The aim of "Connecting Dots_winning minds" is to foster social inclusion in local communities through experiential learning methods.
A target group of 20 young people, together with 5 offenders supported by Casa Famiglia San Francesco, will coordinate and participate in activities based in rural contexts.
The project is shaped as a strategic partnership activity with international partners who will share experiences about local social inclusion supported by the coordination of Make a Circle.

Castagnetoli, Tuscany | Italy

The specific social challenge is aimed at enhancing the person as a single entity inserted in a community context that requires the emergence of new and concrete opportunities aimed at social support, intercultural dialogue, and gender equality, in the form of a collaboration between young people, adults in alternative punishment and third sector entities.

Connecting dots_winning minds wants:
1| to analyze, structure, and implement a plan aimed at the active involvement of the target through training development methods through continuous meetings organized in circular logic;
2| to create opportunities for the development and increase of social cohesion, implementation of new skills useful in the world of employment, consolidation of the personal and social skills of the target;

The reference area includes thirteen municipalities for a total of 47,888 residents of which 28.9% is made up of young people under 30.

The target audience is composed of;
1| 20 local young people aged 15 to 26. 6.2% are young university students outside the region and the remaining 22.7% are young students from local high schools.
2| 5 offenders who are handling their community service, who are guests at the Casa Famiglia San Francesco e in Castagnetoli which, since 1988, has hosted, accompanied, and supports them with individualized educational programs aimed at their social reintegration.
Connecting Dots_winning minds involves the target through citizenship and active participation activities, inclusion, enhancement of the urban context, sustainability, and training testimonials.

The project is structured in four main activities:

A1 - Local agri-social workshops - Aim: cooperation of local young youth workers and ex-prisoners. - Collaborations: Il Pungiglione. - Methods: experiential learning in a pole that welcomes people who have experienced dramatic experiences such as imprisonment or enslavement imposed by the prostitution racket through beekeeping, carpentry, farming.
A2 - Youth Events - Aim: involvement of local youth, not yet involved in social activities - Collaborations: Centro Sociale. - Methods: participatory planning.
A3 - Tools sharing - Aim: strategic partnership and tool exchange. - Collaborations: The Hive Project - Methods: virtual exchanges.
A4 - International visibility - Aim: raising awareness on the international community to represent the project in a major number of local communities. - Methods - video-making, SWOT analysis.
The beneficiaries will have the opportunity to experience the methods learned by cooperating with the inhabitants of the “Casa Famiglia San Francesco”, which for years has been hosting former prisoners in a large one family. Youth workers will discuss the importance of experiencing the activities to be offered to other young people first-hand.

The results of the project will be witnessed as regards, 5 target groups:

20 youth people will have learned tools to be knowledgeable, professional, entrepreneurial, and supportive youth workers, ready to train new operators and collaborators to achieve integration in their local community;
5 people from marginalized contexts (people coming from the streets and offenders) will be involved in collaborating to achieve local public goals;
50 local young people will recognize the opportunity of involvement in local activities;
3 villages from 4 countries will share an innovative and sustainable-in-time idea for local activities;
4 partners will have shared objectives, tools, and visions.

The beneficiaries of the project will have the opportunity to consider themselves youth workers: they will become representatives of their own groups, increasing their sense of self-determination and responsibility, involving, in turn, other young people up to complete integration and cooperation.
The participants will personally experience social inclusion, in direct contact with marginalized people through experiential learning activities, social debates, and reflections.
The cooperation with local organizations will offer a concrete opportunity to train social work.
The cooperation with local organizations and authorities will give a chance to the members of the group to practice advocacy for a specific objective: to create social inclusion in local communities.

Learning to cooperate with ex-prisoners, our community members will experience the meaning of collaboration itself: “the act of working together with someone”, “the fact of being willing to be helpful”, “the process of working with another company, organization, or country in order to achieve something” (Cambridge Dictionary).
This is a mission that is specifically bound to our organization. In fact, the team of Make a Circle is composed of:
international volunteers, whose mission is the promotion and sustainability of the region Lunigiana through the organization of local activities
social educators, whose mission is the social integration of homeless people, migrants, and ex-prisoners
local youth workers, whose mission is the involvement of local youth.

The economic plan is divided by section and is approximate

Travel costs | 3500 EUR
Public relation | 3500 EUR
Staff costs | 7000 EUR
Material expenses | 7000 EUR
Organizational cost | 10.500 EUR
Promotion and result | 3500 EUR

We will be glad to:
- Discover international realities who are handling similar projects in Europe;
- Receive clear and concrete feedbacks about our project structure;
- Share ideas of activities to be implemented in the future;
- Discover new potential collaborations.