Youth ACT Italy Group
YOUTH ACT - ITALY
At EDIW, we value diversity. We pride ourselves of having members from 4 continents: Africa, America, Asia and Europe.
We are now present in four Italian cities: Rome, Rossano, Turin and Milan. Currently, EDIW Italy is working with Insieme, an Italian NGO based in Rossano with representatives also in Rome.
Ediw Italia is multicultural group of between 18 and 35 years old. The majority are second generation young migrants, who were born and raised in Italy but have foreign origins.
The group started in April (2014) thanks to the cooperation between the Philippine Embassy in Rome, the Associazione Stranieri Lavoratori in Italia (ASLI) and the Education for an Interdependent World (Ediw) with a project proposal called “Filipino Gaining Ground’ (GG) ‘ with the mission of helping the newly- arrived young Filipinos to be integrated in the italian society. One of its first projects was to write a non-published guide for newly arrived young Filipino immigrants. This is to show them the sites and possibilities, and teach them common phrases to get around Rome.
As EDIW youth in Rome, it participated in EDIW’s first youth Erasmus capacity building project Roots and Wings under a grant of the European Commission – In this project, GG met other youth participants who shared the same vision and dreams as they had . From being only an Italo – Filipino second generation youth group, it expanded to include others … from Pakistan, Nigeria, Italy and later incorporated other young people from Ecuador and Peru , the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who for the most part have been faithful to now called EDIW Italy. From the beginning the group participated in a systematic training on leadership facilitated by the EDIW team in Rome.
EDIW has significant experience in non-formal learning with young people. Many of our projects deal with issues related to motivation and commitment to society. We believe that boosting the motivation and confidence in the members of the group itself can also lead changes outside the group.
We have participated and promoted a number of projects that developed skills in a number of areas in order to better fulfill our jobs/studies and engage in new areas of interest and be able to exit our comfort zone.
- In 2014, a number of youth-led organizations and universities with Ediw developed and participated in two projects: One Dare + on skills development in a non-formal learning (coordinated by the University of Granada). The second project was integration without borders coordinated by the University of Olomouc on competences for integration of minorities.
- In 2015, we participated in a youth capacity building project funded by the EU Roots and Wings, a project (coordinated by EDIW) for learning the particularly relevant mathematics to avoid school dropout. It was exactly during this project that EDIW Italy started to expand.
- In 2017 we participated in Youth for Dialogue a global initiative in the field of dialogue between different cultures.
- In 2019 we participated (and still participating) in Y-Act, an European funded project which deals with competences on democratic values and civic participation among young people from EU and America. While learning to write projects , the group is also looking into possibilities of working with marginalized young people in Italy . They have participated in different mobility experiences in Madrid, Rome and Brussels.
In all of these projects, motivation and social leadership are at the center. EDIW Italy partipated in supporting with other youth members of Y4D in writing an oral statement in support of the UN Global Compact for a Regular and Safe Migration together with other EDIWs youth. We also participated to develop the international Academy of Social Leadership inspired by Pedro Poveda recognised by Unesco as a “Humanist and a Educator”.
The main objectives of the group are: to be aware of the realities and needs of society and search for appropriate means and training to be part of the solution. Its members share common cultural and social interests, commitment to study and profession and a real desire to make a difference as young people in the society they move in.
We work towards developing ourselves as responsible citizens, active in the building of common good, the promotion of justice and peace and in making better the living conditions for people suffering from the consequences of marginalization.
We want to become agents of social transformation in the pursuit of a better future for all; to weave networks of fraternity in the face of the diversity to respect creation, to live in hope, in this fragile and changing society.
At the present, is now part of a bigger group called Youth’s Act . We want the legacy of our work to be passed on to the next generation of members and serve as an inspiration. In the last seven years of hard work, each one contributes and contributed in sharing their dreams and making them come true making a difference in our society, we want to highlight to of our activities.
A guide for Filipino young immigrants, a photo exhibition/contest event in Rome at the Villino Ximenes. The theme was “Dreams of the Immigrant Youth”. And whole night prayer for the peace among others.
Youth Act - Italy - Daryl Carrasco, Andrés Vaca Flores and Tahira Ambreen
We have been participating in EDIW projects since 2015 and over the years our group has transformed, we’ve grown intellectually and we’ve gained essential experience and skills due to our participation in EDIW projects. We are more informed about the world around us and are very proud to be part of such a group, which takes part in capacity building projects not only in Europe, but also in Asia and the Americas. In the Youth Act project, our group has gone through a strong skills gaining phase, from performing a needs analysis to participating in a youth training in Romania, project writing training in Brussels, and training disadvantaged youth in Rossano, Italy. Some group members also had the opportunity to travel to New
York to present our group’s work and also to Perú.
Due to the 2019 pandemic, the Youth-Act project was very different compared to the ones we took part in the past and initially we were worried and thought our group would not be able to perform its activities through such a difficult time. We also feared the distance created due to the pandemic would also drift us apart as a group. Yet, this was not the case and our group members, Daryl, Andres, Tahira, Allen, and Nicola managed to perform a needs analysis in the first two semesters of the project. As a group we felt strongly about the NEETs in Italy and decided to analyze the situation further. We continued to meet online for our meetings, discussions and group work.
Once the pandemic was slightly better, two new group members, Arianna and Abegail became part of our group. In 2021, Arianna, Daryl and Tahira had the amazing opportunity of traveling to Bucharest, Romania to take part in a youth training on Inclusion. During our week-long training, we gained deeper knowledge on concepts such as, Inclusion and Integration and learned how to organize activities to make a community more inclusive. Once back in Italy, we organized a virtual training activity to pass on what we had learnt – passing on our experience to the disadvantaged youth in Rossano was a very meaningful experience for all three of us.
In March 2022, we traveled as a group to Brussels on a week-long training course on Project writing, where we gained new skills and insight into project writing and met youth from five different countries in Europe.
Here, we were able to develop two original ideas in the areas of Digital and Green Europe.
Our group member Allen, went to New York in June 2022, together with 16 other people coming from all over the world. He had the opportunity to get a deeper understanding on a number of international issues: the refugee crisis, the war in Ukraine, the social and economic inequalities exacerbated by Covid-19, the involvement of the youth in modern democracies and climate change. Once in Italy, Allen shared his experience with the rest of us, highlighting the important role the United Nations and the Permanent missions to the UN are playing towards important international issues.
Lastly, Andres and Daryl, had the opportunity to travel to Peru in August 2022, they learned to be open minded, empathetic, and discovered the wonderful culture of Perù. They had a chance to visit local museums such as, Il Museo de la Memoria Historica, participated in seminars, but also volunteered as
Educators for children from various disadvantaged areas of Lima.
All the experiences above have helped us live through meaningful experiences, even in a difficult time as the 2019 Pandemic. We’ve learnt about the world we live in and we feel we have the tools to take action to make it a better place. We have grown stronger as a group and believe the future is very bright. We thank EDIW for always giving us the opportunity to grow, as individuals and inspiring us to take steps towards
improving our local communities.