COnNECTIoN
The best policies emerge when people become part of the conversation. YOUZ, the Youth Forum of the Emilia-Romagna Region, is a large-scale participatory process involving thousands of young people in shaping future regional policies. It is an open, inclusive, and widespread listening process, bringing together ideas, needs, and perspectives from different areas and turning them into concrete proposals. In this context, our role was to give a visual form to the dialogue, making the exchange more accessible, collaborative, and memorable.
PROCEsS
Throughout the YOUZ sessions, we carried out live scribing activities, documenting presentations, discussions, and co-design moments in real time. Through visual thinking, we captured participants’ voices, highlighting connections, recurring themes, and shared perspectives. Each map became a tool for synthesis and facilitation, supporting the dialogue while providing an overview of the richness that emerged throughout the participatory process.
HIGhLIgHTS
The result is a collection of visual maps that tell the story of a listening process focused on younger generations, transforming individual contributions into a collective narrative. The illustrations do more than simply represent what was said: they make relationships, priorities, and opportunities visible, helping to build a shared understanding of the issues that emerged. In a project where participation is the true driver of change, visual language helped build a bridge between institutions, local communities, and younger generations, making the dialogue even more open, engaging, and inclusive.
