Launch of "Venice Youth Action" at Fondazione di Venezia

Susanna Bosco - YouthBank International Associate for Italy visits Venice to celebrate the launch of the newest YouthBank in the Italian network. Read her impressions here:

On Monday 15th December, Fondazione Venezia hosted an event to present Venice Youth

Action’s first "call for ideas", which will be officially published in mid January.

The event started with the viewing of a brief, yet very powerful, introduction video on

Fondazione Venezia, followed by a few heartfelt words from the Direction of Administration

of the Foundation, who underlined the importance of the collaboration with Università Ca’

Foscari, Fondazione Università Ca’Foscari and Fondazione di Venezia.

After a quick word from Barbara Scrazzolo, Program Manager of the activities the young people took part at the university, the main event started and some of the Board Members (grant-makers) of Venice Youth Action

presented the "Call for Ideas" they put together.

The 18 young people met 2-3 days a week for just over 2 months and did extensive research

on the needs of the Metropolitan City of Venice, and they were able to get an exquisitely

clear picture of the area, especially considering its great complexity. They researched both

through various institutions and by talking to residents of the city, to know what people

actually felt was missing and/or could be improved. Their research highlighted 4 key areas of

interest, which constitute the categories of interest of the Call for action, these are:

1. Environment and community, which aims to prioritise projects dedicated to

environmental education, social innovation and encourage active participation in the

community

2. Tourism

3. Traditions and crafts

4. Enhancement of spaces

I believe these points capture the great sense of community you can so clearly see holding

these people together, they have a shared mission: nurturing Venice’s identity, they want to

protect the beautiful traditions and crafts typical of Venice, so that tourism can flourish in the

right way, with people seeing the city’s beautiful culture, and not just its buildings. Obviously

this goes along with protecting the very delicate environment they live in and making sure to

keep building towards an happy and active community, by living together through the spaces

and buildings they so love.

They then moved on to explaining the criteria for applying to the Call for ideas and how the

projects will be evaluated, which all align with YouthBank’s model perfectly.

After the event, despite how busy they were, I was able to speak to some of the Board

members, and I was pleased to witness how close they are as a group and the amazing

relationships they built with all the people involved, both in their training and with the project

as a whole. I saw some very motivated young people, who are enthusiastic about being able

to protect a city that you can clearly see they love dearly.

I truly believe that this project is off to a great start, and it will soon spread and generate

huge impacts all throughout the Metropolitan City of Venice.

For further information on this project you can check out this link: https://www.fondazionedivenezia.org/archivio-attivita/venice-youth-action/

Susanna Bosco

YouthBank International Associate for Italy