Youth Leading the Social Reuse Revolution in Europe
Imagine a Europe where spaces once tainted by crime are reborn as vibrant centers for community, culture, and opportunity. This is the vision driving RESTART, an EU-funded project empowering young people aged 18 to 35, as well as experts, journalists, representatives of civil society and institutions, to lead the social reuse revolution across Italy, Germany, Malta, Romania, and Belgium and take the management of unused urban land into their own hands.
RESTART brings together five youth camps in five European countries, all with one mission: to inspire and equip young people to turn confiscated, abandoned, and unoccupied assets into engines of positive change. Through hands-on workshops, field visits, and lively discussions, participants:
- Dive deep into real stories of transformation
- Learn from experts and activists
- Connect with peers passionate about social justice and regeneration
The projects is about reclaiming urban land and unused spaces for the common good and sending a powerful message: community triumphs over crime.
Social re-use practices are an important tool for democratic participation not only because they promote transparent and participatory management, but above all because they reinforce the principle that the common good prevails over criminal interest. Their effectiveness as a tool to fight mafias and criminal groups, who are struck at the heart of their economic interests, has now been amply demonstrated.
Moreover, for the mafias, seeing the fruits of their trafficking being returned to the citizenry is also a powerful blow for them in symbolic terms, as what was once a symbol of their power is now transformed into a space for social regeneration and legality.
As the Italian experience - which in the next months will celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the approval of the national law on the social reuse of confiscated assets - teaches us, there are many experiences that can be created: from start-ups to agricultural cooperatives, or social housing. They generate welfare and social policies, cultural promotion, sustainable tourism, organic farming, sport, and many other local impacts that we still cannot even imagine. And above all, they create alternative economic value by stimulating the ethical, social and solidarity-based economy on urban land.
Making young people protagonists of this process fosters the creation of fair and sustainable employment opportunities, contributing to the regeneration of marginalised areas and restoring dignity to communities.
Spreading the culture of social reuse of assets confiscated from organised crime is a great value for Libera, the Italian ILC member which is the lead partner of the project. The recent approval of the European Directive 2024/1260, which encourages the practice of social reuse as a predominant action in the EU, puts us in front of the need to treat the issue in an integrated perspective. This is why five associations have joined forces to achieve this common goal.
The project “RESTART - A new paradigm to protect the EU core values and strengthen democratic participation through the public and social reuse of assets” is co-funded by the European Union, and is carried out by the following associations: Libera (Italy), Eine Welt (Germany), Repubblika (Malta), ACDD (Romania) and BASTA (Belgium).
Of the five planned youth camps, two have already been implemented in Romania and Belgium, and have seen the participation of dozens of young people.
But there are still three opportunities left to participate! Here are the next camps scheduled for this summer:
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