Introduction

Agenzia Nazionale Giovani, in collaboration with Ashoka Italia, promoted in 2021 the Gen C: Generation Changemaker call. Torino Social Impact is a partner of the initiative.

The project aims at fostering youth leadership by establishing a community of young people, aged 13 to 25, actors of change (changemakers), supported in this experience by Mentors aged between 25 and 35. The project is supported by a broad partnership of over 50 organisations.

In the second phase of GEN C (May 2022-July 2023) several initiatives will be implemented to promote youth empowerment through 5 pillars of work: engaging, capacity building, ecosystem building, policy-making and storytelling. Within these pillars, some specific initiatives will be carried out. Particularly in the first pillar of work, a new call for young changemakers has been opened and events dedicated to the youth network will be realised.

Objectives of the event

The event has multiple objectives. Specifically:

• Celebrating youth leadership;
• To award the 50 new young changemakers;
• To build an identity of young changemakers;
• To promote the exchange of ideas and projects between young people and partners;
• To guarantee visibility to the most innovative proposals;
• To offer a platform for cultural exchange on GEN C themes (ecological transition, digital transition, transition towards autonomy).

The target audience of the event

More than 100 young people will be involved. Specifically:

• Young changemakers who participated in the GEN C initiatives in phase 1 and the GEN C call phase 2;
• GEN C partners;
• ANG network representatives: EuroPeers, ANG InRadio;
• ANG Beneficiary Association representative.

The theme: DECISIONS

Sirene Kierkegaard: ‘Men are always at a crossroads […]’. 

It is hard to accept the idea that everything we do involves the exclusion of something else.  Start afresh. Even the simplest and most mundane actions like walking while balancing on the edge of a pavement on the way to work, trying to guess what a passer-by is thinking, giving coins to a beggar or smiling at someone, can change us, others and the world.

Even if we don’t notice anything, with every step we take something happens: we are able to INFLUENCE what is around us.

It takes COURAGE to change things. Making decisions forces us to confront Fear: the fear of making a mistake, of choosing a road that is too winding, of not being up to it.  By choosing the path with the fewest obstacles, however, we always prioritise the option with the fewest worries. In this way, our decisions are fixed a priori and we live not only an unfree life but also an uninspiring one.

Today’s volatile and rapidly changing world constantly presents us with new crossroads.  However, the path of change cannot be imposed, it is about one’s own being and one’s own life purpose. Choosing, taking one’s PASSIONS into account, allows one to be an active protagonist of one’s life and to find one’s FREEDOM.

What decisions have we had to make on our path to change? And how can we, as changemakers, make decisions that are fair and forward-looking, for the good of all?

Programme

9h00 – 09h30 – Arrival and registration/accreditation

09h00 – 10h00 – Welcome & Networking

10h00 – 10h30 – Plenary. Institutional greetings and presentation of the day

• Lucia Abbinante – Director General National Agency for Young People
• Federico Mento – Director Ashoka Italy
• Andrea Abodi – Minister for Sport and Youths (TBC)

10h30 – 11h15 – Plenary. Deep connection

In a session dedicated to connecting participants, we will explore the theme of “decisions” through participatory methodologies that will allow participants to discover each other, get to know each other and dialogue in small groups.

11h15 – 11h45 – Coffee break

11h45 – 12h30 – Enabling youth leadership
In dialogue with:

• Alessia De Iulis – International Association for Cooperation and Education in the World;
• Alessia Garofalo – EuroPeers;
• Amaya Vizmanos – Young Changemaker Ashoka Spain; – Ena Peeva – Ang InRadio Networking.

12h30 – 13h30 – Inspiring talks – Young people and adults generating change together

• Davide Mazzanti, Italian volleyball coach and head coach of the Italian women’s national team;
• Susanna Croci – Generation Changemaker;
• Massimo Vallati – Ashoka Fellow.

13h30 – 15h00 – Lunch

15h00 – 16h00 – Plenary. Award ceremony for young changemakers.

16h00 – 17h30 – Parallel sessions. Workshop

In these sessions, the young people will be given the opportunity to take part in panels where different speakers and panelists will guide the participants through specific topics.

The workshops will be led by selected young changemakers

17h30 – 18h00 – The floor is given to the Gen C Partners.

Conclusions