Political School in Lombardy

Aim & process

⚡️ Aim: The Climate Political School in Lombardy is structured as a thematic journey, designed to empower participants to act on climate challenges at the local level. Each session brings together experts, local administrators, activists, and citizens to explore a key aspect of environmental policy.

👯‍♀️ Target group: The people that could participate are either young people that want to campaign from outside the institutions, or campaign to be elected, city and municipal councillor throughout the region. They could act on what they learned in the events within their scope

🙏 Collaboration: Volt, Possibile and Patto Civico for Lombardy are organizing a political school about climate change and how to act on it. Using practical examples, we will see how a city councilor, an activist or someone that wants to become one or the other, can actually have an impact on fighting climate change in their area.

✔ KPIs: 1) strengthen the partnership with the other parties, 2) attract new members, 3) build connections and relationship with the participants, and 4) elected official can use knowledge from events.

💰 Participation fees: Adults: €30 for all sessions | €10 per single lesson. University Students: €20 for all sessions | €5 per single lesson

The events line-up:

  • Saturday, February 15 🌍 Water Management & Climate Change: Focus on satellite data, nature-based solutions, and urban planning to tackle floods and droughts.
  • Saturday, March 15 🌱 Biodiversity & Protected Areas: A journey into ecological restoration, with examples from PLIS and river requalification projects.
  • Saturday, March 29 🚨 Civil Protection & Environmental Health: From PFAS pollution to disaster resilience, bridging science and local governance.
  • Saturday, April 12 ♻️ Environment & Economy: A False Dichotomy?: Open innovation, circular economy, and the role of local energy communities.
  • Saturday, May 10 🎤 Communicating Policy & Climate Action: How to communicate Climate Action? Strategic storytelling and countering climate misinformation.

Evaluation and learnings

We had forms and open feedbacks from participants.

Format and organisation
✔️ High appreciation for the venues and the Saturday morning format.
⚠️ Cognitive fatigue in the second half of the day; 4 speakers too many per session.
➡️ Recommendations: limit to 2–3 speakers, introduce a strong, consistent moderator, start at 10:00, and include informal social moments or lunch.

Content and audience fit
👍 Excellent speaker quality and topic diversity.
📌 Interest in more practical and local-level tools: how to administrate, act from the opposition, manage public funds, especially for next edition, but in general a best practice was this.
➡️ Suggestions: focus on how to run for office, work in opposition, and navigate the public administration; integrate testimonials from experienced councillors.

Community and continuity
🤝 Strong desire for continuity beyond the events.
➡️ Concrete actions: post-event thematic groups (Telegram/WhatsApp/Discord), launch a newsletter, and organise a closing event with follow-up opportunities and project proposals.

Accessibility and sustainability
💡 Participation fees were seen as useful for engagement, but suggest offering a free teaser session and discounted packages for students or low-income attendees.

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