The GO! 2025 programme opens up to youth participation thanks to the outreach plan launched by the EGTC GO. An important milestone will be reached with the workshop on 6 June, when the number of students involved will exceed 1000.

There is no capital of culture without the inclusion of young people: this is the European lesson of the last twenty years. From Kaunas to Matera, reaching as far as Nova Gorica-Gorizia, there are various experimental forms that have invested the participation of young people in the activities of European cultural capitals. The inclusion of audiences that are neither ‘ordinary insiders’ nor specialists in art and culture is the objective of the GECT GO Outreach and Engagement plan (plan for inclusion and participation), which is developed to support the artistic and cultural programming schedule of GO! 2025 precisely in order to foster a radical strengthening of the cultural ecosystem of the cross-border city through the involvement of girls, boys, families with children and minority communities.

To date, thanks to the cooperation with schools, youth associations and universities in the city, hundreds of girls and boys from the cross-border city have been actively involved in defining the objectives of the common cultural development project. On Thursday 6 June, the ‘Ecosystem Forum’ organised by the University of Nova Gorica will take place, where universities and students from six countries will meet to discuss youth and creative industries. In this context, EGTC GO will officially intervene as one of the stakeholders and will carry out the last youth workshop of this first phase, to reach ‘quota 1000’.

Among the educational institutions with which the EGTC has cooperated so far are: Gimnazija Nova Gorica, State Institute ‘Dante Alighieri’ and Institute ‘Scipio Slataper’ of the Gorizia High School Pole, IIS Simon Gregorčič Primož Trubar - Slovenian High School, ISIS ‘Gabriele D'Annunzio - Max Fabiani’, ISIS ‘Brignoli-Einaudi - Marconi’, ISIS ‘Sandro Pertini’ Monfalcone, State Institute ‘R. M. Cossar Leonardo da Vinci", ISIS “Dante Alighieri”, ISIS “Cankar - Zois - Vega”.

In July, some students will take part in a summer school in Chemnitz (Germany), the other city that will be European Capital of Culture in 2025, at the same time as Nova Gorica - Gorizia. In addition, two youth groups for participatory planning are scheduled to start in September, one dedicated to university students, the other to high school students.

Four are the pillars of the inclusion plan: audience development processes aiming on the one hand to broaden cultural fruition, and on the other hand to diversify the publics approaching and participating in the area's cultural ecosystem. In addition, audience engagement processes aim to include citizens in the decisions and orientations influencing the cultural programme, making the system itself as strong, long-lasting and democratic as possible thanks to an intense participation of the population.