IMP.E.T.U.S. – IMProving European Togetherness and Unifying Spirit

Project Duration: 12 months

The administrations of the Italian municipality of Satriano and the Polish municipality of Gnojnik, which are preparing to formalize their twinning agreement through the project, are supported by the expertise of the associations JUMP (Italy) and Aktivistai (Lithuania).Both organizations specialize in European engagement and youth participation through non-formal education activities.
Together, they believe that strengthening European identity and fostering closer ties between their communities and the European Union is key to initiating a strategic internationalization process. This initiative will help small towns like Satriano and Gnojnik to meet the challenges of youth participation at the European level, while countering the depopulation trend that threatens rural areas.

To achieve these objectives, the consortium brings together four partners from three EU countries (Italy, Poland, Lithuania) who will carry out nine events (two online, three local and four international) in collaboration with local and international stakeholders from the participating countries, as well as others joining online.

The events will be structured in three main phases:

1.  Awareness Campaign: This phase includes the ART-CHART competition, part of the larger “54 STEPS” campaign (where 54 is the number of articles in the EU Charter and STEPS stands for Starting from European Passion and Soul). This phase also includes the IMPETUS launch conference and the publication of an information booklet.
2. Context Analysis and Debate: This phase includes three days of focus groups in each partner country to stimulate discussion on EU values, youth engagement and local challenges.
3. Community empowerment and structured dialogue: The final phase focuses on outlining and proposing a targeted strategy called BEST – Building Europe in a Small Town, which aims to use internationalization as a driver for small town development, ensuring sustainable growth and community revitalization.