A six-month bus tour of Italy will be organized to promote citizens' rights and duties, stimulate active discussion among participants, and help to understand the tools of juridical protection. The tour will cover 25 cities, stopping in major universities, high schools, and neighborhoods with low schooling and employment rates. In each stage, training events and discussions will be accompanied by social media coverage and interviews.

Cities in north, central and south Italy.

The main challenge addressed is the low engagement and participation of citizens in social and public life, mainly due to a scarce awareness of the population about the protection and promotion of fundamental rights within the legal system. Regarding vulnerable categories, the challenge addressed pertains to reducing their lack of access to the justice system and the needed information to understand their rights. Finally, the project aims at reducing the unbalanced repartition of powers and entitlements of the vulnerable groups of the society through legal and non-political training and information events on civil liberties and their protection tools.

Key target groups will be: high school and university students aged between 17 and 30 years old; workers aged between 17 and 45 years, with a special focus on temporary and under-protected workers (e.g. para-subordinated workers, young freelance workers, undeclared workers); and non-workers aged between 17 and 45 years old belonging to ethnic, religious and gender minorities.
The objective is to reach 400 people for each city included in the rights’ tour, for a total of 10.000 individuals to be directly reached. Furthermore, the project aims to indirectly reach a conspicuous amount of citizens through the association’s social media channels, where the activities and the outcomes of the bus tour will be constantly reported and promoted.

Firstly, preliminary and logistic issues will be managed, such as: selection of the young jurists in charge of the direct implementation of the activities; procurement processes for the bus rental and accommodation in each city; liaison and networking with the actors involved in the intervention at local level. Then, beneficiaries’ identification will be carried out for each stop of the tour. The target groups to be actively involved will be identified in close collaboration with all local realities involved. Alongside this step, law experts from StraLi will define content and methodologies for the training and discussion events. Once the tour starts, the meetings with the target groups will have a double nature: the first moment will be related to the training provided by our legal experts, while the second part will be of dialogue and open discussion. A social media campaign will be planned and organized. Each stage will be documented and promoted on our social channels, to reach even those who will not be able to benefit directly from the activities. Throughout the project course, an ongoing evaluation will be done on participation and response of both direct and indirect beneficiaries. At the end of the tour, StraLi will provide on its channels the summary of the tour, including results achieved and difficulties faced.

At the end of the project, four main results are expected. Firstly, it will strengthen the knowledge regarding the Italian legal system, its juridical functions, and tools for safeguarding fundamental human rights. Secondly, an enhanced understanding of such issues will be reached through a diversified approach consisting of presentation and discussion of real case law and personal experiences, alongside theoretical background explanation. Thirdly, awareness about civil liberties and safeguard tools will be increased. Fourthly, trust in public institutions and the national judicial system will be raised among the target group.

The project, through highly effective training activities focused on fundamental rights and civic freedoms, aims to strengthen trust in institutions and the judicial system. Through this action, the project aims to increase active citizenship, which in Italy is waning precisely because of a lack of confidence in institutions. Indeed, for each tour stop, knowledge about institutions will be provided, in conjunction with the explanation of the legal tools available to protect our fundamental rights. Besides, a pivotal role will be played by moments of debate and active discussion scheduled at the end of the educational phase, which are designed to help target groups to start their participation in society.

Our team will be composed of Benedetta Perego, criminal lawyer and Ph.D. in criminal procedural law, Nicolò Bussolati, criminal lawyer, Elisa Bertolino, career counselor, Federica Genovesi, criminal lawyer, and Elena Esposito, lawyer specialized in criminal law and human rights. Each one of us is directly involved in the Italian judicial system and, therefore, our team can effectively raise awareness about the instruments of protection and active participation, but the team also knows the criticalities of the Italian situation related to them. Lastly, our members share a widespread interest in the protection and recognition of fundamental human rights, the main reason why StraLi was born three years ago.

Personnel costs 6000 EUR; Travel and accommodation costs 5000 EUR; Renting costs (bus) 15000 EUR; Public relations costs 1500 EUR; Social media campaign 3500 EUR; Awareness materials 2000 EUR; Indirect costs 2000 EUR.

We sincerely would like to know how we can improve, especially regarding the design of our idea. Indeed, we put our best intentions into increasing civic participation, but we would like our intentions to be worded clearly and directly.