From eartH to Heart winner
cultivating relationships
Creators
Who is behind this?
Idea
Idea pitch
A new paradigm of inclusion of young migrants through agri-culture! Migrants create their own educational project based on agriculture, sharing agricultural skills with the community and spreading the message that agriculture is about “taking care and cultivating” (the land, but also non-discriminatory relationships). Together with other citizens, migrants promote training, workshops, a tutoring program for vulnerable people, a TV show. From strangers to exploit, they become community makers.
Where will your project idea take place?
The suburban and poorest neighborhoods of Bassano, namely Angarano, Rondò Brenta, XXV Aprile.
What is the specific societal challenge faced by this region?
Agriculture is historically a very dear sector in our area and it is suffering due to COVID-19. It is also the sector in which young migrants end up exploited, as the strike of May 21st, organized by migrants exploited in agriculture, proves. Those young migrants acquire competences in agriculture but lack legal protection or opportunities for integration, while the rest of the community seems helpless. We face a cultural and human challenge: can our community look at migrants as knowledge sources and co-citizens? Can we build relational bridges between migrants and the community? We will start from migrants to ignite a different idea of a community: one that is open all, as Europe is. We leverage two areas that matter to locals, agriculture, and social challenges.
Who are you doing it for?
We target young migrants who face marginalization and ghettoization: 20% of young people in the target areas are migrant/second generation and 5% do not speak Italian at all; 6% of minors are followed by Social Services, 15% abandoned school prematurely or is a neet. The project is actually inspired by an original idea of two of those migrants, previously working illegally in the areas of Rondò Brenta, and now part of our cooperative. To promote a cultural shift in the way migrants are considered, we will involve the general audience and most skeptical citizens: students, kids, teachers, university researchers, shops, farmers, the media, Presidents of the 3 target neighborhoods, local associations, and those focused on their own difficult situation (old people, families, social workers)
How do you plan to get there?
-workshops on agriculture and EU value of non-discrimination: for schools (how to run a school garden and become more European), universities (biotechniques for social cohesion), restaurant owners and clients (match wines and cultures), bars/shops (ethical happy hour), citizens (agri-culture to cultivate our community)
-online agri-culture tutorials: for schools, citizens, radios (podcast)
-agri-cultural show: migrants tell their personal stories, speak of ethical agriculture, EU values on local TVs
-tutoring program: migrants support vulnerable people (daily centers, NEETs, elderly associations) in the creation of a public garden, weekly market, home delivery and ask the support of local companies
-final event: harvest and wine production in our fields, all town together
What are the expected results?
Outputs: 10 migrants trained as tutors for vulnerable people, 30 vulnerable people tutored, 1 public garden created in our land, 1 local market, delivery to the target area, 1000 students involved, 1 school summer camp, 30 companies/farms/shops/restaurants networked, 500 citizens in workshops, 250 citizens in the final harvest.
Outcomes: 1 job placement sustained by crowdfunding, 10 young migrants willing to join next year, positive results of interviews/questionnaire submitted to sceptical citizens and families of the vulnerable people in the area, partnership of the Municipality, sponsorship to create a logo and packaging.
Communication/dissemination: 1 radio podcast, 10 articles on newspapers, 1 show on local TVs, 1 cinema projection, 1 letter to institutions.
How does your idea strengthen active citizenship at a local and community level?
The project will shift the way we see migrants: instead of exploiting them, we can learn from their technical competences and also let them participate in solving social challenges. Migrants will ask locals to co-create workshops and educational materials, and organize courses in their own shop/bar/restaurant/association/school etc. Those who never got to know a migrant personally will be involved by migrants, to become clients (buy products from migrants’ garden, the weekly market, home delivery), students (attend workshops, follow the TV show), co-creators (participate in the harvest and wine production, support the public garden, discover the tutoring program with vulnerable people) and advocates (invite migrants to run a workshop in their own company/farm/shop).
Why is this idea important to you?
We test an innovative approach to inclusion: migrants become advocates for the community (rather than seeking help from it) and ask citizens to take a stand towards EU values of inclusion and ethic work conditions. We support vulnerable people, youngsters, people with disabilities, and migrants since 2014 and create social entrepreneurship projects in which they are the managers! We thus know how diversity brings added value to any entrepreneurship. We believe the community will notice how resourceful our migrants are, and how much they can learn by sharing skills, values, stories with them. We will all feel more part of the EU Community if we work on what community means for us citizens, by mixing and matching ideas, proposals, stories, needs, in the name of inclusion and social cohesion.
€ 50000,-
Total budget
€ 50000,-
Funding requested from Civic Europe
Major expenses
Communication 3500
Online workshops 1500
Tv show 5000
Radio podcast 0
Offline workshops and courses for schools/shops/farms/restaurants/citizens 4000
Public garden 3000
Delivery 4000
Local market 2000
Final harvest open event 0
Work contract/internship for 10 migrants 25,000 + our own co-funding
Psychologist 1000
Gardening tools/fuel 1000
What do you need from the Civic Europe community?
How do you ignite a cultural shift in citizens in your regions, promoting a new culture of inclusion of young migrants? Did you experiment with project in which migrants are empowered and advocates of participation, being the ones who help the community rather than being the ones seeking help?
Project Journey
All-Inclusion (a fundraising tale)
Since 2013 the grape harvesting is a central moment of the whole community that lives Villa Angaran San Giuseppe; harvesting involves not only the people who work in agricolture but also migrants, youngs, voluteers, people with disabilities, retired people and various local industries that callaborate in the Villa project.
From this annual meeting and with the beginning of the structural renovation of the Villa, the main idea of the fundraising campaign came up: including all the participants of the harvesting in the storytelling of the fundraising.
This idea brought to a group of entrerpeneurs that side by side with fragile people build the fundaraising concept: from the all-inclusive formula to the all-inclusion, we ask to our donors to be part of the project not only to support it.
To ask funds we choose not to 'talk on the behalf of' but to involve every-one to tell the complexity and opportunity to being part of Villa project.
Up to know fundraising projectiong activities involved more than 30 companies, 10 migrants, 2 community for young people, 20 fragile workres, 20 people with disability.
From AgriCOLTURE to AgriCULTURE
The young migrant involved in the project was at the beginning mainly interested by the agricoltural activities.
Since the beginning they were also followed from our supervisors; quickly the youngs, chosed to be organized in a 'young migrants equipe'. This horizontal and democratic organization lead them to have easier discussions and sharings.
The young migrants equipe started to show an interest on the other activities that take place in Villa Angaran San Giuseppe and particulary on artistic and cultural events.
Mamadou in april 2021 took part of the artistic direction of Villa Angaran San Giuseppe being part of the organization of the summer festival: people first park
Up to now the festival saw more than 90 events often introduced and presented by Mamadou.
Christmas, what a gift!
In Villa Angaran San Giuseppe take place little productions: vegetables, tomato sauce, olive oil, wine, candels, bookmarks, herbal liqueurs..
The production is an inclusive process that involve different workers including young migrants, young people with mental and physical fragilities.
During the last winter some young migrants had the idea to lead a little group of different people to wrap the products for Christmas gifts....and they did it in a special way!
In order to reduce the package impact they chose to recicle potatoes jute bags and used wine packages.
The results were interesting and suggestive, bringing us to sell more than 150 Christmas jute bag!
Larve ('Larvas')
Villa Angaran San Giuseppe is a place of education and information, but also a place were stories and people meet, a house for different tastes and themes.
During the last winter, the pandemic did not allowed us to meet, to confront on the issues that we face every day.
We didn't give up:
we can't do it in person, we will do it through a web serie! We can't wait the next spring hoping to meet eachother and exchange our idea on migrations, female empowerment, digital issues, music, theatre, disability, vulnerability...so..
Larve came to the world!
p.s. why Larve? Because we were sure that each larva would have become a butterfly and filled up with colors our spring meetings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWadWjsQCR8&list=PLB8JjpDLnrA2TorbNDl62dgz9CKHjnycK&index=26
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