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The Good Lab | Civic Europe

The Good Lab

Where you can learn how to advocate for what matters to you and make you voice heard by policy and decision makers while developing your civic project and be the social change in your local community

Creators

Who is behind this?

Federico Anghelé

The Good Lobby Italia

https://www.thegoodlobby.it/

Italy

Idea

Idea pitch

The Good Lab is an education and incubation program, targeting 8 mid-sized areas of Southern Italy. The project aims at empowering citizens to advocate for their communities’ needs and campaign to make their voices heard by decision makers. We want to bring our project where citizens feel most left out and isolated, such as suburban areas of Italy Southern regions and together with our local partners support these communities in the development of new opportunities.

Where will your project idea take place?

Eight suburban areas of Italy Southern regions: Sardegna, Calabria, Sicilia, Puglia and Campania

What is the specific societal challenge faced by this region?

Italy Southern area is the poorest of the country, not only economically speaking, but also in terms of human capital. The endemic presence of organised crime, widespread corruption, opaque politics and the employability struggles, forces many young people to leave and move to Northern Italy or abroad, affecting an already civic-deprived territory of its most valuable resources. Those who stay, especially young ones, feel forgotten by Institutions and decision-makers and withdraw from civic spaces. The key actors and stakeholders of these striving-to-be resilient communities are demanding to be supported to use the right tools, skills and strategies to make themselves heard and counteract the feeling of isolation and powerlessness towards Institutions and policy and decision-making.

Who are you doing it for?

The Good Lab targets young people (aged 16-40) living in suburban communities of Italy Southern regions (such as Salerno, Messina, etc.). This groups are fuelled by social and environmental degradation and feel removed from the flow of innovation and decision-making centres. The abandonment of the public space, the deterioration of its quality, the weakening and fragmentation of the social fabric are spreading phenomena. In order to picture it in figures, we could mention that in 2018, 117.000 local people left these regions to move to northern areas and 42.000 moved abroad, and more than 60% of them are aged 18-40; or that the data on election voter turnout is the lowest of all Italy: 42% compared to 64% in the Northern areas.

How do you plan to get there?

> Mapping analysis of the target communities and listing of local actors, and first contact
> Definition of the workshops contents on the basis of the local needs pitched by TGL existing local partners and newly engaged local actors;
> Workshops advertisement and promotion via different channels
> Workshop delivery (2-days) with local and national speakers
> Participant’s draft and development of advocacy projects focused on community issues, throughout the workshop
> Incubation of the most promising advocacy projects: up to 6-months mentorships (online and in person) carried out by pro bono experts, local tutors and TGL team on topics such as project-management, fundraising, people raising, communication, etc.
> Granting a bursary of up to €2.000 to support the incubated projects

What are the expected results?

We expect to develop local networks of active citizens trained and empowered to advocate for what matters to them and their communities; these networks will also include local stakeholders and experts, becoming local permanent resources. Moreover, providing targeted consultancies and mentorships - carried out up to 6 months by our team and pro bono professionals - and a bursary up to €2.000 - we expect to see groups of local citizens and NGOs advocating for what they care, reaching out to policy and decision makers, triggering social participation and creating civic spaces. We cherish the rise of new grassroots groups and activities enriching the local scenario with human capital and civic skills, and on the long run, tangible changes relating to the social issues of the local communities.

How does your idea strengthen active citizenship at a local and community level?

The project aims at tackling phenomena such as shrinking and marginalised civic spaces, and citizens feeling of helplessness towards the democratic decision-making process. The project activities (mapping, training and incubation) calls for the active engagement of citizens in the local civic space: participants will be trained on strategic communication, participation and advocacy tools and strategies and later ask to use them in order to develop projects in response to local social matters. Moreover, the initiative foresees to nurture a community-based network made of local professionals, CSOs and active citizens, and to support local projects and movements with mentorships and bursaries up to €2k, aiming at strengthening the community’ social capital and foster active citizenship.

Why is this idea important to you?

When Riparte il futuro became The Good Lobby Italia it wanted to shift from being Italy's biggest anti-corruption community to focusing on those issues at corruption’s roots, such as lack of participation, citizens distrust towards Institutions and withdrawal from civic spaces. We believed that by meeting citizens in their communities, especially those living in marginalized areas, and offering both educational opportunities and long-term strategic support, we could nurture a network of engaged activists. Promoting active citizenship we want to help safeguarding democracy - always at risk to be undermined - while making it more open, and spreading a culture of participation and democracy. That’s why TGL educational offer aims at features such as local-tailoring and community-based delivery

€ 125000,-

Total budget

€ 48000,-

Funding requested from Civic Europe

Major expenses

The Good Lab is currently supported by two donors, funding the project for roughly two-third of its budget. The US Embassy in Italy mostly supports the engagement of US speakers, while Open Society Initiative for Europe mainly funds workshops' organization costs.
Our expected major expenses for Civic Europe funding are:
Personnel (project officer): 15.000€
Travels and accommodation: 6.000€
Communication and marketing: 8.000€
Bursary and Incubation activities: 16.000€
Overhead: 3.000€

What do you need from the Civic Europe community?

Any feedback from the online community is welcomed! We are looking for advice especially relating to the incubation phase and what kind of consultancy do local NGOs based in suburban areas need.

Team

TGLita

Idea created on May 27, 2020
Last edit on May 27, 2020

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