Start Learning Cities Up

On the basis of the “Learning Cities in Friuli Venezia Giulia Pilot Project” launched in 2019 thanks to the collaboration between the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the Israeli Municipality of Modiin Maccabim Reut, the Union of Israeli Municipalities and the Multidisciplinary Centre of Modiin Maccabim Reut, the first experimentation of the Learning Cities model at the regional level was allowed. Thanks to this experimentation, which took place in 2019, in July 2020 the Municipality of Trieste obtained UNESCO’s recognition as a Learning City, initiating a process for lifelong learning to be recognised as a priority sector for the policies of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, with a broad, transversal and cohesive value with UNESCO’s own mission for Learning Cities.

The vision, therefore, of lifelong learning does not only concern the cities forming part of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, but concerns the Region itself, in which lifelong learning becomes the foundation and instrument for resolving the needs of the future in formal and informal contexts, giving rise to transformative experiences capable of developing knowledge and skills thanks to interaction with new technologies and interacting with increasingly complex contexts.

The project is also based on the membership of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia in the Pascal International Network and on the Joint Memorandum of Understanding between the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region and the Municipality of Modiin Maccabim Reut, which strengthens the political and institutional relationship between these two entities and the Multidisciplinary Centre of Modiin Maccabin Reut and the Union of Israeli Municipalities.

The Start Learning Cities UP project therefore has the following objectives

1. to foster knowledge and exchange of good practices within the framework of the Learning Cities/Learning Region;
2. to facilitate mutual knowledge between the Municipalities located in the territories of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region and in the State of Israel, with a view to collaboration and future twinning;
3. to cooperate in the creation and dissemination of new technologies aimed at improving the quality of services for citizens, particularly with regard to lifelong learning;
4. to organise educational initiatives aimed at countering the rampant phenomenon of anti-Semitism and related phenomena generating hatred towards the State of Israel;
5. to support education and lifelong learning in order to foster the sustainable development of local communities by enhancing models of learning cities.

These objectives will be developed through the following five work packages (WPs)

• WP1 – Creating a Platform to implement an innovative Learning City and Learning Region model at local and national level;
• WP2 – Develop collaborations and exchanges between Israeli and local municipalities to implement the Learning City Model;
• WP3 – Developing Lifelong Learning models towards digital hybridisation in a Learning City/Learning Region;
• WP4 – Designing actions to counter the phenomenon of anti-Semitism within Learning Cities;
• WP5 – Fostering exchange between schools and students according to the Breaking Classroom Walls (BCW) model.

The project results will be further valorised within the framework of the “European Capital of Culture Nova Gorica – Gorizia 2025” event, and the project outputs aim to have wider interregional and national effects, bringing the results to the attention of the Conference of Italian Regions and Autonomous Provinces.