“Granaio Culturale” (Cultural Granary) is a project aimed at combating school dropout and educational disengagement by promoting the psycho-physical wellbeing and educational growth of young people aged 10 to 17, through the creation of a community space where youths can come together to develop educational, cultural, and recreational skills and knowledge on their own. The project includes school and career guidance services as well as vocational training. Potential beneficiaries include unaccompanied foreign minors (MSNA), minors involved in deviant behavior, abused minors, children of incarcerated parents, and minors with disabilities. The space is located in the historic center of the city of Vittoria, inside a municipally-owned building known as “I Magazzini del Conte” (The Count’s Warehouses), which historically housed the storage rooms for the count’s grain — hence the project’s name. The surrounding neighborhood is one where youth hardship overlaps with a cultural vibrancy that has grown in recent years thanks to local revitalization efforts. The broader socio-cultural context is that of a city with a significant foreign population, where many families face economic hardship and educational poverty.

The project envisions a series of multidimensional interventions that, starting from direct support for minors, extend to their families, learning environments, and social spaces: a project designed to have a strong, positive impact on the entire social macrosystem to which these young people belong.