Futurama: to project the future of the territory in between digitalisation and community
The Futurama project, selected by Con i Bambini within the Fund for the Fight Against Child Educational Poverty and co-funded by Fondazione Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, continues its journey by engaging students from schools in Erice and Palma di Montechiaro in an active learning experience that combines civic reflection, participatory design, and digital tools.
Within the project, two parallel pathways are being developed, coordinated by the Department of Computer Science of the University of Turin together with the Community Foundation of Agrigento and Trapani: First Life and Commonshood. These initiatives guide students in exploring their local area and developing concrete proposals to improve the quality of life in their communities.
While First Life focuses primarily on reading the territory and civic design, Commonshood introduces students to collaborative economies and cooperation. Both pathways use digital tools that support new forms of participation and exchange. In both cases, the goal is the same: to help young people feel like active members of their community, transforming needs, ideas, and passions into concrete proposals.
First Life: reading the territory to imagine the future
The First Life pathway began with a phase of exploration and reflection on young people’s needs and the places they inhabit daily. Through group activities, discussions, and participatory workshops, students explored themes such as the need for social interaction, self-expression, and spaces that facilitate meeting and leisure time.
This work led to the creation of a mapping of meaningful places in the area using the First Life platform. Students identified and described spaces that are part of their daily lives—places for gathering, socializing, or learning—adding them to the digital map (First Life Edu) along with descriptions and photographs.
A particularly meaningful phase was the field visit, during which students carried out street photography activities along an itinerary they had designed themselves. This experience allowed them to observe the city more carefully, collecting images, stories, and impressions of the places visited.
In Trapani, one of the most interesting locations identified was the Cloister of San Domenico, a space that in recent years has become a reference point for cultural and youth activities and that students recognized as a potential site for future initiatives. In Palma di Montechiaro, themes emerged such as unequal opportunities for social gathering and the availability of spaces dedicated to women and men, leading to reflections on gender discrimination.
Based on these experiences, students began transforming needs and observations into initial project ideas: cultural activities, digital initiatives, opportunities for social interaction, and artistic and creative projects aimed at making urban spaces more vibrant and accessible to young people.
Interviewing cultural professionals
As part of the First Life pathway, students also had the opportunity to engage with professionals in the cultural sector. A particularly significant moment was the meeting with Paola Galuffo, cultural planner and City Councilor of Mazara del Vallo, who shared her professional experience and answered students’ questions.
The meeting was preceded by a workshop on journalism and interview design, during which students prepared questions and structured the session. The interview provided insight into what it means to design cultural projects, how ideas are developed, and what skills are needed to bring them to life.
Afterwards, students presented some of their own project ideas, receiving feedback, suggestions, and inspiration to further refine them. This direct interaction with a professional represented an important opportunity for many students to better understand careers in the cultural and creative sectors.
Students’ projects
The work carried out in different classes has led to a variety of proposals, all rooted in students’ needs and interests.
In Palma di Montechiaro, for example, one project developed within First Life involves creating a school podcast focused on gender discrimination. This is particularly noteworthy as it introduces, for the first time in the First Life pathway, a project strongly linked to the digital dimension: an audio format designed to amplify students’ voices, address social issues, and foster dialogue within the school community.
Other ideas are also emerging around social interaction and sharing (themed exploratory walks, escape rooms, gaming spaces for women), while in Trapani several groups are working on activities that could take place in the Cloister of San Domenico, envisioned as a hub for youth-led initiatives such as dance classes or open-air cinema.
Commonshood: collaborative economies and new forms of participation
Alongside First Life, fourth-year students are participating in the Commonshood lab, which focuses on collaborative economies, exchange systems, and digital tools that can foster new forms of cooperation.
During the sessions, topics such as tokens, blockchain, time banks, and tokenized economies were explored, translating complex concepts into concrete examples relevant to students’ everyday lives. Through group activities and discussions, students reflected on how these tools can strengthen communities and enhance individual contributions.
This pathway is also strongly oriented toward participatory design. In Erice and Palma di Montechiaro, students are developing concrete proposals that apply the principles of collaborative economies to create community-oriented initiatives.
In Palma di Montechiaro, ideas include a gaming space designed as a safe place for girls (notably a recurring theme across different classes) and initiatives to care for and enhance school spaces. In Erice, students are working on activities aimed at engaging local youth, such as weekly gatherings at the Cloister of San Domenico focused on games and video games, or a music festival where students actively contribute to organization and receive school credit hours (PCTO) in return.
Throughout the process, students experiment with digital and creative tools, such as AI-generated images used to create posters and visual materials for their projects, and the Commonshood app, which allows them to create community tokens, exchange objects through a “library of things,” and experiment with NFT creation.
An ongoing journey
The Futurama project is still underway, but the activities carried out so far clearly highlight the value of an approach that places young people at the center as active agents of change.
Through First Life and Commonshood, students are learning to observe their territory with new perspectives, collaborate in groups, transform ideas into projects, and engage with professionals and digital tools.
The next phases will focus on finalizing the projects and presenting them publicly at a final event bringing together students from both cities. This will be a moment of exchange and dialogue, as well as an opportunity to showcase how young people’s ideas can contribute to imagining new possibilities for their communities.
The Futurama project was selected by Con i Bambini within the Fund for the Fight Against Child Educational Poverty and co-funded by Fondazione Cassa Depositi e Prestiti. The Fund was established through an agreement between banking foundations represented by Acri, the National Third Sector Forum, and the Government. It supports interventions aimed at removing economic, social, and cultural barriers that prevent minors from fully accessing educational opportunities. To implement the Fund’s programs, the social enterprise Con i Bambini—a non-profit organization wholly owned by Fondazione CON IL SUD—was established in June 2016.