A new meeting for OP4Impact – Professional Orders for Impact: on September 17, at OFF TOPIC, the Community of Practice discussed skills, interprofessional collaboration and new pathways to support the social economy.

“Can culture be considered a genuine social infrastructure?” This was the question that opened the third meeting of the Impact Capacity-Building pathway of the OP4Impact Community of Practice – Professional Orders for Impact.

The pathway brings together the Order of Chartered Accountants and Accounting Experts of Turin, the Turin Bar Association, the Notarial Council of Turin and Pinerolo and the Order of Labour Consultants of Turin. It was created to respond to the needs of the social economy and to continue building, through an interprofessional approach, visions and actions capable of generating concrete impact.

The meeting focused on the experience of OFF TOPIC and its evolution from an association into a social enterprise: not simply a testimony, but a genuine case study of a cultural organisation that has succeeded in establishing strong roots in the local area, evolving its organisational model and generating new social and cultural outcomes. An experience that can also offer a valuable reference for other local organisations.

Ottavia Arenella, Project Manager at OFF TOPIC, presented the pathway, guiding participants through an experience in which culture, young people, territory and economic activities coexist within a single context. Founded as a cultural space and becoming a second-level association in 2018, OFF TOPIC is today a model in which value does not lie in a single event, but in maintaining a space that remains open, creates relationships and builds opportunities for youth participation.

Over the years, however, the organisation’s growth has raised new questions. In October 2025, OFF TOPIC underwent a transition from a social promotion association to a limited liability social enterprise. This change did not alter the organisation’s purpose, but required a rethink of how work is organised and decision-making processes are structured.

A particularly valuable aspect of this transition is that the process of amending the organisation’s statutes was supported by two professionals who are members of the Community of Practice. This provides a concrete example of how complementary professional expertise can serve as a lever for social economy organisations, contributing to the development of integrated governance and management models oriented towards generating and assessing social impact.

Among the challenges currently facing OFF TOPIC are the need to reduce precarious employment in the cultural sector, consolidate its organisational structure and define increasingly effective ways to measure and communicate the impact generated by its activities. These issues concern both the economic and social dimensions and make it essential to identify indicators capable of reflecting the complexity of the value produced.

It was precisely on this ground that the OFF TOPIC case opened up a broader reflection on the role of professionals in the social economy. As emerged during the discussion, the expertise of an individual professional is not enough: different skills need to converge, communicate through shared languages and move in the same direction.

From here, a discussion led by Caterina Soldi focused on governance and on the need to experiment with more participatory and collaborative models, in which decisions are the result of an integrated process. This perspective is particularly relevant for younger generations, who increasingly see work as a space in which to build their future while contributing to the wellbeing of the community.

The Theory of Change was the focus of the workshop aimed at activating the impact assessment strategy for Professionals for the Social Economy. The discussion helped clarify the connection between activities, outputs, expected changes and impact, bringing out a shared perspective: impact is not an additional dimension, but a lens through which strategies, governance, skills and relationships can be rethought.

In this direction, the pathway aims to build an interprofessional approach to the social economy, enhancing skills, cases and experiences and transforming them into new opportunities for collaboration and innovation. The objectives that emerged include strengthening skills and networking, integrating new approaches to the social economy and increasing awareness of the impact generated.

The next meeting of the Community of Practice will be open to the public: on Friday, September 25, as part of Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, the event “Social Economy: Feeding the Future with New Integrated Visions” will take place.

On this occasion, the “Professionals for the Social Economy” pathway will be presented. Developed within OP4Impact, it will consist of six training seminars accredited by the Professional Orders and dedicated to exploring the potential of the social economy through the complementarity of professional skills.

For more information on the programme and registration, please visit the following link.