Universit� degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

Students and seniors together to rethink living: Unimore and Cupla sign an agreement for a new co-housing model in Reggio Emilia

The memorandum addresses the need for sustainable housing solutions for university students and the fight against loneliness among the elderly. This is the content of the document signed today, 17th March 2025, at Palazzo Dossetti, between the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and Cupla, the Unified Coordination of Retired Self-Employed Workers. The signing ceremony was attended by Giovanni Verzellesi, Vice-Rector of Unimore, Luigi Davoli, President of CUPLA, and Roberto Neulichedl, Councillor for University Relations.

The initiative aims to develop an intergenerational co-housing and caring model that promotes integration between students and seniors in a context of mutual support. The project involves shared living spaces designed to create opportunities for reciprocal assistance, with students participating in practical and digital support activities. The goal of the memorandum is to strengthen the social fabric through a network of relationships across different generations, helping to reduce elderly isolation and offering students a sustainable and educational housing solution.

Cupla will work to identify existing housing to ensure the feasibility of the project, aiming to activate at least ten co-housing solutions for the 2025/26 academic year. Meetings will also be organised with elderly individuals interested in participating. Unimore will publish available housing options on its portal, organise motivational interviews with students, and provide administrative and technical support to facilitate access to the housing opportunities offered by the project.

The Municipality of Reggio Emilia, which has played a facilitative role in the preliminary discussions, has already expressed its appreciation for an initiative that fosters constructive intergenerational dialogue.

The project is open to the collaboration of other entities that can contribute expertise and resources, even during the implementation phase, to achieve the shared goals.

“The university – emphasises Prof. Giovanni Verzellesi, Vice-Rector of Unimore – is a place where needs, opportunities, and responsibilities converge. Unimore intends to actively contribute to building a more cohesive social fabric, where housing solutions for students are linked to a concrete response to the loneliness of the elderly. Intergenerational co-housing is a different way of thinking about housing, turning it into an experience of exchange and growth. Strengthening the bond between students and the community means creating opportunities for sharing that enrich all participants and lay the foundation for a more inclusive society.”

“Cupla – say President Luigi Davoli and coordinator Giuliano Parmiggiani – believes that intergenerational relationships are essential to address a constantly changing social reality, because no generation can live in well-being while ignoring the previous generations or disinterested in those to come. This is a project consistent with community welfare, enhancing the potential of cities and regions, which are the spaces of daily life, that can and must seize the opportunity to become strategic areas for designing new forms of intergenerational exchange, responding to the diverse needs of people from different age groups.”

“This initiative will offer concrete opportunities for intergenerational meeting and dialogue, providing new and mutual forms of support between young people and the elderly, putting into practice what we mean by 'a city for the people,' that is, a context where relationships and individuals must be at the centre of political action,” says the municipal councillor for university affairs Roberto Neulichedl. “In this sense, we wanted to be part of this project and facilitate the creation of an initiative that combats elderly loneliness and offers young students housing opportunities.”

Categorie: International - english, Notizie_eng