Why Sign the Alliance for the Golden Years Manifesto 

A Shared Responsibility! What It Means to Sign the Alliance for the Golden Years Manifesto

How do we build a city that can support people as they age? It is not enough to simply increase services if they remain fragmented. And it is not enough to leave the solution up to institutions, families, or individual organizations. Longevity is changing people’s needs, relationships, and ways of living in cities, and it requires us to bring together different areas of expertise and responsibilities. 

It is from this awareness that theAlliance for the Golden Years Manifesto was born. 

OnMay 28, 2026, at BASE Milano, the Manifestowas read aloud to the city. Those who read it were not only representatives of institutions or foundations, but also a home health aide, a psychologist, and a caregiver. This was a deliberate choice, consistent with what the document asks of those who sign on: to start with the people who live through and support the Golden Years every day. 

The Manifesto is the founding document of the Alliance for the Golden Years, a civic pact promoted by the Ravasi Garzanti Foundation in collaboration with institutions, foundations, universities, cooperatives, businesses, and cultural organizations. It emerged from three co-design workshops and is structured around eight pillars, which were endorsed by more than forty organizations at its launch. 

Signing on to the Manifesto, therefore, means going beyond a mere statement of intent. It means embarking on a shared journey, adopting a common approach, and starting from a fundamental principle: in the face of the transformation brought about by increased longevity, no single organization can stand alone. 

8 Pillars for Building a Different Way of Working

The Manifesto emerged from three co-design workshops involving social service providers, researchers, professionals, and cultural organizations and a discussion of the issues facing older adults: loneliness, the fragmentation of services, the language we use to describe aging, how priorities are set, and who is involved in decision-making. 

This work gave rise to the eight pillars described in thetext of the Manifesto. These guidelines define both a vision for the city and a shared approach to our work. 

Pillar	The Commitment of the Signatories
Alliance	Harness our own resources and expertise, supporting public action rather than replacing it
Shared Longevity	Treat longevity as a public good and an investment, not as a cost or an emergency
Languages That Change the Way We See Things	Let us move beyond words that reduce old age to fragility, including through the arts and nonverbal forms of expression
Enabling Ecosystems	Adopt co-design as a method, developing services in collaboration with those who use them and evaluating the results
Listening and Empathy	Bring services to places already frequented by the community and reach even those who do not ask for help
We	Recognize the specific role of each stakeholder and ensure that their contributions are consistent with one another
Areas, Networks, Replicability	Work with shared tools so that the model can be replicated even where resources are limited
Autonomy and the Centrality of the Individual	Supporting independence wherever possible and anticipating needs before they become emergencies

Why Start with Values Before Even Thinking About Services 

Faced with rapidly growing and changing needs, starting with a Manifesto might seem like a theoretical choice. In reality, this is precisely where a significant part of the change takes place. 

The way we talk about old age also influences the way we design our responses. If aging is viewed solely through the lens of need and frailty, there is a risk of creating services that view older adults exclusively as recipients of care. Changing the language, on the other hand, means recognizing their autonomy, rights, experience, and ability to participate. 

The same logic applies to the method. The Manifesto does not present a finished model but rather awork in progress: priorities, projects, and approaches are developed together with our allies and the people involved. 

This is a significant shift: designing not justforolder adults, butwiththem. And allowing this dialogue to shape not only the services themselves, but also the way organizations and institutions operate. 

What Does It Mean to Sign the Manifesto for an Organization?

For a foundation, a cooperative, a business, an association, or a cultural organization, signing the agreement is the first step on a broader journey. 

Joining means becoming part of a network.Many organizations carry out valuable initiatives, but they often operate in isolation. The Alliance seeks to overcome this fragmentation by bringing together expertise, resources, and projects around common goals. 

It means sharing a method.Those who join the Alliance become part of an ecosystem that uses common tools, co-design, training, and research to develop more coordinated responses. This is the logic behind the Alliance’s operational model. 

It means increasing one’s ability to make an impact.A single organization can achieve significant results within its own field. A network of partners composed of institutions, foundations, universities, cooperatives, businesses, and health and cultural centers can help change the way an entire city approaches longevity. 

Every organization contributes what it has: expertise, locations, relationships, planning capabilities, resources, or knowledge of the local area. Value arises from the ability to connect these elements. 

From Principles to Results 

The Manifesto finds its first concrete application in the network ofcommunity service centersoperating in Milan’s neighborhoods, located in libraries, community centers, health clinics, and other venues already recognized by the community. 

This is where theCivic Pact for Longevityseeksto turn principles into action: connecting services, simplifying the way people navigate the system, and creating pathways based on people’s actual needs. 

But expanding the network isn’t enough. The Alliance also wants to understand whether the model works: how many people are reached, to what extent the Alliance members are able to collaborate, and how the experience of those who use the services and opportunities changes. 

Measuring impact means verifying whether the collaboration is actually bringing about change. It is a necessary step to ensure that an agreement does not remain merely a declaration of intent.

Sign the Alliance for the Golden Years Manifesto 

Longevity is not limited to a single sector of the welfare system. It raises questions about how we organize our cities, services, work, culture, and relationships. 

No single entity, no matter how competent, can tackle this transformation on its own. The Manifesto calls on various organizations to bring their expertise to a shared project and to help build a city capable of recognizing and supporting people at every stage of life. 

Are you an organization, a business, a cooperative, an association, or a cultural institution? You cansign the Alliance for the Golden Years Manifesto. 

Signing is the first step. Value comes from what we can build together.