Friend-Ship Project

In March-April 2025, Youmanity delivered an interactive project with secondary school students from the Falcone Borsellino-Carelli Institute in Italy.

FRIEND-SHIP, all on board!

Key aims of the FRIEND-SHIP project were the promotion of social inclusion and human connection as well as foster a greater understanding of the fragility of relational dynamics among students.

Led by the director of Youmanity, Angelo Judice, and a local teacher from the Falcone Borsellino-Carelli Institute, Rosa Pepe, five group discussions focused on the value of friendship, the effects of bullying/cyberbullying on victims, and were held with a classroom of 13-year old students (13 female, 9 males). The opening group discussion explored the meaning of friendship and how individual experiences, good and bad, shape behaviour . At the end of this first group discussion, students were assigned an essay entitled:

The Fragility of Human Relationships

Students wrote the essay anonymously to provide them with an opportunity to express themselves freely. Students described both negative and positive experiences, therefore bringing to the fore any bad feelings experienced by individual students toward class members. During subsequent group discussions these experiences were explored at length to help minimise any potential antagonism among students. They also became more aware of how words and actions can have detrimental effects on others. 

During a group exercise, students extrapolated key points from the anonymous essays (The Fragility of Human Relationships), therefore finding common ground as to what true friendship should be like. The students then copied over key descriptions into a single document which became the script for a digital cartoon. 

This product, funded by Youmanity, has helped promote more social cohesion among students who worked as a team, creating together a product they developed as a classroom effort.

To the cartoon script, one of the students, Martina Chiarappa, lent her voice to the main character. The cartoon also included several background scenes from the town the students come from, Conversano. Similarly, sound effects (church bells, local birds, sparrows and swallows) were recorded in town and included in the cartoon.

As a whole, this project was a success. The students were encouraged to explore important values of social empathy, reciprocal respect and consideration. It also allowed teaching staff to become more acquainted with their students’ feelings, learning about those experiencing social isolation - as identified by group discussions and essay work. 

All in all, Friend-Ship was well received by both students and teaching staff who enjoyed creating a digital cartoon they co-authored together. The project shows that when there is teamwork wonderful things can be achieved.