Active Citizenship Network

President name: Alessio Terzi
Vice President name: Giuseppe Scaramuzza
Secretary: Teresa Petrangolini
Treasurer: Teresa Petrangolini
Members: Vice Secretaries: Antonio Gaudioso and Anna Lisa Mandorino

Cittadinanzattiva onlus (Active Citizenship) is an Italian civic participation movement that advocates for protection of citizens’ and consumers’ rights. It was founded in 1978 as a politically independent, union-free, non-profit organization which was also recognized as the consumer one in 2000.

Strategy

Citizens’ participation

• Promotion of civic activism by involvement and empowerment of citizens’ in order to enable them to defend their rights, participate in policy-making and take care of the common good.
• Citizens as policy makers: increasing possibilities to represent the citizens’ point of view in national and European policy-making; affecting the improvement of representation criteria.
• Enhancement of “civic environment” by means of partnership: promotion of networking, agreements and common goals, lobbying. No one wins alone.
• Production of civic information: affecting agenda, choosing priorities, comparing policy with data on the current situation of citizens’ rights, which have been independently collected and analysed by citizens.
• Communication through public campaigns, social networks, handbooks and other printed supports etc.
• Protection of rights
• Defending, advocating and promoting single citizen’s rights (by offering daily services PIT salute, Pit giustizia and PIT servizi), as well as citizens’ rights in general. Cittadinanzattiva accomplishes its commitment mainly by means of a constant dialogue with public institutions and political parties.

Fields of activities
Cittadinanzattiva is often called “the network of networks” as it operates through diverse networks organized around specific policy areas. Thus it covers the following fields:

• Health through The Tribunal for Patients’ Rights
• Consumers’ and users’ rights through The Citizens’ Advocates
• Education and training through The School for Active Citizenship
• Justice through Justice for Citizens’ Rights

Since 2001, at the European and international level Cittadinanzattiva has been represented by Active Citizenship Network(ACN). It is a flexible network of European civic organizations which are involved as partners in different ACN’s projects, addressed to encourage active participation of citizens in European policy-making. ACN mirrors Cittadinanzattiva’s Italian policies, such as health, corporate social responsibility, education and training, at the global level.

Organization
Cittadinanzattiva counts 115539 members (individuals, associations, groups and networks). At the local level it operates through 250 “Active Citizenship” Assemblies that elect their representatives to 19 respective regional Congresses and subsequently to the national Congress.

The headquarters, located in Rome, coordinates and provides support to national and European activities.

Funding
The organization is mainly funded on a project to project basisby private and public bodies as well as through general public’s donations. The primary and most substantial funding still comes from its members in terms of time, activities and services they provide to the organisation at the grassroots level.

Cittadinanzattiva’s mission is to promote civic participation and to protect citizens’ rights in Italy and Europe. Being a fundamental resource for democracy, citizens should be given power to play an active rolein society and everyday policy-making at all levels.

Our main expectations from PAE are: avoiding unnecessary pains to European Patients, sharing experiences and further related issues with other organizations coming from all over European promoting dialogue with European Institutions.