In the city of Padua, particularly in the Palestro district, activities are being carried out to raise awareness and counter the phenomenon of radicalization and violence in young people included in the YARSPE project. The YARSPE project is being followed by volunteers Paola and Tehreem from the GEA social cooperative together with the after-school afternoon volunteers from the Quadrato Meticcio Sports Association. The children involved in the activities are about 15 between the ages of 11 and 18 and come from different cultural backgrounds. The meetings have different themes and different activities: poster making, role-playing, watching short films, soccer games and sports activities and events. The difficulties are many as the youth context is complex with high educational poverty and low schooling, socio-economic difficulties and in some cases forms of delinquency and petty crime, but the social context of the neighbourhood nevertheless remains rich in positive energies that, if channelled correctly, lead to the creation of moments of growth precisely through sports, involving young people in an active way. On one afternoon during an argument between three boys, which arose from a tripping, we called the boys back and asked them to find a solution to the conflict, Brahim replied, “let’s go play a game together.”
Sometimes playing a game of soccer is useful to channel anger, frustration and problems, of course sports can also be dangerous so the challenge is to have volunteers, activists, coaches ready to create moments of growth and use sports as a useful tool to improve people and social contexts.
