On 12-14 July, in the splendid setting of Piazza Unità D’Italia in Trieste, in the offices of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the first official project meeting of the Start Learning Cities UP project was held.
From Friuli Venezia Giulia to Israel via Trieste and Modiin Maccabim Reut, a collaboration lasting from 2019. The goal? Learning. How? Through the Learning City tool promoted by UNESCO, which places education at the centre of political and administrative action, understood as lifelong education extended throughout the life of communities, ensuring the creation of more stable, resilient and equitable societies.
Present, in addition to the Italian project partners, were also the Mayor and President of the Israeli municipalities Haim Bibas and the delegation of the Multidisciplinary Centre of Modiin Maccabim Reut, the President of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia Massimiliano Fedriga, and the Regional Councillor for Labour, Training, Education, Research, University and Family Alessia Rosolen.
A path that does not begin with this project, but in 2019, with an initial meeting between Rosolen and Bibas, precisely on Remembrance Day, to emphasise the importance of soft skills and lifelong learning within the mutual communities. Then 2020, with the nomination of Trieste as a Learning City by UNESCO itself, becoming the only case in the Region and one of the few in Italy. In 2022, the concretisation of the development of a strategic partnership for the promotion of lifelong learning, with the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding that widens the margins of manoeuvre . In this context, Start Learning Cities UP adds a very important piece, strengthening the bridge of cooperation between the Friuli Venezia Giulia region and Israel, also in light of the important appointment of European Capital of Culture Gorizia – Nova Gorica 2025.
The first project meeting was also attended by the cities of our Region interested in the topic: in addition to Gemona, which has been involved from the beginning, also Gorizia and Trieste, in a wide-ranging regional perspective between the different souls of the territory, the University of Trieste, a witness of excellence and internationality, and the headmistress of the Polo Liceale Dante Alighieri of Gorizia, which will be involved in an exchange between Italian and Israeli students in the coming school years.
The first project meeting kicked off an important opportunity for our territory. An opportunity to exchange good practices at an international level, to increase and network knowledge and skills.
