The civic commitment of Generazione Lucana

The ideas, methods and strategies of the association that wants to create a new season of youth policies in Basilicata. We are publishing the complete interview relating to the story that appeared in the June issue of Città Nuova magazine

«We don’t look for consensus, we don’t want compassion and we don’t want anyone to feel guilty for the legacy that is left to us. Instead, we want to build our future one step at a time, which is better for us and for our children, without waiting or hoping that others will do it.». This is how he opens the dossier Generation Lucana (GL)a reality born in Basilicata to build concrete proposals to make this region a country for young people.

Margherita Dilucca, from Pomarico, 27 years old, project manager and doctor in Work Psychologytold us about GL’s journey and his personal experience in this reality.

How was Generazione Lucana born and what are your goals?
Generazione Lucana was formally born in 2018 as an association, but our activities began years before. We belong to different villages in Basilicata and we were all involved in civic activism, so at a certain point we said to ourselves: why not get together if we work for the same goal in the same region? The objective is to create a new season of youth policies in Basilicata. We were born with the coffee tour which touched around 80 municipalities in Basilicata during which we met young and old people from our region to ask whether Basilicata is a region for young people or not. We asked ourselves then: how can it become one? We have collected ideas, thoughts, methods, strategies already applied in the territories and we have built the Dossier of youth policiesthe and theCommitment to Basilicataa manifesto that anyone can sign to express their commitment to the process of renewal of Basilicata.

In some municipalities it was possible to apply what we had proposed. The dossier has made the rounds of various institutional, national and even international tables, we have arrived at theNational Youth Agency and the European Parliamentwhere we were recognized among the most influential organizations in Europe for youth policies.

Various research theses were then created on projects that had scientific bases and were applicable. Some focused on Youth Economic Zone, a measure that provides tax relief to give the possibility of doing business in the area. We often say that Basilicata is a desert and therefore it is easier to create something there, but it is easier for those who have the privilege of being able to do it. Zeg aims to break down this privilege, giving everyone the opportunity to do business and start something on their own.

There have also been studies on NEETs that have seen application in projects such as Neetflixwritten together with Anci and the Municipality of Matera, which aims to build a sustainable ecosystem based on people, on how they can be the authors of changes from the micro to the macrosystem.

Another initiative is the Talent network which allowed us to bring together very different professionals from all over Italy. For example, a library in the province of Potenza, which was about to close, thanks to the Internet managed to meet a designer and management engineer who in the same period was writing projects regarding children’s literature. The meeting between these realities made it possible to save the library by giving it a new asset.

Chlaydoscope is one of our latest projects that aims to grow youth leaders with a view to organizing a community, giving them the tools to be autonomous in generating an impact on society. We have implemented practical workshops of this type in our region Viggiano and Rotondella.

During the regional elections we instead created Pnrl (Unconventional policies for the Lucanian regional governments) a debate live on 4 selected macro themes, from which a letter was born with concrete proposals to arrive at a different reality, as we believe that it is not impossible, but “eutopian”.

A project that started in April is Young people in the library, a cultural activation process that aims to offer activities to young people who live in the province. The further the distance from a center offering services increases, the greater the percentage of depopulation. The multipurpose center in Miglionico “D’Amoroso Foco” will begin to offer services in order to create possibilities accessible to those who live in internal areas.

With what means was the Lucanian generation able to activate these projects?
Many of our activities are self-funded, but in some cases we have written and won projects. Furthermore, there are private citizens, businesses and companies who have decided to support us with spontaneous donations, when something starts to move it is nice to see that someone wants to do it together with you.

We offer participatory co-planning services, dossier writing, activation of youth policies for municipalities and public or private organizations. We are now moving towards the creation of a real social enterprise, naturally born from the bottom, because everything started just like “four friends at the bar”.

Have you managed to communicate with the regional administrations instead?
We have had various dialogues with the Region, but in terms of impact of the activities we have succeeded better in the municipalities of small areas or slightly larger ones such as Matera, and for example we have supported the Potenza’s candidacy as youth capital.

We are more specialized in internal areas because they are the ones that tend to see fewer funds, see fewer possibilities, are more on the margins compared to the large capitals.

What was your experience that also led you to choose to stay in Basilicata?
I have always done activism with local entities that were here. Subsequently I approached a more political commitment to social justice, so I found in Generazione Lucana that engine into which I could direct my energies. Coincidentally, GL was born when I was finishing my three-year degree in Psychology and therefore I had to decide whether to stay and do my master’s degree here or leave. This GL gave me a big push to want to stay because I saw that with me there were also other girls and boys who would like to invest in a future here. I think it’s also about privilege, I was able to choose to do a master’s degree here because I passed the test at the University of Bari, but what if I hadn’t succeeded and had passed the test elsewhere? When we talk about choice I am against the mantra “if you want you can”, because when we talk about want and power the great absentee is privilege, not all of us have the same social and economic conditions to stay in one place. On this I am very grateful to have had the timing and conditions to be able to stay here. GL was also a moment of training and work orientation for me, because in reality when I started Psychology I had the dream of working in the clinical field, while what I did was totally different.

And do you work in the area now?
I work as a freelancer, I am a project manager for GL and other organizations that deal with the same issues, but GL has been a great springboard that has allowed me to meet many people, to get to know the realities that are in the area, because this is another big problem of Basilicata. It is often said that there is nothing, but there is no knowledge of the local training and work offer, so very often we no longer know in detail what the area needs, what the area could offer to those leaving the ‘University.

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