The project aims to create an infrastructure for the implementation of popular sovereignty, open to individuals and networks that have constitutional and ecological values. The platform is the instrument to cooperate and to carry out activities of intergenerational safeguard and mutualistic protection of commons. As first concrete step of our project the school of commons created in the Altovicentino area will be the best practice to encourage training and civic education initiatives in Italy

The School of Commons will be located in the Altovicentino area, in Veneto, Italy

Altovicentino is an area located between Alps and Po' Valley. Despite some remarkable but scattered initiatives aimed at creating unity and social collaboration, its communities are experiencing a long-lasting process which manifests in growing individualism, the progressive weakening of the social ties and cohesion and a seemingly inescapable loss of centrality of commons in people's everyday life.Such situation is widespread and can be observed on several levels ranging from public decision-making on key environmental and social issues to selfish and irresponsible private citizens' behaviour.The present initiative takes the steps from this realization and aims at activating actions to build and strengthen patterns of local democracy and social cohesion involving the key territory actors

The aim of the entire project is to develop a wide and open movement, aimed at individual citizens, civil society, organisations and representatives of specific interest groups sharing the same vision on commons. The project seeks to inform and educate citizens through the school of commons, and to create shared practices of territorial improvement.
This first school's purpose is to reach out and involve all the key actors of the Altovicentino communities (32 municipalities and around 186.000 people). In particular:
- 20 local administrators and 15 technicians
- 20 educators
- 20 representatives of associations, movements, informal groups
- 30 operators in target sectors
- 350 individual citizens
- 950 students

School of commons:the aim is to create a permanent dialogue between citizens and institutions. Workshops contents will be decided entirely together between the platform' experts and the local participants who, in the first meeting, will indicate themes to be developed. The goal is to present a proposals document to 20 local administrators, so that they can include it in their local policies and also in the municipalities activities.
Online platform: the aim is to repeat and increase school as best practice, sharing online the experience of the school, both in the knowledge part and proposing to participants to keep in touch, to exchange experiences and results and to develop the themes it deals with. Then, entering the proposals document into the platform's plan for the future projects.

The online platform becomes a place of collaboration to promote and develop the protection of commons, planning local activities to safeguard these, through specific training on site and to set up an online exchange of experiences and results, by proposing to the school's participants to stay in touch and build initiatives. The project develop by structuring schools of commons with academic experts who will give notions in several fields on commons and will manage the workshops with practical exercises on these. Each workshop will end with a practical action, involving all participants, to submit to local administrators both to influence local politics in order to include commons in political programmes and to design, build and activate concrete initiatives on the commons of the territory

The Dolphin project platform is a place of collaboration, with the aim of promoting, spreading and developing the care of commons throughout Italy. It is a space where, in a cohesive way, individuals, associations and political forces interact, work and learn how to create and safeguard the commons. Their promotion, dissemination and development of it requires academic knowledge to be shared with civil society, so one of the aims is the commitment and participation of citizens through informal training actions. Thus, this project idea aims to provide civil society with basic knowledge about what the commons are and how to protect them, to promote the active participation of communities and citizens in making decisions that affect their lives, reinforcing their civic rights.

A sustainable Italy, a healthy, beautiful and livable environment, and a valued and protected heritage, depend on the determination with which we citizens demonstrate determination and willingness. The Dolphin project provides the way to exercise our right to have a part to play, and to push for an ambitious eco-sustainable and truly indipendent recovery of our assets.

school expenses: 12000
platform expenses: 21300
general expenses: 15400

If the other participants have some information of other initiatives dealing with commons, we would be grateful to have contacts for sharing experience.