"SDG-IZE YOUR LIFE!": a multilevel peer-to-peer formative path of training and guidance towards an active citizenship for youth. The project will empower youth to make sustainability-oriented impactful contributions to their local environment. Shifting from territorial isolation to community cohesion, the project will enable young people between 14 and 35 years of age to conquer their seat at the table by writing down their personal 2030 Agenda as proactive agents of change.

Ferrara, Italy.

Youth are left behind in Ferrara. This project aims to break down the barriers preventing local youth from their proactive engagement in the social and political life of their town. This project is intended to provide youth with adequate tools and resources capable of inspiring them to advocate for themselves while succeeding in filling their seat at the societal table. “SDG-ize your life” seeks to reduce the multidimensional distance between local youth and politics who underestimate young people's power to shape a better future for themselves while setting an example for future generations to come. To this end, the project is expected to recognise youth as change-makers by guaranteeing them partnerships and opportunities for a sustainability-oriented intergenerational dialogue.

The project aims to reach several groups of young people aged 14-35 years who live in the multicultural neighborhoods of Ferrara. The project seeks to address the lack of community engagement opportunities, education and support aimed at bringing youth closer to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Youth are subjected to the consequences of a frenzied development while bearing the brunt of its future unsustainable outcomes.
The intergenerational dialogue is the key to progress. IBO Italia’s professionals will be interacting, step by step, with the leaders of the youth groups involved in the project. Indeed, each group is expected to be led by a spokesperson who will be empowered to better interact with their peers and the stakeholders with whom the youth groups will be engaging.

The project will begin with school didactic workshops on youth’s active citizenship and social responsibility to inform students about the local youth engagement opportunities. These informative sessions will be organized by IBO Italia in partnership with the volunteer organisation CSV Terre Estensi Ferrara which invests in youth empowerment. Subsequently, the project foresees the establishment of a public network of working groups involving local youngsters in the drafting of a shared “2030 agenda for Ferrara’s youth”. Afterwards, IBO Italia will help the youngsters organize intergenerational community workshops in the city’s neighborhoods. These peer-to-peer workshops will enable youth and other habitants to exchange personal opinions on sustainable development. IBO Italia will engage the most proactive local youth in a 10-day long residential camp during which they will exchange ideas on how to build the ideal city with European youth from all over the continent. The above-mentioned youth’s Agenda will be put before the representatives of the Municipal Administration, empowering youth to conquer their deserved seat at the table. After a joint assessment, youth and politics will adopt the Agenda. Web Radio Giardino will involve the Agenda designers in recording twelve podcasts, six in english and six in italian, which will illustrate how the Agenda took shape and its content.

By investing in local youth’s active citizenship and their peer-to-peer and intergenerational social interaction skills, through both formal and non-formal activities, in the end, the project is expected to foster youth’s social responsibility while providing them with sustainability-oriented managerial skills. These competences will turn youth into aware social actors capable of debating, negotiating, prioritising, solving problems, creating jobs and leading change within the global Sustainable Development Goals framework. In addition, by creating a new engaged dialogue between local youth and politics which empowers young people’s political participation, the project will lead to more accurate, relevant youth-related decisions, which are more likely to be co-designed by those concerned.

The project will provide local youth with the opportunity to research, discuss and create their personal 2030 Agenda for a sustainable future while experiencing the importance of face-to-face interactions with peers and policy-makers. The shift consists in engaging youth as project contributors being themselves experts on their own challenges and needs. Thanks to its intergenerational activities, such as the training interventions on active citizenship, the community workshops and talks delivered in the multicultural neighborhoods where the beneficiaries live and the 10-day long residential camp for both Ferrara’s and European youth, the project will foster power-sharing across all ages while placing great emphasis on the equal weight of young people’s expertise and contribution.

IBO Italia has been operating within the territory of Ferrara, where its headquarters are currently located, for 20 years. Over the last two decades, IBO has gained an extensive and solid experience in carrying out projects with and for Ferrara’s youth. Fostering volunteering and active citizenship to contrast juvenile distress and exclusion has always been one of its major operative objectives. In 2018, IBO Italia’s volunteers were 893 and they worked for
92.654 hours. IBO Italia has developed a publicly recognised ability to generate social value through the implementation of virtuous relationships between local youth and the various social actors in the territory.

Internal staff costs: 35750
External staff costs: 3500
Office costs: 3490
Accomodation and subsistence costs: 3500
Project materials: 6200
Equipment rental: 1000
Communication costs and project gadgets: 2500