From the ‘City of Love’ to the ‘Sensitive City’. Through the project we propose Verona to become a “Skin-City”, considering the skin as a connective tissue is a metaphor of social fabric, empathy, contacts and exchanges. By involving youths “in the game” we would put in-touch the whole community with experiences of active citizenship, we aim to strengthen city cohesion, boost creativity and regenerate those areas usually characterized by degraded environment, passivity, inertia and conflicts.

City of Verona, northeast Italy

Verona is a double-face city. On one side, it’s a beautiful and romantic city, its symbols are the famous Juliet’s Balcony and the giant red heart in front of the Arena. On the other side there is the city of its citizens, sometimes an invisible Verona, characterized by inattentiveness towards some areas of the city, which are turning in civic deserts. In these spots, degradation and extremisms are thriving, making room for a “new normality”, marked by rarefied human relations, weak solidarity and episodes of social conflicts.
Through concrete actions we aim to increase sense of belonging, self-awareness and civic education in those areas where youths are more resistant in participating in community life and the intolerance sentiment against the weakest could easily increase.

We are targeting children, teens and youngsters living in the "sensitive" places of the skin of the city. In these months they “disappeared” from parks, green areas and play areas and they are those who are suffering the most from the social distancing.
The target group includes all young voices, also the silent ones: young people who are never consulted, those who showed interest in being active citizens, and those who flee from the community. The activities will be addressed to the youngsters, but will indirectly engage also families, elderly people, key actors and natural caregivers (e.g. football team coaches, estheticians, teachers, bartenders, kebab retailers, Scout leaders) who are living in these sensitive places, promoting a trans-generational collaboration (baby boomers, gen X).

SkinINthegame is willing to directly work with citizens-in-the-contests, discovering inner talents and skills and incentivizing a circular learning model.
Through a systemic approach our core-target will be engaged via institutions, families and informal networks, also activated by k-leaders.
Co-designed activities will enhance our range of proposals (planning for real, installations, video, podcasting, photovoice, urban experimentation, European citizenship & civic lab) while ongoing follow-ups, focus groups and on-field observations of the fingerprints would let us collect feedback from the k-groups and the urban scenery.
We’ll share our competences also through train-the-trainers activities, peer mentoring, widespread school, learning by doing methodology and a storytelling approach.

We imagine to reach some evidence connected with a ‘skin-city’ imprinting. That means a city is more willing in welcoming and listening to different points of view, filling the gap and in tapping into renewed creativity.
We expecting to achieve the following results:
a wider segment of citizens involved in processes of democratic participation
a widespread engagement in exploring a new city identity
a reinforced network of multidisciplinary local organizations active on the territory
a significant number of spontaneous and self-managed activities
a renewed storytelling about spaces, people, feelings
a significant level of participation at the workshops
smart best practices for the next future
a significant number of mapped and touched places

The project is expecting to foster active citizenship by creating opportunities and spaces open to a genuine debate on the issues of sustainable future and the improvement of the individual well-being inside the community. The project aim to:
● increase citizens’ awareness on the importance of developing relationships with people living in the same context, by observing and listening also those who have different perspectives
raising youths’ awareness on the importance of the complementary relationship between the individual dimension and the collective dimension - the common good - that is tapped into a collective responsibility
● strengthen community empowerment and in decision-making processes in the local community
● co-mapping and exploring the services and places of 'civic life'

The Skin would represent the social fabric of Verona, composed of different cells: youths, citizens… Mapping its moles and engaging the youths would lead the community to discover a new civic identity, to explore a new idea of participation, using the game. Our mission leads us to combine multidisciplinary competences and experiences to trigger virtuous processes and paths in the community, and to regenerate public spaces either from an urban and a social point of view, as to create a space for new opportunities, dialogue and active democratic participation. We truly believe that a bottom-up transformation, starting from youngsters' activation, can create solid bridges of hope and generate a broad collective welfare for the whole community and for a better future.

The costs of the project described in summary form that we expect are (macrovoices - EURO):
personnel cost 20.000
network management and coordination cost 5.000
external expert cost 2.000
communication and graphics 11.500
workshop materials and prints 7.700
other costs 3.800.

Welcome to every kind of feedback!
We are glad to share our project within the Civic Europe Challenge and we wish to be the inspiration for other projects and to contribute to enrich the sense of civic and democratic belonging within the European Community.
Have a great chance!