ALICE manages a community residence for the care of self-sufficient elders

ALICE is a non-profit social cooperative based in Prato (Italy) with more than 260 workers in social and educational services, for the promotion of the community well-being and the empowerment of people at risk of social exclusion. ALICE’s primary aim is to improve the quality of life and to develop the potentiality of individuals and communities, promoting the empowerment of socially disadvantaged people and providing services to enable them to maintain self-sufficiency and encourage self-determination. ALICE deals with various types of users in social, educational and healthcare fields: ageing and fragile elderly, violence against women; child abuse; childhood; adolescents at risk of delinquency, school drop-out and other risky behaviours; learning disabilities in childhood; disability; mental health; vulnerable people with special needs; migrants; culture. ALICE is recognized by Tuscany Region as Training Centre.

​As end user, ALICE manages a center for the care of elderly and it is available to collaborate with partners in order to test and to implement new technologies promoting active and assisted living.

Among its services, ALICE manages a community residence for the care of self-sufficient elderly called “Villa Egle” in Vaiano (Prato, Italy). In this center disadvantaged and fragile elders live alone or in couple in a familiar community where they can lead an autonomous life in a protected and monitored environment. Elders are hosted in the medium and long term and evaluated by expert staff continuously. The center hosts 8 elders in comfortable and customizable single or double rooms. During daytime trained staff guarantee the correct management of the residence integrated by individual basic assistance to maintain self-sufficient conditions of elders. According to his/her skills and capacities, every user participates in the community life actively, contributing to the proper running of the household. During the night a direct phone number is active in order to contact ALICE’s staff for any need of immediate intervention. Users are free to move inside and outside the villa, to maintain own social relations and life habits and they can receive visits of relatives and friends at any moment.

The two floors villa provides large and nice spaces for common activities. All architectural barriers had been removed and a platform elevator guarantees access to the first floor, where a large panoramic terrace is surrounded by a wondergul garden including facilitated paths with handrails.

The purposes of Ville Egle are the followings:

1.       Providing low intensity social and health assistance in order to safeguard individual skills and capacities, overcoming minor fragilities and loneliness.

2.       Considering the increasing of ageing population in fragile conditions, offering a model of service to share life with others, safeguarding social habits and networks the more as possible.

3.       Modulating assistance on individual needs, addressing them since their origin and avoiding the worsening of physical and mental conditions of elders.

4.       Offering equal opportunities to access for elderly with different levels of income.