Co-design, multi-stakeholder dialogue, positive contamination of ideas and desire for redemption of a territory that is the cradle of Italian and Mediterranean culture, rich in history and local excellence: from the enhancement of these elements comes "Reggio Calabria Incontra", an innovative project of participatory governance that promotes collaboration as a working method for the definition of a proactive and future-oriented vision of the territory.
Public, private and Third Sector bodies – local and national – come together to share experiences, needs and resources useful for supporting concrete, effective, inclusive and innovative policies and interventions. At the same time, the project creates conditions and opportunities for the expansion and consolidation of a network of relationships thanks to which to foster the emergence of new opportunities for collaboration and co-design capable of overcoming existing structural limits and generating new development trajectories.
The project is promoted by the Municipality of Reggio Calabria as part of the PON Metro Plus program with the methodological contribution of ALTIS Graduate School of Sustainable Management of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and sees the participation of local and national institutions and organizations.
A shared journey towards a common goal
"Reggio Calabria Incontra" is a path of listening and discussion that has covered the whole of 2025 and has involved institutions, businesses, the third sector and communities to strengthen dialogue and collaboration between all actors, in line with the models of participatory governance increasingly promoted also at European level, thanks to short meetings, exchanges and contaminations with experiences developed in other territories. The project was developed along four thematic areas, identified as strategic to encourage greater development of the territory:
- businesses: dedicated to developing proposals for strengthening the attractiveness of the territory towards investments by local and national companies and for the development of SMEs capable of entering the sustainable production chains of medium-large companies;
- young people: aimed at supporting the expansion of job opportunities for young people, fostering their entrepreneurial capacity by supporting the creation and growth of start-ups, as well as strengthening the territory's ability to attract, retain and enhance qualified talents and professionals, encouraging their permanence and contribution to local socio-economic development.
- territory: oriented towards identifying useful interventions to promote the opening of the economic-entrepreneurial fabric of Reggio towards the Mediterranean area, reinterpreting in a current key the historical role played by the city as a bridge between the north and the south of the world, with the aim of creating new frontiers of growth and development;
- Culture and Crafts: aimed at enhancing the artistic, cultural and natural heritage of the territory, in order to encourage the consolidation of an ecosystem capable of retaining and giving value to local resources and encouraging the opening of the Reggio cultural system.
The plenary meeting with all stakeholders was held on 23 and 24 January 2026 at the Municipality of Reggio Calabria and was a first moment of focal point to share a working method and to build together a shared roadmap, which hopefully can be consolidated over time and can also be replicated in other contexts.
Call for people
"Reggio Calabria Incontra" is an open collaboration platform that connects people, energies and visions, where everyone can make a difference: from companies, institutions and Third Sector entities to individual citizens and young people present in the area or who, from other territories, want to contribute and make a difference for Reggio Calabria.
We want to expand the network of actors interested in investing time, resources and skills to enhance this historic territory, both with new innovative ideas and by pooling pre-existing experiences that have already been successful elsewhere and which, suitably adapted to the peculiarities of the territory, can be replicated.
It is time to be there, to return, to contribute and to build together a more inclusive, open and sustainable Reggio Calabria.
