The Union of Municipalities has re-proposed the Youth Mountain Project to the regional call L14/08 earning third place in the ranking of the Emilia-Romagna Region, receiving a three-year funding of 150,990 euros against a project worth 221,000 euros.

This is the experimental project lasting 1 year implemented by the municipalities of the Union that brings together the activities and skills of different territorial services, and born during the pandemic to give a project response that would be current, coordinated and integrated to the needs and expectations of young people in the mountains, also through comparison with the various actors of the territory.
In July 2021, after careful reflection on the situation of young people in the area and especially in the context of the strong inconveniences related to the pandemic period, the administrators of the Union of Municipalities of the Reggio Apennines activated all the services (social, health, educational) to be close to the 11-35 age group.

The project aims to counteract the forms of youth discomfort exacerbated in that period, enhancing the spaces of aggregation, promoting the approach to the world of work and volunteering, developing activities related to youth languages.

The activities will be carried out with the collaboration of the Cooperativa Sociale Onlus Papa Giovanni XXIII of Reggio Emilia (winner of a special call) with a staff of professional educators. Other experts may be involved on the basis of the issues addressed during the three-year period and on the basis of the needs expressed by the young people met and involved. The responsibility for the activity is entrusted by the unified social-educational service of the Union to the Azienda Speciale Consortile Teatro Appennino, which has composed a mixed staff of referent operators for the Union experts in youth policies and referent operators of the Serdp Health Service of the Ausl.

The macro-objectives of the Youth Mountain Project are essentially two: to improve the relationship between young people and the community, providing boys and girls with the tools to be active and involved protagonists and promoting an inclusive territorial context; promote healthy lifestyles, increasing awareness related to the use of psychoactive substances and new technologies.

Several working groups will contribute to its realization: the JerryCan collective, a dynamic and open group of young people ready to seize the stimuli from the community, to give voice to girls and girls who want to create new opportunities and opportunities for comparison, deepening and testing; the Apennine Development Table, a group composed of young councilors and councilors of the seven municipalities of the Mountain Union of Municipalities of the Reggio Apennines who develop proposals and projects that can help enhance the territory, becoming in effect partners in the development of youth policies; the Prevention Table, a network coordinated by the Addiction Service (Serdp) with Prevention Places, the Social Prevention Cooperative (CPS) and the Papa Giovanni XXIII Cooperative in close connection with schools; the Youth Table formed by the representatives of all the territorial services aimed at young people with the aim of monitoring the situation of young people and updating the interventions addressed to them; the Community Table composed of local associations with the aim of offering analytical and operational support in focusing on the needs of young people and in the implementation of actions in their favor.

This table will start but already many subjects of the territory have joined the project: the high schools Cattaneo Dall’Aglio and Mandela, the Enaip, the National Park of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, the Parish of Castelnovo Monti, the Effetto Notte association, the cooperative 90 and the Twinning Committee of Castelnovo Monti.

For more information: tel. 0522 610276 Youth Policy Office; tel. 0522 617261 Serdp Sud Castelnovo Monti headquarters. To make contact with educators, tel. 327 1184484. Facebook page of the project: www.facebook.com/PMG.pmgiovani; Instagram profile progettomontagnagiovani.