Pro Officine Mezzogiorno, a three-year social inclusion and regeneration project that offers young people cutting-edge courses on space economy, coding, robotics, 3D printing and augmented reality, and acceleration services for local third-sector start-ups, has kicked off in Lecce. Pro Officine Mezzogiorno is supported by the Fondazione CON IL SUD and Italiacamp with a total funding of EUR 450,000 and has been set up with the Municipality of Lecce, The Qube and the Galilei-Costa-Scarambone Higher Secondary Education Institute to develop training and innovation pathways in the Lecce area from 2021 to 2024.

The project was presented at the Open Space of Palazzo Carafa, in the presence of the Mayor of Lecce Carlo Salvemini, the Councillor for Economic Development of the Apulia Region Alessandro Delli Noci, and Italiacamp CEO Fabrizio Sammarco.
The education activities kicked off this week at the Galilei-Costa-Scarambone Institute with Space Camp, the first course in Italy that gives youngsters hands-on experience of space technologies, organised by Italiacamp thanks to its scientific partner British Interplanetary Society. In the Space Camp laboratory, the youngsters will be introduced to the disciplines of astronauts and will themselves be the programmers of space satellite prototypes - an opportunity of particular value in a region where the aerospace sector has reached over EUR 700 million in export turnover and employs more than 550 companies with over 7,900 workers.

The objective of these activities is in fact to reduce educational poverty through learning programmes that help young people develop skills related to the new trends in the labour market: over the three years of experimentation, a total of nine programmes are planned that will involve 180 secondary school students and also their families with the aim of reducing the digital gap between generations. For the third sector, on the other hand, three annual acceleration and empowerment courses have been planned, each one for three local start-ups with the aim of creating a territorial network capable of generating social impact.

Pro Officine Mezzogiorno will test some of the activities of the Officine Mezzogiorno hub, a centre for innovation and social regeneration designed by the city of Lecce with the collaboration of Italiacamp within the framework of the Social Innovation Fund of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. Social inclusion and innovation actions for young and very young people, advanced managerial training initiatives, and digital manufacturing for start-ups and emerging SMEs will be developed synergistically in the Officine Mezzogiorno hub, with the aim of responding to the social needs of the area, generating positive impacts on the community that can be measured and assessed over time. The hub will be born from the regeneration of a particularly evocative place: a bus workshop in front of Lecce station, a space that has always generated connections with the country but at the same time represents the starting point of the escape from the territory.

According to Carlo Salvemini, Mayor of Lecce, “After the presentation of the feasibility study, Pro Officine Mezzogiorno represents the second official and operational step of this far-reaching innovation project, Officine Mezzogiorno, which combines a significant urban regeneration project with a well-targeted social inclusion activity, which passes through training courses that direct students towards new professions linked to digital specialisations. In this first phase, these workshops are being held in schools and, in the near future, will find their place in the Officine Mezzogiorno hub, to be located in an area of the city, such as the train station, undergoing major changes: the work site for the station turnaround, which has already started, that of RFI {owned by Ferrovie dello Stato} for the redevelopment of the train station’s interior, and that of the Municipality for the redevelopment of Viale Oronzo Quarta, both of which should start next year. In this context, the social innovation hub, which will be the first example of an incubator of ideas and experiences in the Mezzogiorno, is part of the project.”

“Creating an Innovation Pole in Lecce is the goal I have been working with during my years of administration at the Municipality of Lecce and which is being realised today. Fostering skills and knowledge, working on building skills and abilities, and doing so with an eye to the future – as shown by the topics that the boys and girls will cover and on which they will be trained – is at the core of this project. A plan that involves the public, private and third sectors and that aims to reduce the gap with other European countries, creating a hub – virtual at the moment, but we hope to turn it physical soon – in which to become true innovators, to have more professional opportunities but above all to grow the territory,” Alessandro Delli Noci, Councillor for Economic Development of the Apulia Region, commented.

“With Pro Officine Mezzogiorno we are building the foundations of our commitment in the Lecce area, in synergy with local institutions. We wanted to invest with our own strengths and with the support of Fondazione CON IL SUD as we strongly believe in the potential of this area and we want to preserve the social capital of this part of Italy starting from education, which is the basis for the development of new civic economies capable of generating widespread value for the entire community,” Fabrizio Sammarco, CEO of Italiacamp, said.

“We are glad to collaborate in this project that focuses on territory, community and new generations,” Carlo Borgomeo, President of the Fondazione CON IL SUD, said. “Its focus is on territory and community, as it looks at development, not only economic but above all social, i.e. the real starting point for generating change. Furthermore, it also focuses on new generations, as it looks to the future, offering the youngest extraordinary opportunities for knowledge, involving them in activities related to expanding sectors. Key steps to combat educational poverty, to focus on the good energies of the territory, to offer concrete opportunities for growth to many boys and girls, to help them ‘design’ the future they want.”