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Project “"Rainbow Bonds: A Strategy to Combat the Involuntary Loneliness of LGBTQIA+ People in Italy"”, financed with funds from the Waldensian Church's Eight Per Thousand.
Project Code: OPM/2024/46030 – Ordinary Call for Proposals 2024
Thanks to the support of the Otto per Mille funds of the Waldensian Church, Arcigay promoted the “Rainbow Bonds” project, born from local needs and aimed at them regarding the complex and widespread phenomenon of involuntary loneliness in the LGBTQIA+ community.
Context: What is involuntary loneliness?
Unlike solitude, which is chosen as a regenerative space, involuntary solitude is a psychological, relational, and social condition experienced as an unwanted lack of meaningful connections and recognition. For LGBTQIA+ people, this condition is not a personal fragility, but the result of structural and systemic dynamics:
- Minority Stress and Stigma, the chronic burden of discrimination, micro-aggressions, family or social rejection, and institutional marginalization produces hyper-vigilance and isolation;
- cultural norms that devalue queer bonds, alternative care networks, “chosen families,” and emotional plurality;
- intersectional exclusion and invisibility, where isolation intensifies when LGBTQIA+ identity is intertwined with economic precariousness, disability, neurodivergence, racialization, migration background, or advanced age;
- territorial and service barriers, from the scarcity of safe spaces (especially outside large urban centers) to the inadequacy of traditional public services.
From younger generations facing bullying or social withdrawal, to older people lacking formal and informal care networks, to trans and non-binary individuals exposed to frequent marginalization, loneliness harms the body and mental health. It's not about "treating the individual," it's about transforming the context.
Project Objectives
Rainbow Bonds was created to strengthen the network of Arcigay committees as local centers of welcome, care, and mutual aid, by leveraging several levers:
- Integrated training to increase the awareness and skills of 60 activists and volunteers working in the reception and listening services of Arcigay committees in Italy;
- provide methodological tools, such as space mapping and psychosocial assessment scales, to identify early signs of withdrawal and isolation;
- promote replicable practices (self-help groups, social cafes, intergenerational cultural initiatives, low-threshold help desks, alliances between local communities and institutions) locally;
- practice a culture of care and intersectional alliances to build bridges and stable collaborations between local institutional entities (schools, social and health services) and non-Third Sector entities and local communities to break down stigma and exclusion in the realms in which LGBTQIA+ people actually live;
The “Rainbow Bonds” Vademecum”
To complete the training and co-planning process carried out with the local communities, the "Rainbow Bonds" Handbook was drawn up: an operational and theoretical tool available to volunteers, social workers, educators, and institutions, divided into 5 modules:
- definition and theoretical framework, to understand involuntary loneliness through the lens of minority stress, heteronormativity and existential isolation;
- structural and intersectional causes, from socioeconomic inequalities to family rejection, from barriers to services to the pressure of normative masculinity and the digital divide;
- the health and physical impacts, the somatic and psychosocial impact of isolation on young people, LGBTQ women, transgender/gender diverse people, people with HIV or neurodivergent people, and older adults;
- an overview of successful national and international models (from informal socializing to cultural events, to adapted physical activity and visibility campaigns);
- Designing change (Spaces, Processes, Policies & Alliances), Monitoring tools, heatmaps, role definitions, and methodologies for building intergenerational and contextual alliances.
Events and their impact on the territory
The project organized five local events for public outreach and dissemination, spread across various local contexts. These events provided an opportunity for open discussion among citizens, institutions, and third sector stakeholders to disseminate the best practices of the project and the understanding that involuntary loneliness is not an individual condition, but a structural phenomenon requiring collective responses, specific skills, and inclusive approaches to build and strengthen a community network based on solidarity and recognition.
