The Non-Profit Sector and HIV/AIDS in Italy, between Advocacy and Institutionalisation (1983–1990)

The non-profit sector played a central role in managing the HIV/AIDS emergency, helping to address structural challenges common to several Western welfare systems. This was also the case in Italy, where volunteer associations became key actors in the social and healthcare response to the epidemic, although historiography has thus far devoted only limited attention to this phenomenon, largely confining it to memoir literature and sociological research. This article seeks to contribute to overcoming this gap by examining the role of the Italian non-profit sector in the management of the HIV/AIDS crisis from the 1980s to the enactment of Law No. 135 of 1990. Drawing on unpublished archival sources, first-hand accounts, and scientific literature, the study reconstructs the evolution of volunteer associations involved in combating the epidemic, highlighting their functions, processes of professionalization, and relationships with public institutions, local authorities, the scientific community, and political parties. The analysis identifies three main phases: the initial mobilization of homosexual movements and recovery communities against stigmatization and exclusion; the emergence, between 1985 and 1987, of the principal organizations dedicated to AIDS, such as ANLAIDS and LILA; and finally, the gradual process of institutionalization culminating in the legal recognition of volunteerism and the adoption of the 1990 law. The article argues that tensions between the public and non-profit sectors stemmed not only from institutional delays, but also from divergences in intervention models and political cultures among the actors involved. What emerges is a complex framework characterized by conflict, cooperation, and advocacy, which contributed to reshaping the balance of Italy’s mixed welfare system during the epidemic emergency.