To use the power of Social Art to activate and integrate different and self-segregated social groups, for them to become protagonists of processes of democratic participation.
To trigger a process involving training social workers, setting up and stage artistic projects involving the citizenship, spotting natural leaders and accompany them to become permanent interlocutors of local public administrations, also through a digital platform for civic participation.

Ex industrial suburbs in the area of Prato and Sesto Fiorentino (Tuscany) with low social cohesion.

In Italy Prato is the province with the highest percentage of Foreign Citizens (18,4%). It hosts the second biggest Chinese community (25754 people) and several clusters of Sinti and Rom. Prato has the largest number of ethnic groups: 116
In Sesto there is a high presence of migrants seeking asylum.
These communities are self-segregated and poorly integrated with the rest of the population. This strongly limits their possibilities of integration and access to opportunities. The social competition and conflict are increased by the economic crisis caused by the Covid19 pandemic. We want to empower and give a voice to the people who are even more severely penalised and excluded from the exercise of the fundamental rights that underpin democratic society: education, work, health, information

The direct beneficiaries are young people both from the ethnic groups (Rom and Sinti, Chinese, asylum seekers) and native Italian (university and high school students, NEETS, non-profit volunteers) who will go through 5 steps to develop new models of social cohesion and co-design new proposals.
As indirect beneficiaries:
-elderly people living in the areas, as civic mentors for the testimony and transmission of experiences of active citizenship;
-operators of social services, non-profit organizations, entrepreneurs, politicians and citizens who will attend the field actions, performances, events.
In total 200 participating in the activities
We’ll include the whole range of opinions through actions, performances, events and on the platform that will be co-designed by the beneficiaries

The beneficiaries are accompanied in building a relationship with the municipalities for shared bottom-up project planning. Social Art is the methodology: art as a training principle is integrated with entrepreneurial mindset training. The approach activates people and generates change.
5 STEPS-LABORATORIES in each municipality:
-THEATRICAL STORYTELLING to collect needs, build trust and share stories by performances
-CO-DESIGN to develop and fast prototype of concrete ideas and projects
-NETWORK to identify natural leaders, connectors, ambassadors, agents of initiative in the territories
-DIGITAL to exercise democracy through digital information and communication technologies
-POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY to build a delegation that becomes a permanent interlocutor of the Municipalities

Social Art will enhance the target groups' ability to speak, focus and give voice to their needs through exchange and building meaningful and supportive relationships. They will be the ambassadors of their communities in the decision making hubs.
The digital platform, co-built in the project, will continue to act as an aggregator and container of requests and as a tool for participation, visibility and communication, for the target groups and other organized groups of inhabitants of the territories.
The beneficiaries will be able to connect to the local community, transform needs into proposals, enhance the potential of the network built, activate in a stable and autonomous way processes of co-design with the institutions of the territory.

Through Social Art we will empower the beneficiary target groups providing them with tools and skills strengthening their self-efficacy and self-consciousness, favouring their integration and active citizenship, making them protagonists in the development of their community and strengthen their sense of belonging.
Civic entrepreneurship workshops (storytelling, co-design, digital skills for information and communication), will turn the needs and demands of the different marginal groups into concrete proposals, to be conveyed through a web platform co-designed and implemented by the beneficiaries and that will remain permanent. The guiding principle is the activation of people and their inclusion in decision-making processes that impact on local communities.

Vivaio per l'Intraprendenza has successfully experimented the re-activating potential of the Social Art approach in social and employment integration projects. It is currently working to create BLENDER, a place to promote inclusive and responsible growth, based on theatre as a training principle, initiative as a lever for autonomy and the network as a source of inspiration and regeneration. Our mission is to build new models of socio-educational intervention focused on accessibility to growth opportunities, development of skills and talents, active and responsible participation of all actors in the system. Social Art for Participation and Democracy is yet another challenge to takle

1 edition in Prato and 1 edition in Sesto Fiorentino
Personnel costs for training: € 30,000
Coordination and relationship with the services of the territories: € 3,000
Material expenses: € 1,500 €
Performance expenses: € 1,500
Travel and food expenses: € 500
Monitoring: € 1,000
Administration and reporting: € 1,000
Expenditure for digital equipment and co-platform implementation: € 9,000
Expenditure for communication, promotion, interception and dissemination of the project: € 2,500

It would be interesting for our team to receive suggestions and feedback on the use of specific tools for the facilitation of participatory processes through the use of information technology, to know successful models to be inspired by, adapting them and promoting their scalability.