Silvia Chiassai Martini, the President of the Province of Arezzo, presents the actual state of implementation of the Ariadne’s Thread for Youth Deviance project supported by the European Commission as part of the Erasmus + Sport program. There is present among others, Alberto Melis, Provincial Delegate Coni Arezzo Alberto Melis and Pierluigi Ricci President of the I Care Association, Italian partners of the project. The objectives and results of the first phase and the calendar of activities of the Erasmus+ Sport Program “Ariadne’s thread”, were in fact the focus of the second transnational meeting of the partners – which took place on October 19, which was supposed to take place in Slovenia but due to the pandemic took place by videoconference.
Silvia Chiassai Martini President of the Province of Arezzo declares:
“The Province of Arezzo is the leading body of a partnership composed of the Municipality of Katerini, in Greece, the Professional Volleyball School of Riga, Latvia, the Public Body for Sport of Nova Gorica, Slovenia and the I Care Association of Arezzo, which has been active for years with young people in the resolution of addictions and mental health problems. The main objective of the project is to reduce youth discomfort through sport and in particular with volleyball. The exchange of good practices between institutions in the European area, with particular attention to issues affecting young people, using sport, will be an innovative way out both in our country and in Europe. Specifically, the program aimed at students between 14 and 18 years old, is carried out with the collaboration of the High Schools of the Province of Arezzo, which will include volleyball matches, seminars and various moments of reflection that will involve not only students but also teachers, educators and families. The analysis of the forms of discomfort and potential deviance among young people, was detected with an anonymous questionnaire prepared by the experts of I Care, administered to young people to understand the real situations of malaise. The questionnaire was, among other things, shared with the European partners of Greece, Slovenia and Latvia, who adapted it according to their own specific situation needs. In Arezzo it was possible to count on the collaboration of the Provincial Council of Students that I would like to thank, with the coordination of Professor Antonella Bianchi of the Provincial School Office, who actively collaborated in the collection of data from high school students. The data will then be subsequently interpreted and compared with those of the other partner countries of the project, so as to provide important elements for reflection on intervention strategies, to organize thematic seminars that will see the participation of experts or figures close to the world of youth. We then enter to the key activity with the adhesion of the high schools of the Province, then the operational phase of the project begins and I am strongly convinced that it will be a valid tool to know, recognize and intervene from the first signs of youth discomfort, working with a broader perspective such as the European one.