On March 27, the Hackathon of the project “GO! LABS – Youth, Opportunities and Laboratories for the Future.” An initiative that focuses on new generations, promoted by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region and implemented by the City of Gorizia in collaboration with Gect GO and Wayouth ETS.
For three days, 34 male and female students worked side by side, immersed in an intense and concrete experience. Not just a creative workshop, but a real participatory design process based on the Policy Hack methodology: an approach that challenges participants to imagine and build real public policies, starting from real needs and data.
Rethinking spaces for young people
The proposed challenge was not abstract. In fact, at the heart of the work was a crucial question for the city’s future: how to rethink youth gathering places in Gorizia? The groups worked from two key elements: the experience of the historic Punto Giovani service and the data on youth outreach developed as part of GO!2025. An interweaving of memory and innovation that allowed participants to root their ideas in the reality of the area, without giving up a forward-looking gaze. Supported by five mentors, the boys and girls developed proposals spanning new models of participation, inclusive services and spaces capable of meeting the needs of a changing generation.The moment of evaluation
At the conclusion of the Hackathon, the groups presented their projects before an evaluation panel composed of representatives from institutions and the associational world. ISIG also took part, contributing its expertise in the field of youth policy. Director and junior researcher Elia Ferlat participated in the final evaluation, bringing an insight gained through their work with the FVG Region in mapping and enhancing the value of Youth Aggregation Centers (CAGs). Alongside them, representatives from the municipality, Gect GO, and the Student Council helped return articulate feedback to the participants, capable of enhancing the ideas that emerged without losing sight of their feasibility.A glimpse of the future
The Hackathon was confirmed not only as a training moment, but as a space for real confrontation between young people, institutions and operators in the area. A laboratory in which ideas do not remain theory, but are transformed into concrete proposals. Experiences like this show how crucial it is to invest in youth participation, not just as a principle, but as a practice. Giving young people tools, confidence and responsibility means opening up spaces in which the future can be imagined-and built-together.
