“New looks on Cooperation”.
It is the title chosen for the evening which marked the final stage of the journey undertaken by the participants of “Officina Cooperazione”: female and male university students, from 18 to 29 years of age, engaged in the discovery of Cooperation and the economy civil.
The project was born on the initiative of the Valtes Foundation (Fondazione Cassa Rurale Valsugana e Tesino) in collaboration with the Trentina Alcide De Gasperi Foundation, and with the partnership of the Don Lorenzo Guetti Foundation and with the patronage of the Trentina Cooperation Federation.
Last night the Bicigrill of Castelnuovo Valsugana was the scene of the story of a significant experience lived by this group of young people who undertook a journey, which lasted a few months, to discover the cooperative world and beyond: from the Bleggio area to the Central Bank European Union in Frankfurt and much more.
“Not a celebratory journey – explain the promoters – but a critical itinerary built on the thread of some central questions. Even challenging questions to which the participants responded by making use of what they observed and acquired in the itinerary that took them to where cooperation exists and where it takes place”.
“Cooperation is a still vital subject and project of social and civil life, I would even say always contemporary with the needs of the era in which it operates – he observes Stefano Modena, president of the Valtes Foundation – Dignity of work, equal participation in the wealth generated by the means of production, construction of a supportive society: we explored all this starting from the roots. Cooperation is not an abstract economy but rather the reality of civil coexistence based on participation.”
Starting in March with the two-day residential in Bleggio, in the footsteps of Don Lorenzo Guetti (the father of the Trentino Cooperation), the journey continued in Bologna, to discover the Emilian cooperative scenario and meet Vera Negri and Stefano Zamagni, internationally renowned scholars of economic history and civil economy.
At the beginning of May it was the turn of a trip to Germany. Initially in the places where Wilhem Friedrich Raiffeisen, father of German Cooperation and inspirer of Don Guetti’s actions, had cooperated. Subsequently to the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, to broaden our gaze to the economy of the entire continent. Equally important and significant are the many visits to cooperatives not only in Trentino: Granarolo, Coop Alleanza 3.0, Melinda, Alpi. A journey that allowed each participant to acquire a valuable wealth of knowledge useful for guaranteeing “New perspectives on Cooperation: infusing energy and perspectives, typical of the world of youth, to a world that concerns everyone in Trentino”.
“Cooperation Workshop” is the second of the Workshops, included in the broader program of “The Workshops of the Valtes Foundation”.
This is an educational format which, annually, allows a group of young people, girls and boys, to delve into fundamental themes for the present and future of our communities: the meaning of European citizenship, the history, the logic and the forms of cooperative world, the meaning of the rights and duties provided for by the principles of our Constitution.
