How to change the perception of a city from an idea of lack of opportunities and a standard quality of life in a magnetic nebula of: innovation, participation, engagement and well-being?
How to make Ancona a place where it is happily worth living?
Let’s work together to invert Ancona's storytelling motion from a centrifugal to a centripetal one!

Ancona - central Italy

We envision a city where the inhabitants internalize the value of co-responsibility in relation to policies and they work in the construction of social alliances to fight inequalities, to promote inclusion and to support transition towards environmental sustainability by promoting proximity networks.
We wish for a future where the decision-making process is shared between public institutions and inhabitants by activating new governance models to support mutualistic practices, civic activism and collaboration.
Centripetal Ancona is no longer the city of “despite all” but a place where people choose to live because social bodies, politics and businesses develop coordinated strategies to produce value and services for the community adopting collaborative methodology.

The project want to achieve and involve citizens, non-profit organisations, cultural centres, foundations, social cooperatives and enterprises working in Ancona which are aware of the dormant potential of the city and aim at finding ways for a new and more intense relationship between the city, its inhabitants, the people who transit through it as out-of-town students, institutions.

The key figures are a representative number of stakeholders from Ancona's civil society, who are active participants in working tables and participatory processes. They are those who will sign and subscribe the manifesto using its principles as a guideline and also activating an internal discussion within their own organisation.

Centripetal Ancona was born from the desire to share a new model of city with a view to inclusion, environmental sustainability, innovation and cultural growth. From Sept 2020 until Apr 2021 a group of 25 people took part in an in-depth study on the topic. The choice of members was based on their representativeness with regard to sectors, themes and roles into the city ecosystem. The results were enclosed in a Manifesto. This product aims to be a starting point to generate an opinion movement, a great collective brain, a catalyst of ideas and activities as well as an intangible arena for discussion between citizens, institutions, associations, representatives of the economic, social and cultural sector. The activities that we want to carry out are
A1: Communication activities to make the Manifesto a product understandable and usable by all citizens

A2: Dissemination activities to broaden this movement including more and more people who recognize themselves in this process of policies transformation and acting as change promoters to face the challenges that await the post-pandemic cities

A3: Implementation of an "Open and widespread Lab" holding a systematic users' co-creation approach to transform the city into a more livable and resilient organism in accordance with the trajectories set out in the manifesto. The Lab must also measure the impact of the advocacy campaign

At the end of the project phase we plan to reach the following results:
R1 visualization of the Manifesto: the Manifesto is well known, the objectives and strategies are clear and empathetic with the inhabitants, graphically appealing, shareable (via web) and understandable. Target 15% of the city population over 18 years old
R2 dissemination and subscription: inhabitants, institutions, businesses and non-profit organizations recognize themselves in the Manifesto, subscribe it and address actions to put the principles into practice and guide citizens choices and behaviours Target 3% of Ancona population over 18 years old
R3 Open Laboratory: An open laboratory to monitor the impact of the Manifesto is set up. It catalyses resources, alliencies and professionals

The idea strengthens active citizenship because it physically goes within the territory to investigate challenges, needs and desires of citizens. Ancona inhabitants and stakeholders will be encouraged to participate in the process and to push the Municipality to overcome the paradigma of representative democracy toward a participatory one by experimenting new forms of collaboration to manage the commons. We are aware that the distance between citizens and politics witnessed by ever higher percentages of electoral abstention could be reduced, making citizens aware that they could be agents of change and creating the preconditions and the space where the change could be real. These virtuous activities are contagious and will become the good policy that we really need nowadays.

The idea is an expression of three organizations among the most active in the city of Ancona on the issues of civic participation and urban regeneration. Since 2013, with the launch of the first School of Participation of the Marche Region, Casa delle Culture supports the growing desire of citizens to be involved as decision makers in processes of participative democracy. The mission is laying the groundwork for a change that aims at an inclusive and cohesive city and that conceives and values ​​diversity as resources.
Over the years, together with our partners Arci Ancona and Sineglossa, we have carried out relevant projects in Ancona city area through the involvement of multiple territorial actors in a dialogue on innovative practices of urban co-design and cultural production.

Personnel costs (community manager) € 5.000
Personnel costs (project coordinator) € 5.000
Dissemination activities (organization of public events) € 15.000
Travel and accommodation of external speakers € 3.000
Promotional activities (artwork; blog; social media campaigns; printed materials) € 5.200
Office expenses € 1.800
Total expenses € 35.000

We welcome constructive input and suggestions on the project. An external point of view is always a great opportunity to learn and to improve.