Born there Vecchioni Foundation in memory of Arrigoson of Daria Colombo And Roberto Vecchioni. This new reality was officially presented at the headquarters of Municipality of Milan in the presence of the Mayor Giuseppe Sala and the Councilor for Welfare and Health Lamberto Bertolè.
There Foundation wants to put the issue of mental health at the center. It is based on the belief that every person has the right to a life project based on their own desires and potential. Instead, too often, those who experience mental distress encounter stigma, loneliness and seriously lacking services.
“My son Arrigo, a boy in love with life, died by suicide after years of fighting the disease. Today 1 in 7 adolescents in the world, between the ages of 10 and 19, lives with mental illness (WHO sources). As a family, we suffered from an inadequate system that made us feel alone and without tools. The Vecchioni Foundation was created to transform pain into shared commitment”, he said Daria ColomboPresident of Vecchioni Foundation.
Main mission of Foundation is to fight stereotypes about people experiencing mental illness. Stigma acts by relegating them to the margins of society, which appears incapable of truly including them. The aim is to raise awareness on the topic and change culture through musical events, campaigns, meetings in schools, conferences and other means of communication aimed above all at a young audience.
Vecchioni Foundation and Radio Italia Live
The first project in the pipeline is linked to music through concerts Radio Italia Liveorganized by Radio Italy And Municipality of Milan for the May 15, 2026 in Cathedral Square to Milan.
“We thank Radio Italia which offers us such a popular stage to shout that mental illness is an illness like any other and that no one should be ashamed of it. We are convinced that this will be a highly effective operation in the fight against stigma”, said the singer-songwriter Roberto Vecchioni.
“From the beginning of our work” – he underlined Daria Colombo – “we immediately encountered great sensitivity and availability from all the interlocutors interviewed: the Municipality of Milan, the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, the Telefono Amico, the Aletti Foundation, the Progetto Itaca Foundation, the iSemprevivi Association, the Duedime Foundation, the Diversity Foundation, Anteo Palazzo del Cinema, Radio Italia, DM Produzioni, Giglio Promozione & Management and many people who are already offering themselves as volunteers. This is a sign of how current this topic is and of the trust in the Vecchioni Foundation which will do its utmost to ensure that Italy becomes a country where, when talking about mental health, no patient feels defined by the diagnosis and in which families are part of the treatment”.
“Together, for mental health” is the claim that identifies the Foundationbecause everyone's contribution can make a difference. This can happen through a simple donation starting from 2 euros. Or talking to those who are still not convinced that mental illness is an illness like any other. There Foundation aims to provide support to families where a person with a psychiatric illness lives, through listening and concrete tools to deal with everyday life. It will not operate as a help desk, but will be activated by establishing partnerships with foundations that deal with those experiencing mental distress or their family members.
For more information on Vecchioni Foundation or on how to contribute, you can visit the website www.fondazionevecchioni.it
The words of the institutions
“With the Vecchioni Foundation, in memory of their son Arrigo, Daria Colombo and Roberto Vecchioni have set themselves two noble objectives: on the one hand to help those who suffer from psychological and mental fragility to overcome the shame of being affected by an illness that cannot be seen but is there and wears them down inside, and on the other to make the families of many boys and girls who live this daily and silent battle feel less alone“, commented the Mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala.
And again: “To really help those suffering from mental distress, we need to act on the awareness and intervention front; the initiatives implemented by the many associations and foundations that deal with them must be made known, as well as promoting specific actions in an institutional context, as the Municipality of Milan is doing. I am thinking, for example, of the initiatives of Milano4MentalHealth, of the support projects for citizens with mental disorders that we are carrying out in collaboration with Third Sector bodies, as well as the new WeMi Scuola spaces opened to intercept the needs and discomfort of our adolescents before it leads to an emergency. The problem is that mental health is still a taboo topic for our society: we need to stimulate real cultural change, we need to break this curtain of silence. And I am sure that the Vecchioni Foundation will make an important contribution to a new way of approaching mental illness “.
The Councilor for Welfare and Health Lamberto Bertolè stated: “The Vecchioni Foundation creates an important opportunity for attention towards mental health, a topic often considered second-class, but which should instead represent a priority of the healthcare system in a civilized country. Promoting timely access to adequate responses is an imperative that goes hand in hand with supporting families experiencing a critical situation and who should not be left alone and disoriented. Milan is at the forefront of this battle with many projects and investments that can only also concern the fight against stigma, which still thrives today in some contexts where it is difficult to accept that 'there is no health without mental health'. A work that must be collective and involve citizens, the social fabric, the institutions, the third sector and the health authorities”.
The President of the Foundation was present at the press conference to present the Foundation Daria Colombo and her husband Roberto Vecchionimother and father of Arrigo. And again: sister Francesca, Vice President and former President of the Diversity Foundationcousin Anna Benini, uncle Giovanni Colombo, Arnoldo Mosca Mondadori and Bruna Coscia, who make up the founding group together with other family friends.
