In times of polarization and radicalization, our project aims to connect and engage in an inclusive and democratic process different community actors, namely youth workers, representatives of public institutions and young people, especially with fewer opportunities and belonging to marginalised groups, using artistic workshops tackling different topics related to active citizenship and participation, creating specific outputs during each workshop and a final toolkit as results of the process

Provinces of Caserta and Napoli, region of Campania, South of Italy

The region of Campania is a multifaceted and often contradictory region under many aspects.
In the Campi Flegrei area of Napoli, despite the activism from civil society NGOs, people, especially youngsters, have a general feeling of not being taken into consideration by authorities and institutions, and that creativity is of no use for community development, leading to a very low democratic engagement.
The province of Caserta, instead, is a very complex context as concerning migration, being home to episodes of intolerance and exclusion, as well as success stories and good practices. Migration is rooted in the area since the 80s and nowadays it has very high percentage of foreigners in relation to the natives, and its municipalities host some of the largest migrant communities of Italy

We will involve all the relevant actors from the local social system. First of all, the workshops will be developed with -and for- young people, especially with fewer opportunities and part of marginalised groups. By involving youngsters in a context like the South of Italy where family bonds are very strong, we are also going to engage and impact directly their families.
On the other hand, youth workers and professionals who already work with different youth groups will follow the entire process and develop the activities and workshops.
Finally, participation of representatives from public bodies is planned at different levels (mayors, municipalities officials, political parties, youth forums), with specific actions and through the outputs and the planned dissemination and campaigning

The project is organized by growing levels of community engagement, formed of artistic workshops tackling specific topics related to active citizenship and participation that will take place every 2 months, with the creation of specific outputs during each workshop and followed by dissemination and campaigning periods in the local community through the network of involved actors.
Steps are planned as follows:
1) Sketching for Cultural Heritage
2) Collage for Community Development
3) Comics for Civic Engagement
4) Crafting for Sustainable Active Citizenship
5) Theatre for Democratic and Political Learning
To close the last workshop, a final public event will take place, and a toolkit including all the methods, outputs and results will be created and disseminated afterwards

Apart from the specific outputs after each workshop and the final toolkit, we expect to have a strong impact on all the actors involved.
First of all, throughout the project we expect a significant increase in the network of young people interested in the activities of youth NGOs; secondly, we believe for a profitable exchange of good practices among the partners and professionals involved, empowering them to plan and implement the social change within their local community.
Finally, the involvement of other NGOs, public institutions, social and educational centres will support the creation of a more solid local network that will reinforce new waves of activism and democratic participation in the population, enhancing active citizenship and civic engagement of different community actors

In a region with low social cohesion and few possibilities of democratic and civic engagement, where different ethnic communities live with episodes of social exclusion, the project will be an important bridge among relevant community actors.
Involving them will bring closer different perspectives, needs and challenges while exchanging and exploiting competences from people of diverse backgrounds, knowledge and expertise.
All the project activities have been designed to foster a higher awareness and knowledge of democratic, political and civic ways to participate to community life, improve the spirit of cohesion through the promotion of tolerance and social inclusion, but also to provide specific methods and tools to develop concrete active citizenship actions and follow-up projects

All the partners involved have always been working for the benefit of our society, at different levels, and we believe in bringing together different community parts to create development and sense of belonging.
This idea is crucial to us because a larger gap between marginalised sides of community and local institutions can only lead to higher feeling of abandonment and lack of engagement, thus resulting in a loss for the whole social system.
We believe that with this project we can generate engagement in the democratic process, leading to an active and interested citizenship, where democracy can reach its full potential by the participation of everyone, taking into account different needs and perspectives and triggering motivation to contribute and bring a positive change to society

We foresee a co-financing of 10% through own contributions and other sources from organizations and institutions who expressed their availability to cover some expenses.
Cost categories:
Public relations, dissemination, campaigning: 18.000€
Personnel, experts and staff costs: 12.000€
Stationery, equipment, material: 5.000€
Catering/refreshments: 5.000€
Travel and accommodation: 5.000€
Project Management (administrative tasks, planning, communication and cooperation among partners): 5.000€

It would be useful getting feedbacks about our idea mostly in terms of replicability and transferability, if there are similar projects or initiatives that others know about (or they directly implemented or participated) and how to improve and perfect our idea in a community development perspective