"Three is a merciless aspect of educational poverty: hereditariness,” writes ACRI President Francesco Profumo on Vita. "The suburbs lack services, there is economic privation, a dearth of cultural stimuli and meeting points. Suburbs are where empty spaces are created. And if they are not adequately maintained and managed, they are taken over by criminality. This is where tomorrow’s poor grow up, lacking any means to change their condition. Educational poverty does not allow young men and women to imagine a different tomorrow. They become addicts of degradation and of their inexorable unfortunate destiny [Vita, N. 12, 2019, Chapter 3 "Educational Communities as an Answer," edited by Sara De Carli, in collaboration with Con i Bambini].

How can these “empty space” be filled, providing a timely “full” proposal that may attract the new generations and block the hereditary nature of educational poverty?

The "School Changing the World" video narrates the experience of Phyrtual Innovation Gyms in a range of different contexts in Milan, Rome, Naples and Bari. The protagonists are:

• Saverio Petitti, School Administrator, ITIS G. Ferrari in Scampia, Naples
• Carmine Nasti, Teacher, ITIS G. Ferrari in Scampia, Naples
• Daniele, Student, Istituto Comprensivo Madre Teresa di Calcutta, Milan
• Carla Federica Galotti, School Administrator, ICS Madre Teresa di Calcutta, Milan
• Giuseppina Pastore, School Administrator, IC Grimaldi Lombardi, Bari
• Antonella Taldone, Teacher, IC Grimaldi Lombardi, Bari
• Alessia Lo Bosco, School Administrator, IC viale dei Consoli, Rome
• Davide, Student, ITIS G. Ferraris in Scampia, Naples
• Salvatore, former student, ITIS G. Ferraris in Scampia, Naples
• Miriam Petruzzelli, Teacher, ICS Madre Teresa di Calcutta, Milan
• Giorgia, Student, IC Grimaldi Lombardi, Bari
• Valeria Cristino, Educator, Phyrtual Innovation Gym
• Elena De Santis, School, Culture, Sports and Youth Policy Councillor, Municipio VII, Rome

Project OpenSpace has been selected by Con i Bambini as part of the Fund to contrast the educational poverty of minors (Bando Adolescenza). The FMD is responsible for the design, implementation, start-up and animation of four Innovation Gyms in schools in the suburban areas of Bari, Milan, Palermo and Reggio Calabria based on the Phyrtual Innovation Gym model developed in 2014 at the Rome Città Educativa (Via del Quadraro 102).