Skip to content

Giving young families the right support: in Devon and in Italy…

  • by JW

The Devon county council has launched a scheme to help young people and young families:

.

The major new plan to help give Devon’s children the best start in life

The Devon Children and Young People’s Plan

The Devon Children and Young People’s Plan brings together all the local agencies responsible for helping children, young people and their families… For the first time, organisations in Devon have come together in this way to spell out a common vision and detail how they can use their expertise to make the best use of scarce public resources to help and support children.

The major new plan to help give Devon’s children the best start in life

.

Perhaps another approach could be taken, as is happening in the Italian Riviera:

.

Italian villages trying to make foreigners an offer they can’t refuse

Hundreds of ‘ghost villages’ have been abandoned over the decades

Lerici has been offering 2,400 euros (£2,117) a year to new residents to encourage them to put down roots in the town. It is one of a growing number of Italian communities offering such incentives to offset ageing populations and falling numbers of residents. Hundreds of “ghost villages” have been abandoned over the decades as inhabitants moved to towns with more work or better services.

In Piedmont last year, the village of Locana offered families with children 9,000 euros to move there. Last week, the coastal region of Molise said it would pay outsiders €700 a month to live in any village of less than 2,000 people, on condition they start a business…

… the town is a victim of its own allures. Many properties have been sold as second homes, hollowing out the town while residents move inland. Around half of properties in Lerici are holiday homes, left empty off season, says estate agent Fabio Taccola. “Some hamlets are completely uninhabited in the winter. If people don’t stop leaving, the town will die.” The resulting shortage of affordable housing has forced out younger people of child-rearing age. Some of these are now trying to come back…

Italian villages trying to make foreigners an offer they can’t refuse

 

x