Comune di San Giorgio Albanese

The Municipality of San Giorgio Albanese is situated in a very rural area in the province of Cosenza. The area belongs to the Arbereshe community, where there is a long-lasting Albanian minority from the 15th Century. The city has no train or bus station, no public transportation is available to move tithe closest town, where more of the basic services are available. The region faced several disadvantages in the past decades due to an high level of corruption and the involvement of criminal organizations in politics and business administration. In the last 5 years, youth and young educated adults started to be more active in the social field, achieving important representative places in the local and regional government, in order to boost social change. The territory features few political participation and youth finds several barriers to their development, in terms of intercultural moment, cultural initiatives,language courses and other educational activities. Due to the geographic position and the overall connections, along with the average low income of the families, can be a threat for the population, especially for what concern the educational of thinking of youth. A further challenge is given by the welcoming strategy developed by the Municipality which promotes the lodging and integration of asylum seekers and refugees as a good practice for integration, while healing the raising problem of depopulation. The Municipality is strongly committed to an inclusive and smart growth, based on the provision of human and civil rights of citizens and inhabitants, ensuring the decent life and wage of the population, fighting corruption and youth unemployment, promoting and preserving the arbereshe roots and cultural artifacts. The government chose to actively engage in European projects since the past5years, establish several European partnership with NGOs, Governments (eg. Generalitat of Catalunya), Sprar and network, while developing twin mutual agreement with several cities in EU and Albania. In 2017 the entity realized its first Youth exchange based on theatre for intercultural learning and inclusion, with a successful mix of local and hosted participants, enriched by a final show in the main square about breaking cultural stereotypes. The showed had more than 10.000people, in a village of 800 inhabitants. In 2018 the municipality made an agreement with aiesec which is bringing flows of 4 international volunteers from all around the world every 8 weeks, embedded in the organization of artistic, social and cultural activities for the economical development.