Youth participation, Milan

Comunita’ Nuova is a non-profit organization that has been working in Italy and abroad since 1973 to fight social inequality and exclusion and to promote the skills of young people through various projects. In 1997, together with the non-profit organization Amici di Edoardo Onlus, they founded the youth center Barrio’s.  The youth center, located in the Barona district, a neighborhood in the southwest of Milan with more than 150,000 inhabitants, has been struggling with problems such as crime, drug trafficking and problems with the integration of migrants. Over the years, the youth center has become a permanent fixture and a point of reference for many young people of the neighborhood (and beyond), as they can meet here, pursue their passions. Every year Barrio’s carries out more than 400 initiatives in which about 60,000 people participate, especially young people and children. Barrio’s has a pub, a cinema/theater, a rehearsal room and various spaces where art, culture and entertainment activities are organized. In addition, there are sports and music classes, school support activities in collaboration with local schools and families, Italian classes for people with migrant backgrounds and vocational training courses.

The project aims to enable children and young people from the Barona neighborhood to fully participate in society and to have access to all the necessary resources for social and cultural growth.

The target group of the project are children and adolescents from the Barona neighborhood in Milan. However, the families of the children also benefit from the measures, and thus the entire district.   

The project which also goes under the name “At School of Citizenship” improves the quality of life in the district of Barona as well as the life of the families there. It creates equal opportunities for young people at school and equal access to cultural and sporting activities that are also available to children/young people in other parts of Milan. With after-school care activities and summer camps, help alliance helps to overcome learning problems, thus facilitating access to the labor market. Theater, music studios and rugby offer the opportunity to have fun, socialize with peers, better express oneself and develop one’s talents. Through all the activities carried out by Comunita‘ Nuova on site, the beneficiaries actively participate in shaping the life of their neighborhood and feel part of a community. The girls and boys of the project become aware of their abilities and skills and take more confident and self-determined control of their future.  

Your donation effectively and holistically supports activities with young people in one of Milan’s deprived neighborhoods.