In Pesaro, Capital of Italian Culture 2024, "making young people engines of change".

The Pesaro Capital of Culture 2024 program is enriched with a call to the young generations to express their idea of ​​the future.

By the end of the year, the association WAYouth ETS with the support of the Foundation Wanda Di Ferdinando ETS and the patronage of Pesaro 2024, will involve more than 200 high school students from all over Italy in five events dedicated to them: five stages designed as 3-day non-stop educational marathons that will lead young people to plan ideas innovative starting from the key words art, nature and technology.

WAYouth is a non-profit made up of more than 60 young people under 25 from all over the country.

It promotes innovation within the school world through the design of educational workshops for male and female students, according to the peer-mentoring model.

Born in 2017 within the Ministry of Education, over the years WAYouth managed to intercept more than 12.000 young people with the aim of engaging and connecting new generations towards the expression of their vision of society and the future. “Let's make young people engines of change” is the group's motto.

The educational marathons developed by WAYouth for the Capital of Culture, in the settings of Palazzo Gradari and Palazzo Mazzolari, are part of the philanthropic commitment of the Wanda Di Ferdinando ETS Foundation, which has been operating since 2003 supporting initiatives of humanitarian interest such as assistance, rescue, protection of human beings, with particular reference to children.

During the press conference on the project, held in the Sala Rossa of the Municipality of Pesaro, Daniele Vimini, deputy mayor and councilor for Beauty of the Municipality of Pesaro, and Silvano Straccini, general director of Pesaro 2024, were also present.

 “We are happy with the general development of this project which is fully within the scope and vision of Pesaro 2024. During these events young people are called to discuss and interact to develop new ideas, thanks also to peer-mentoring, the cornerstone of the WAYouth laboratories . What we expect from this path is an asset for Pesaro and its future" Vimini's words.

Straccini adds: “WAYouth embraces the themes of Pesaro Capital of Culture 2024 and is oriented towards developing projects for the creation of workshops focused on involving young people, reflecting on topics relating to culture and environmental and technological issues. The ideas and projects born during these workshops can be of great inspiration for the future of this city and the young people themselves, beneficiaries of WAYouth's educational initiatives, will be able to be the creators of more or less large projects that will be carried out between 2024 and 2025”.

The president of the Foundation, Federica Maria Panicali, said: “We confidently support the path that WAYouth proposes and which promotes youth awareness aimed at impacting the cities we live in. We thank the management of Pesaro 2024 and the Municipality of Pesaro for the architecture of this synergy. It is about investing, together, in a medium-term process that is intertwined, broadening the perspective, with an urgent question of intergenerational justice. There DFondazione Wanda Di Ferdinando ETS, dealing mostly with minors, considers the issue a priority; for this reason, at a national level, it is among the signatories of the Declaration of commitment of foundations and philanthropic bodies for intergenerational dialogue promoted by the Assifero network. As in all our actions, in the journey with WAYouth there is a local step and a broader step aimed at the possible".

The dates to mark on the calendar are 8-10 May, 16-18 October, 11-13 December.

Each stage will start from the territorial dimension of the city of Pesaro and subsequently move towards large, wide-ranging themes, culminating in the last event in December which will have a national scope.

Sean LoPrinzi, president of WAYouth, comments: “WAYouth is the lens through which young people can learn to look at the past, present and future. We believe it is extremely important that the new generations observe reality with a critical eye, expressing active citizenship. Although our activity is itinerant on a national scale, it is strongly linked to the development of the territories: getting students used to connecting their towns, provinces and cities with the rest of the world is the tool through which we pursue our vision , attempting to unleash a virtuous chain reaction to contaminate the entire national school system".

“Six years have passed since 2018, the year in which I joined WAYouth, the year in which I jumped onto the first "launching pad" of my life journey. WAYouth was able to enhance my potential, providing me with the tools and opportunities necessary to grow. From public speaking to dialogue with institutions, from the coordination of one hundred students to knowing how to be happy with the people around me: in many ways this reality has put me to the test. WAYouth is not simply an association, it is the fundamental experience for every seventeen-year-old who still does not know what her place in the world is and will be, but chooses to create it for herself, " adds Lorenzo Ghettini, class of 2001 and WAYouth alumnus.