An intense day of discussion, ideas and planning animated the classrooms of the Library, where administration, experts, entrepreneurs, associations and citizens met to imagine and co-create new opportunities for work, self-employment and social inclusion dedicated in particular to young NEETs and women. The conference, promoted within the PNRR – M1C3 – Investment 2.1 “Local Project for the Regeneration of the Village of Santa Lucia del Mela” (CUP: C67B22000060006) was organized by the company C-Eve srl, and alternated vision, tools and laboratories, transforming the theme of the regeneration of the Sacred Village into an open construction site of concrete ideas for the territory.
Opening the conference with institutional greetings from the municipal administration was the Mayor of Santa Lucia del Mela, Matteo Sciotto, who underlined the social value of regeneration: “We have had – said Sciotto – a growth in this incredible town which has a thousand-year-old beauty and history, then in recent years we have received important funding, the most important one for the historic villages from the Ministry of Culture – We were among the first in Sicily and in Italy. We obtained one million six hundred thousand euros and the most important thing is that several local businesses have been financed and this has enabled economic, employment and social growth in this area. With the PNRR we are building a village that includes, innovates and creates real opportunities for those who are currently on the margins of the job market. Young people and women are at the heart of this path.”
In the first part of the conference dedicatedicated to “The Vision: Policies and Opportunities, in the session on the role of women in urban and social regeneration” human capital was placed at the center as a driver of development. Maria Pagano and Maria Isaia, respectively President and member of the Women’s Council, reiterated: “It was important to valorise women and young people, considered more fragile categories” and with this financing, women’s and youth businesses were started which will be the lever for growth and innovation of the territory. “The driving factor is that of gender equality as a driving factor for economic growth” – added Maria Lorena and Daniela Totaro, experts in subsidized finance for businesses and start-ups with over thirty years of experience. “I there are two rewarding factors for the success of a business: vision and courage, the financial tools for starting a business are many and in over 30 years we have seen a significant growth rate of female businesses and start-ups. – The interventions on experiential marketing, digital craftsmanship, cultural tourism in the villages and policies for local entrepreneurship coordinated by Giovanni Mangano are then illustrated. Particular attention was paid to the contribution of Daniela Minuti, an international entrepreneur in the advertising and creative sector, expert in digital marketing, branding and social media, who highlighted: “AI can be a great equalizer if made accessible: it reduces information asymmetries, facilitates access to tools and accelerates creative processes. For entrepreneurs and those who do business in the South it means more competitiveness, fewer entry barriers and new local value chains. THE’implementation in his daily life can help overcome geographical and physical limitations for those in difficult places such as southern Italy conquered by AI.
Followed by the speech by Linda Schipani, environmental engineer and creative recycling artist, who showed how art, sustainability and culture can become regeneration assets, with cases of creative reuse capable of generating community, conscious tourism and new circular micro-economies.
In the afternoon the spaces were activated: from ideas to prototypes. The first workshop we put ideas into practice (transformed the energy of the morning into concrete planning with two parallel micro-laboratories: During the first workshop “From the idea to the Business Plan” curated by Giovanni Mangano: the participants worked on objectives, value proposition, customer segments and first hypotheses of Business Model Canvas for self-employment and micro-enterprise initiatives. In the other creative recycling workshop there was the participation of the students of the “Leonardo da Vinci” Institute of Milazzo coordinated by Prof Antonio Patti. In the laboratory curated by Linda Schipani, the students of the Graphics and Communication major actively participated. “During the activities – said Schipani – we analyzed together the resources of the village and objects destined to become waste. They are creative kids and are used to working through design and communication. It was an interesting moment of discussion and I’m sure we’ll come up with ideas for new creative projects. We experimented with artistic recycling techniques and acquired practical skills that combine creativity, sustainability and micro-entrepreneurship.”