UWP Editorial Staff

Italy – The 19^th edition of the meeting on ‘Otherness and peace culture’, promoted by the Ministry of Education’s Veneto Regional Office, the bNET association and the Rete Progetto Pace network with the contribution of the Veneto Region, will centre around the theme ‘Dare to Care: the role of young people during and after the pandemic’. The meeting has been organised in collaboration with the Youth for a United World.

The bNET association – which is the leading organisation of Rete Progetto Pace[1] and of the ‘Why fai il bullo 3.0’ project[2], funded by the Veneto Region in partnership with the Ministry of Education’s Veneto Regional Office – together with the Youth for a United World and the Visionary Days association, organises the 19^th edition of its Meeting on the theme ‘Dare to Care: the role of young people during and after the pandemic’, which will take place on Zoom from 8.30 am to 1.15 pm CET on Thursday, 25^th February 2021.

The morning will start with young people sharing some experiences of social engagement during the pandemic. This will be followed by a reflection on the challenges of the post-Covid-19 phase. There will be space to discuss the prospects for young people included in the Recovery Plan, giving participants the opportunity to contribute to the elaboration of proposals to be forwarded to local and international institutions. Finally, new paths for social action will be identified, both for the current phase and for the recovery phase, and an interesting proposal for academic research will be presented on the possibility of creating a ‘new school’ model that would effectively combine the online and classroom teaching methods.

The meeting’s panel of experts will include Luigino Bruni, Economics professor at the LUMSA University in Rome; Gianni Bianco, editor in chief of national news service TG3; and Silvia Cataldi, professor of Sociology at the Sapienza University in Rome. The Visionary Days association will present the Recovery Plan from the point of view of young people.

In the second half of the morning, students will split into groups and work on the three topics discussed, identifying their own priorities in relation to each topic and formulating at least three proposals for each topic.

At the end of the morning, thanks to Plesh technology, a summary of the suggested priorities and proposals will be drawn up, which will later be forwarded to local and international institutions.

Two projects for social action will also be launched: a solidarity twinning with the high school of Petrinija (Croatia), hit by an earthquake, and a campaign for collecting aid for the humanitarian emergency in Bosnia.

The registration form must be submitted by 1 pm CET on 20^th February via the link:

https://forms.gle/jRh1FJMtgqRE5qQq8

[1] Rete Progetto Pace is an international network of schools, institutions and organisations cooperating to promote a culture of peace. It gathers members of civil society who are actively engaged in peace education, education to human rights and to active citizenship, especially favouring the involvement of young people.

[2] The ‘Why fai il bullo?’ project offers teenagers training on how to help their peers confront the phenomenon of bullying and cyberbullying through action and prevention, moving from its root causes.