Neighborhood houses, the AMIS project is strengthened to promote social life and healthy lifestyles
20 giugno 2025
The AMIS project is extended through the autumn in Milan’s neighborhood Houses: free activities, social connections, and well-being to promote active aging and healthy lifestyles among people over 65
After the success of the first experimental phase, the AMIS – Activities and Movement Together for Health – project is confirmed and strengthened, with an extension until autumn, created with the aim of promoting active ageing by tackling challenges related to physical decline, social isolation and unhealthy lifestyles. The initiative continues in four Neighborhood Houses of the City of Milan – “Feltre” – Sorriso APS in Municipality 3; “Caio Mario” – Carlo Poma APS in Municipality 7; “Appennini” – Porta del Cuore APS in Municipality 8; “Val di Bondo” – Sempreverdi APS in Municipality 9 – where, for two hours a week, young trainers with degrees in sports science lead free activities dedicated to the “amis” (friends, in Milanese), often over eighty years old: a muscle‑activation walk, a physical exercise session aimed at improving strength and balance, a healthy snack to encourage the consumption of wholesome foods, “wellness pills”, that is, conversations on the four pillars of correct lifestyles (movement, nutrition, positive mental approach and sleep). Attention is paid not only to physical well‑being but also to nurturing sociability and relationships. Health also comes from here: from connections, healthy habits, community. More than 120 people, between 65 and 94 years old, have joined the initiative launched last March and now, thanks to the enthusiasm of the participants, the results achieved and careful management of the resources available, will be able to benefit from the extension of the project into the autumn months.
AMIS is the result of collaboration between the Wellness Foundation and the City of Milan and is carried out with the contribution of Fondazione di Comunità Milano. On Thursday 19 June, in the Sala Alessi at Palazzo Marino, participants and organisers met to reflect on the progress of the initiative and possible future developments. Speakers included Lamberto Bertolé, Councillor for Welfare and Health; Federica Alberti, Director of the Wellness Foundation; Francesco Caroli, Policy Advisor of the City of Milan; Francesco Scarpat, Head of the Social Area of Fondazione di Comunità Milano; Antonio Rossi, City Operations Manager of Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026.
«After the enthusiastic participation of these months, we are proud to be able to expand the scope of the AMIS project, which has had the double merit of promoting social life and healthy lifestyles and, at the same time, of making the Neighborhood Houses known as points of reference for all the citizens of Milan’s districts. We will work to continue to offer quality in these strategic places, forging valuable alliances with travelling companions such as the Wellness Foundation and Fondazione di Comunità Milano».
Lamberto Bertolè
Councillor for Welfare and Health“We wanted to launch an initiative like AMIS to underline the importance of regular physical exercise, healthy nutrition and social relationships for healthy longevity, even at an advanced age,” says Nerio Alessandri, founder and president of the Wellness Foundation and Technogym. “Our social commitment aims above all to promote a great cultural change: taking care of people when they are healthy, to prevent them from falling ill. The enthusiasm perceived in these months and the public‑private alliance that is being created increasingly convince me that a project like Milan Wellness City 2030 can truly spread a new culture oriented towards healthy lifestyles and prevention, for the benefit of all.”
Nerio Alessandri
Founder, Wellness Foundation“Fondazione di Comunità Milano has identified the demographic winter as a challenge in its 2023–2026 program plan. We began our work with an experimental project in Municipality 9, which has the highest number of people over 75 living alone. Amis, which we supported with our Call for Proposals 57, has activated elderly people even in that area of the city. We hope that Amis will be supported by new donors so that it can continue its wellness education activities, so appreciated by the Silver Age,” – Carlo Marchetti, President, Fondazione di Comunità Milano.
The AMIS project is part of the Milano Wellness City 2030 framework, an alliance launched in 2023 by the Wellness Foundation to spread a new culture oriented towards healthy lifestyles and prevention in the city of Milan, also as an intangible legacy of the forthcoming Milan‑Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Games.