On a warm Sunday in May, the Bullone lands in Sweden. The goal is to compare with European realities that have similar goals and projects, trying to draw advice and considerations from each other. Stockholm thus presents itself as an incredible opportunity to talk with young people of this time, to address problems and seek solutions, and to exchange an urgency of all: that of change in favor of the future.
We land in Stockholm on a Sunday morning in May. The group has finally compacted: Bill, Lara, Elisa, Irene, Federica joining us from Palermo, and yours truly. How nice to see each other again after a year of phone calls, whatsapps and zooms.
The day is beautiful, it is even hot, against all odds.
We are finally in Sweden
After more than a year of talking, discussing, planning, writing, waiting, this is it. We are in Sweden. The Bullone is in Sweden. I’m excited and even a little nervous. Even just the idea of being able to think about bringing our little model, our experience, our vision, to Europe….
Waiting for us are our Swedish partners, whom we are happy to re-embrace, two months after their Milan trip: Nerina Finetto, founder of Trace and Dreams, a communications and storytelling agency, with her Italian origins, a life divided between Germany and Sweden, and a personal story that merges with that of B.Liver. And then Mikaela Nyström, social media manager, pure energy, curiosity and passion; Kirstern Zerbinis, content strategist, Canadian origins and many stories – and challenges – to share.
Three days of intensive work, discussion, debate and mutual exploration await us
The days went on between analytical and detailed presentations, informal chats, personal sharing, cultural and generational “clashes” and confrontations, and inspiring meetings. Trace and Dreams gave us the opportunity to get to know some really timely and inspiring local realities for our work.
From Maria Stacke, of UNG CANCER (youth and cancer), an association that works to keep kids with a cancer journey together, offering ad hoc services for them and raising awareness about the issue; to Luis Lineo of Fanzingo, a media agency that puts young people, and all those who generally have no voice, at the center; to David, a courageous teacher who puts his whole self into standing beside kids with different frailties, trying to build real life opportunities for them.
The realities and people we listen to open important windows on a society, the Swedish society, that although very different from ours in structure and system, faces the same difficulties we find here today.
In particular, we also find ourselves here having to deal with an increasingly disarming and unreceived youth distress; a health care system that, although considered one of the best in the world, innovative, digitized, lacks capillarity and facilities. And again, the world of information. Here, too, young people, like ours, often have no voice, are not heard by the media, except for instrumentalization, and do not really feel represented by the world of journalism.
What is the Bullone for us?
A journal but above all a foundation made by young people who have experiences of illness and exclusion; an open space where there is no judgment, a space for creativity in all forms, where they can cultivate their talents. A place of experiences, a transformative path, which also collaborates with companies, a place of transgenerational dialogue, a place where vulnerability is transformed into a resource.
What is the European Bullone intended to be?
A social, digital magazine made by young people who are confronted with authentic experiences, a platform that tells the stories of each of them, through the enhancement of their talents, through dialogue, through the experience of listening and meeting, through confrontation with adults who are questioning and actively listening and transforming.
The road is still long, full of questions. But what is certain is that this journey has strengthened in me a sense of the possibility and, above all, the urgency of action today, in favor of the future of all of us. Each in his own way, each with his own peculiarity, but all for a common good, which cannot but be for us today (at least) European.