Terra Franca is a land confiscated from the mafia in Cruillas, a suburb of Palermo entrusted to HRYO in 2019 Since then, HRYO has been working on the redevelopment of the place and the engagement of the local community. The area challenges are considerable, and HRYO has been working for two years now on Terra Franca to make it available for young people and the Cruillas community. Meet me halfway aims at creating a meeting space for young people to promote local actions meeting community needs.

Cruillas, Palermo, Sicily, Italy

Considering Cruillas’ and, more specifically, young people's needs, the project aims to tackle youth marginalisation, fostering community development through youngsters. Indeed, the project will provide concrete opportunities in a safe space for youngsters to confront their peers and will raise awareness on socially relevant issues, stimulating youth engagement in society and active participation. The Meet Me Halfway project will engage youth in a positive spiral for change. Besides, it will help young people overcome mistrust towards outsiders and will inspire them in developing the will to become drivers of change within their communities.

This project will engage young people between 14 - 18 and between 19 - 24 years old. These age groups are sensitive and deeply affected by the current global health emergency. Indeed, considering the complex starting circumstances and emerging needs, young people in this age group need to meet and compare with peers, to learn and challenge themselves, and finally to re-evaluate their social role as a possible drive for concrete change. These aspects will increase their confidence and trust in others and will support them to overcome possible prejudices and mistrust barriers, promoting collaboration and a cooperative attitude.The direct beneficiaries will be 30 youngsters, 20 of which form Cruillas, while the final beneficiary will be the entire Cruillas community.

Phase one - Preparation
Project team preparation - First, HRYO will form the project team and prepare the project activities.
Local stakeholders and local actors involvement - In the first phase, the project team will involve the local stakeholders and actors in the project. Educational and non-educational stakeholder will be contacted to engage youth with the HRYO team for the activity week.
Specific needs assessment of Youth cultural interests - The assessment conducted by HRYO will serve to understand in detail the needs and the possible desires of young people to tailor the workshops and encounter youngsters desires.
Involvement of the specialised educators - Through ARCI Palermo professionals will be recruited for the workshops organisations.
Phase 2 - Implementation
Press Conference - The press conference will launch the Meet Me Halfway initiative and will involve civil society and institutions.
Workshops - Youngsters will be involved in a series of workshops where they will experiment with dialogue at several levels.
The final event - The final event will involve the entire Cruillas local community, local institutions and several organisations from Palermo.
Third Phase
Reporting and evaluation of the project.

The most important expected result is to have a group of young people from Cruillas able to propose and have their ideas for the improvement of the neighbourhood heard. In fact, they will be stimulated to think critically, not to be mistrustful of others and to become the main actors of a broad social change. It is expected that they will be able to give new life to a good confiscated from the Mafia, slowly becoming its custodians and making it a place of awareness in the fight against organized crime. An expected result that concerns the neighbourhood is an increased awareness of participation in the community as an instrument for change. Indeed, it expected an increased involvement in local and community engagement.

At the end of the project youth from Cruillas will become a close-knit group, part of civil society and volunteers of HRYO. The idea is to accompany this group by gradually expanding it with other young people from the neighbourhood so that they can think about the future of Terra Franca and plan activities aimed at local community inclusion and involvement. These youth will be able to expose their ideas about the neighbourhood and to improve it from real needs. In addition, they will be able to organize activities for children and re-evaluate the common spaces as places to meet and discuss. Young people, thanks to this intervention will also be able to go beyond their mental boundaries and grow as men and women of legality, able to change the world with their concrete actions.

HARYO has been the custodian of Terra Franca since 2019 when it was assigned the confiscated property. Since then, HRYO has been there to redevelop the place and began exploring Cruillas as a place for possible projects. Given the lack of a social network, HRYO is committed to building a path to include the Cruillas community in its redevelopment of the asset, as the ultimate goal is to return the place to the local community. As HRYO specializes in non-formal education for youth and adults involving especially young people was a choice of investment in the future. In fact, who better than young people can bring real change? Hence the idea of this project, which is the beginning of this journey for the youth of Cruillas to change their neighbourhood and realise their aspirations.

- Artistic workshop's educators 7.000 €
- Educators 7.000 €
- Project management and technical support 3.000€
- Materials for workshops 2000€
- Food during rehearsal and final event 2000€
- Final event stage/equipment 2000€
- Administration costs 2.000 €
- Press Office 5.000 €
- Final Documentary 1.000
- Communication 3.000
- Project' Gadget 1.000

Feedback on our idea is welcome. For those interested, we are open to partnerships and collaboration!