Selected among many applications, YEI! was one of projects awarded, confirming UniCredit Foundation’s commitment to initiatives that fight educational poverty and school dropout in the European countries where UniCredit operates.
2 Years of Impact Across Calabria
Over the past two years, YEI! has worked in five towns - Catanzaro, Cosenza, Reggio Calabria, Vibo Valentia, and Crotone - focusing on the most vulnerable neighborhoods. Its goal: reduce educational poverty by providing young people with tools, spaces, and relationships that reignite motivation and trust.
The project involved:
200 students
50 teachers
40 families
20 young people in summer internships
Activities included creative workshops, community events, and listening sessions that helped uncover and nurture hidden potential. In a region where only 2.5% of children have access to nursery schools and just 20% of students benefit from full-time schooling, YEI! offered a concrete response by creating a network of ten pilot centers against school dropout.
Celebrating Voices from the Margins
The closing event featured the exhibition “Margini”, a collective narrative created with the students and guided by illustrator and graphic designer Giuseppe Talarico. Through their works, the young participants transformed their neighborhoods into canvases, making visible what often remains on the margins. Emotions, fragility, strength, and the desire for redemption emerged, showing that peripheral spaces can become places of identity and opportunity.
The day included reflections from project leaders, a monologue by Francesco Passafaro, and a public dialogue with educators and a young former inmate of the Juvenile Penal Institute. The exhibition will remain open until December 18.