For the Municipality of Soave and Sulle Orme Odv Association, the first part of the second phase of the YOAC project took place in recent months. It has been a phase full of participation and training.

Collaborating and sharing ideas between political administrations and young people is a pioneering element in doing politics today. The openness that municipalities must have is to think about the future in order to spread a common good already in the present, but with an eye to the future. This will make it possible to make a careful and perceptive policy, capable of anticipating the difficulties and needs that time places before us. Including young people in making politics, in actively participating in the choices of the territory means looking at the future in perspective, and this looking to the future is itself a political act.

Young people have much to say and are willing to learn, seeking out witnesses and situations that can help them understand social dynamics.

Fostering this exchange helps integration, but above all, it helps to mature the civic responsibility that democracy is based on.

Delegating seems to be a widespread attitude today, as if answers and solutions must necessarily come from an authority. The implementation of this second phase of the project showed how much more partial this perspective is. Moreover, the responsibility that young people have shown in addressing certain social issues has shown how much they have the desire to participate, to be present in the dynamics of the territory. Listening to their ideas, their opinions is a trump card for creating a territory that is aware, prepared and attentive to social and civil needs. Shared responsibility is the strongest political and educational act we can implement to spread and enhance our democracy.

Riccardo Soriolo, Mirco Menini
Municipality of Soave