Who we are

The Felicita and Enrico Bignaschi and Sons Foundation was established in 1981 through a legacy left by Mrs Maria Bignaschi. In 1983, the Foundation was recognised as a non-profit organisation of public interest by Lombardy Regional Council.
Its chief objectives are:

  • to promote the scientific study of welfare, the condition of the elderly and disadvantaged subjects; to study all forms of privation among the young with particular attention to the impact of the new poverties on the questions affecting young people;
  • to run a library for the above-mentioned areas open to public and holding around 5.500 volumes and 19 subscribed periodicals;
  • to help the aged, disabled and other subjec

During the course of its over thirty years, the Foundation has consolidated its experience and activities in the area of research into the elderly, but has also developed other important themes such as welfare, family, immigration and poverty. Together with the Department of Sociology at Milan State University, now the Department of Sociology and Social Research at the University of Milano-Bicocca, it set up the Urban Poverty Monitoring Unit. The Foundation is currently part of a network of national and international connections.

A large part of the Foundation’s activities centring on initiatives related to the elderly are based on the exceptional contribution made by Professor Danilo Giori. Until his premature death in 1988, he was a life member of the Board of Governors and Director for Research at the Foundation. He was one of the pioneers in the study of the condition of the aged in Italy, making an extremely innovative and still today valid contribution grounded in understanding the link between state of health and social and familial condition. This approach, set within a strongly interdisciplinary framework, assumed concrete form through working in close contact with geriatricians, not only with a view to carrying out studies but also to designing and implementing innovative services.
A special fund has been constituted in memory of Professor Danilo Giori for providing support to young academics and operators engaged in addressing these problems.