Hello everyone! My name is Alice Crocco, a 26-year-old deeply passionate about social work and international cooperation. Always on the lookout for new opportunities, I discovered the Interreg Volunteer Youth (IVY) initiative, which enables young people to volunteer in cross-border and interregional projects. This initiative perfectly aligned with my passion for international cooperation and my desire to unite people for a common cause. As young volunteers, we play a crucial role in supporting, promoting, and narrating the tangible results of Interreg programmes and projects, thereby contributing to the dissemination of European territorial cooperation while gaining insights into the functioning of these projects.
Through the IVY programme, I got to know SVI.MED. – Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Sustainable Development, an organization based in Ragusa that implements projects both locally and internationally. Seizing the opportunity, I applied through IVY to collaborate with this organization on the ‘URWAN – Urban Regenerative Water Avant-garde(N)’ project, funded under the Interreg EURO-med programme. URWAN focuses on the link between urban regeneration and resources, emphasizing nature-based solutions (NbS) to address challenges such as water management and climate change adaptation. Being part of this project allows me to contribute to creating a more sustainable and resilient future for our cities and communities. Specifically, I am involved in defining and initiating an effective strategy to engage stakeholders, citizens, and young people on project issues, collaborating in partnership activities to co-design the NbS catalogue.
In the past months I had the chance to be involved by SVI.MED. in the organization of a partnership meeting here in Sicily. The event has been held from April 15 to 18, it was the second project meeting but the first in-person gathering, which transformed a list of names and emails into a real working group. This meeting marked an excellent starting point to ensure fruitful cooperation among people and not just between organizations.
The event brought together numerous partner representatives, forming a multidisciplinary group of around 30 people from seven countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain.
One of our primary objectives was to reaffirm our common goal and refine a shared vocabulary: promoting the use of non-conventional water and the adoption of natural and multifunctional NbS to address environmental challenges in urban areas, enhancing their resilience and capacity to adapt to climate change.
The three-day experience was engaging and inspiring, characterized by a positive atmosphere and significant achievements. Delving deeper into this project provided all participants with the opportunity to expand their knowledge and strengthen collaborative ties.
– Alice, IVY Project Partner at SVI. MED. – EuroMediterranean Center for the Sustainable Development for the Interreg Euro-MED Project “URWAN”.
