The idea was to build a network of organizations structured around Learning Cities principles such as: active citizenship; sustainable development; building partnerships at local, national and international levels; and involving city leaders and representatives in school projects. Implementing actions and projects aimed at economic and ecological sustainability, which, the latter, can give meaning to the students' learning process.
We presented this project because we all firmly believe that learning, to be effective, must be community-based. In this way we wanted to overcome traditional barriers: to break down the walls of the classroom (according to our slogan), especially as far as schools are concerned, to bridge the gap between citizens and public authorities as far as municipalities are concerned. We need students, families, and associations to get involved in the broader life of the community: so we, as educators and administrators, can generate truly meaningful knowledge and improve the resilience of the city. In this way we want to solve our needs for a school that is still too closed to the outside world and lacks the relationships that give the learning process the meaning it still lacks. These were the most immediate needs that prompted us to present the project. As another of our slogans, which we have included in one of the project posters, says: "It takes a school to make a city, it takes a city to make a school," it was precisely the lack of the latter perspective that prompted us to write the project, making us shoulder some personal sacrifices as well.