The project Bridge is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Servicio Espanol para la Internacionalizacion de la Educacion (SEPIE). Neither the European Union nor the National Agency SEPIE can be held responsible for them. -- Number: 2025-1-ES01-KA220-HED-000359236 --

The BRIDGE Digital Museum brings together good practices, educational proposals and images that inspire reflection and action

Social Challenges Analyse social challenges to intercultural dialogue, social inclusion and democratic cohesion Good Practices Discover experiences that generate social impact Educational Space Access teaching guides, activities and materials for the classroom Documentary Photography Explore the social challenges in a visual, reflective and educational way

LEVEL 1. Base Camp – Community Educational Outposts

BRIDGE Main Challenge: A.6. Deficits in democratic participation, representation and inclusive governance

What problem does it address?

In four deprived Italian cities (Palermo, Naples, Rome, Catanzaro), vulnerable families, adolescents and communities are structurally excluded from decisions shaping their own educational services: schools lack co-design mechanisms with families, Third Sector organisations lack formal partnership tools, and local governance rarely involves civil society in planning.

What does it propose?

Base Camp builds comunità educanti (community-of-educators) governance structures in which adolescents, families, schools, Third Sector organisations and local institutions co-design and co-own educational provision, combining personalised study support, cultural animation, digital citizenship education and formal community co-design.

Why is it an inspiring practice?
  • • Turns families and adolescents from passive recipients into co-designers of the educational services they use.
  • • Formalises governance through 43 community networks and 25 signed conventions, not just informal goodwill.
  • • Runs a public travelling festival (EduFest) that makes educational inclusion a civic, community-wide event.
  • • Measures social return on investment (SROI 2.85:1) to make a funder-facing economic case for participation.
  • • Names and specifically tracks a documented gap — low paternal participation — rather than reporting only aggregate family engagement.
Resources you'll find
  • • Impact Evaluation Final Report (Fondazione Vito Fazio-Allmayer, May 2025)
  • • Base Camp EduFest proceedings (2024, Palermo, Naples, Rome, Catanzaro)
  • • Project website: https://percorsiconibambini.it/basecamp/.
Featured results
43
New community networks activated across 4 cities
25
Formal conventions/co-design protocols signed
4,187
Adolescents in civic/cultural/digital engagement activities (+189% vs. target)
659
Families engaged as co-design participants
105
Schools integrated into governance networks
2.85:1
SROI ratio (€4,109,402 net social value / €1,440,000 investment)
What can visitors learn?
• How to formalise family-school co-design through individualised, jointly agreed study plans.
• How to build permanent multi-actor governance structures (community networks, conventions, a Steering Committee).
• How ludic assessment tools can measure adolescent agency and cooperative capacity directly.
• How to calculate and use a Social Return on Investment (SROI) figure to advocate for participatory models.
• How intersectional needs (BES/DSA, foreign origin, low income) can be addressed through one shared governance architecture rather than separate tracks.

LEVEL 2. EXPLORE BEST PRACTICE

Introduction

Base Camp (Feb 2022–Feb 2025, four Italian cities) built comunità educanti governance structures engaging 659 families, 614 educators, 105 schools and 4,187 adolescents. It produced 43 community networks and 25 co-design agreements, repositioning families and communities from passive recipients to co-designers of educational services, with an SROI of 2.85:1.

  • Coordinating organisation: Impresa Sociale Con i Bambini (Italy)
  • Participating countries: Italy (IT)
  • Duration: 2022-2025
  • BRIDGE Main Challenge: A.6. Deficits in democratic participation, representation and inclusive governance
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • SDG 4: Quality Education
  • SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
  • SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
  • SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Secondary Challenges
  • A.2. Gap between regulatory frameworks, institutional discourses and actual inclusion practices
  • A.3. Educational gaps throughout educational trajectories, including higher education

The Challenge

What social issue does it address?

Vulnerable families, adolescents and communities in deprived Italian urban areas are structurally excluded from the governance of the educational services that most affect them: schools lack co-design mechanisms with families, Third Sector organisations lack formal partnership tools, and the most disadvantaged households have the least institutional capacity to shape provision.

Why is it important?

Where the families who most need educational services have the least power to shape them, educational poverty and democratic deficit reinforce each other, undermining both the effectiveness and the legitimacy of local educational provision.

How does it contribute to the BRIDGE Challenge?

Base Camp builds permanent multi-actor governance structures — community networks, formal conventions, a Steering Committee — that make adolescents, families, schools and Third Sector organisations co-designers of educational services, directly targeting the participation deficit.

How does it work?

Across four actions — personalised study support, cultural animation, digital citizenship education and community co-design — students, families, educators and institutions jointly plan and evaluate educational provision, formalised through community pacts and a permanent Steering Committee (Cabina di Regia).

What might inspire you?
Ideas for adaptation
  1. Give the model a name: comunità educante, not just a service.
  2. Co-design each student's study plan with family and teacher together.
  3. Run a travelling festival to make inclusion a public, civic event.
  4. Sign formal conventions so governance survives the funding cycle.
  5. Use ludic tools like Mr. Maslow to assess adolescent agency directly.
  6. Set up a Steering Committee where all actors co-evaluate together.
  7. Track engaging fathers as a specific, named participation challenge.
  8. Measure social return on investment to make the case to funders.
  9. Scale from three cities to four while exceeding every target.
  10. Treat families as co-designers, not recipients, of school services.
Resources created

Base Camp project website

Interactive digital resource

Official website of Base Camp – Territorial Educational Outposts: news, events and EduFest across the four Italian educational sites

Teaching staff, Policy Makers, General Public

percorsiconibambini.it/basecamp