Hello community, hope you’re taking care of yourself and the world surrounding you!
I’m Miriam, a 25-year-old Sicilian girl passionate about sustainability and its multiple and intricate facets.
As a graduate in Local and Global Development (International Cooperation) from the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, I am indeed deeply committed to supporting causes related to human rights, environmental sustainability, and social and climate justice. My biggest personal and professional interest lies in addressing the climate crisis and its far-reaching socio-economic implications, being aware of the complexities of global development and the interconnectedness of various socio-economic and environmental factors. I’m convinced that this crisis is not only intergenerational and intersectional but also a multiplier of inequalities and disparities, making it one of the most pressing challenges of our time.
Discovering the opportunity of the Interreg Volunteer Youth (IVY) initiative has been both an energizing boost and a relief, especially during these hard times when trying to find your place after your student life seems to be a never-ending process. Getting to know SVI.MED. – Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Sustainable Development, my hosting organization, has been a kind of game-changer to me, as it gave me the opportunity to make one of my life aspirations come true: coming back to my homeland to leverage my experiences and insights and promote local development through European and International Cooperation. I envision a future where Sicily can benefit from sustainable practices and global partnerships, enhancing its resilience to environmental and socio-economic challenges and doing that with a local organization like SVI.MED. with great knowledge and experience on the topics, seems to be the perfect opportunity to reshape and re-establish relations with my territory.
I’m actually collaborating with the organization on the ‘URWAN – Urban Regenerative Water Avant-garde(N)’ project, funded under the Interreg EURO-med programme and focusing on the intersection between urban regeneration and resources management, emphasizing nature-based solutions (NbS) to create greener and resilient cities by addressing challenges such as water management and adaptation to climate change in Mediterranean regions and communities.
Over the last few months, I have had the opportunity to contribute to the communication and organisation of the various meetings with the school and community of Ferla – a small Sicilian municipality in the province of Siracusa, known for its good practices – as part of the URWAN project, and to discover new methods of stakeholder engagement through the Start-park methodology, which uses gamification to redesign urban spaces by responding concretely to global challenges reflected in the local context.
Starting from February, a series of meetings within the URWAN project and as part of the Start Park process have been launched in the Municipality of Ferla, culminating with a co-design workshop on occasion of the World Water Day, with the aim of co-creating a city that is increasingly resilient to climate change, putting nature and its mechanisms back at the heart of urban and climate planning through a bottom-up co-design process.
Witnessing and participating in the organisation of these events has been a great opportunity for personal and human growth for me, I think it is always gratifying to see citizens ready to act in front of today’s challenges, from which to seize opportunities for improvement and a reversal of the dominant development model. I believe that stimulating bottom-up participatory processes is one of the keys to tackling systemic problems!
What’s more, during my younger years I’ve been struggling with climate anxiety, learning step by step how to navigate all its different phases. Despite all this, the situation is not always that stable in this respect, but the awareness of contributing to something way bigger together with seeing the questioning but also curious eyes of young (and not only young) people gave an impetus to my personal and even collective wounded capacity to feel hope and to act moved by it. We must learn to navigate and care for this light, to protect it: it is an exercise in collective responsibility and global citizenship, and I thank the IVY initiative and SVI.MED. for giving me this opportunity!
Take care and keep dreaming of a greener and nature-based revolution,
– Miriam, IVY Project Partner for Interreg project URWAN at SVI.MED
