Description – SIMRA Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas

Vazapp

Starting Year:

Scale:Region:

MRA characteristics*: Predominantly Rural Area; 29.6% mountainous and 38.2 aridity with islands with no bridge or tunnel link; ratio of all roads length to region area, 1.9; 42% of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, 68% of people with access to the internet.

Location:

Sector:Topic:

Challenges addressed:

Demographic challenges, Improvement of services / infrastructures, Entrepreneurship, Employment

Description:

Vazapp is a rural hub designed to accommodate young people sharing knowledge, ideas, projects, and passions about agriculture and tourism. It has supposed the creation of young farmers communities to experience technological and organisational innovation adopted at a social level. A typical Vazapp's modus operandi is the promotion of events called "conta-dinner" (a neologism derived from the terms "contadino", that is the Italian word for 'farmer', and "dinner") for relationships creation. Future projects focus on resources sharing, knowledge platforms, and ethical purchasing groups.

Form:Actors involved:

Practices:

Networking, Production of goods, Services delivery, Social media, Public participation, Marketing & Promotion

400 young local farmers

Social change:

• The experiment is in its early stage. Positive social, economic and cultural impacts are expected. • At the moment, relationships creation events lead to the building of a trusted environment, knowledge exchange, collaboration between young farmers, professionals and researchers, and to the creation of a processing cooperative.

Further information:

Website:

References:

* Information at the level of NUTS 3 or local regions.