the Runts, the new single national register which has replaced the territorial registers since last year, even if registrations are managed by the regional offices.

In Sardinia, between Odv (voluntary organisations) and Aps (social promotion associations), there are 2,062 operators to be precise, in addition to the 78 entities that are classified as Ets.

The common denominator is the excessively high average age . «We are over 60 – explains Marras –: we need a generational change that cannot happen overnight, but requires medium and long-term planning».

The Third Sector, even on the island, emerged from the difficult years of Covid. A Via Crucis that has essentially left two new social phenomena on the field. Both devastating. "One is the collapse of trust in others , the other is the exponential increase in psychiatric disorders among young people , with a demand for treatment that has grown by 50 percent", underlines the director of the CSV.

The mix is one that is destined to profoundly change both relationships and social dynamics. «As a result of a fact-finding survey carried out by the Acli - continues the director -, before Covid, 78 percent of those interviewed declared that they had faith in others. After the pandemic, there was a drop to 13 percent. It means that the rest of the audience covered by the research, heterogeneous in age and profession, believes they no longer trust others."

For this reason, CSV Sardegna has decided to do its part, "before it is too late and the course becomes no longer reversible", clarifies Marras again. An underlining follows: «It is mistakenly thought that associations deal exclusively with hardship. Instead , Third Sector operators also work in cultural, sporting and social animation , areas in which it is necessary to invest human and economic resources with the aim of rebuilding that system of interpersonal relationships that have been lost. Or at least profoundly deteriorated."

CSV Sardegna, chaired by Lucia Coi, is one of 49 in Italy. With the 2017 reform, known as the Third Sector Code, the financing of the regional service centers is ensured by the profits of the banking foundations, united in the Onc, the national control body which is responsible for establishing the amount of contributions and approving the annual programming of individual CSVs. The one on the island can count on an annual cash of one million and 300 thousand, including expenses for the maintenance of the service center itself and its activities.

Until February 2022, the Sardinian CSV was in the hands of Sardegna Solidale which lost its accreditation the following month, overtaken by the project of the new CSV directed by Marras. Fifteen members are part of it: the Acli, from which the director himself comes (long-time regional president), plus Anpas, Arci, Auser, Nuoro Migrantes, Prometeo, Uisp, Aido, Arcadia, Arcoiris, Legambiente, Prociv Arci, Rete Sarda Diabetes , Avo Nuoro and Ipsia.

The relay was not at all painless. Almost two years after the change of hands, there are still some open appeals, promoted by Sardegna Solidale . A battle of stamped papers that is also leaving a group of associations on the Aventine. «I believe - specifies Marras - that all the reasons must always be understood. The previous management, which lasted for twenty-four years, believes it has suffered an unjust usurpation. However, the accreditation of CSVs occurs through the evaluation of projects. So far the courts, both ordinary and administrative, called to judge the island's case, have always established the correctness of the attribution and on the basis of these legitimations we move forward".

Marras renews his appeal to associations: «CSV Sardegna is available to all Third Sector operators, to whom we guarantee training activities as well as promotion, orientation and technical and fiscal assistance services. We are not a place of representation, this is a function that falls to the operators. We have the duty to support and grow networks between people and associations , we have the task of building safe havens. We cannot think of developing our societies without working on the culture of altruism and solidarity."