Andrea Bocelli Foundation hosted by permanent mission of Italy to the UN for an impact sharing session on empowering youth through music at UN headquarters
The Foundation illustrated global projects and approaches to innovation in education for youth including award-winning ABF Voices of chorus project and ABF GlobalLAB empowerment program, with the special participation of founder Maestro Andrea Bocelli and singer-songwriter Giovanni Caccamo
NEW YORK, December 11 – The Andrea Bocelli Foundation (ABF) was hosted by the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations for a talk focused on the Foundation’s best practices in a session titled “Empowering Youth through Music: 4.7 Education, Agenda 2030, Italian Best Practices: ABF’s global educational projects.” Speakers included: Maurizio Massari, Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations in New York; Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Amina J. Mohammed; Eliot Minchenberg, UNESCO New York Director; Stefano Aversa, ABF Chairman; Laura Biancalani, ABF President; Giovanni Caccamo, singer-songwriter and ABF Ambassador; as well testimonies from the Foundation’s beneficiaries.
With its mission “Empowering people and communities”, the Andrea Bocelli Foundation firmly believes in and pursues the recognition of the universal right to education of children, young people and adults through its work, in line with the UN 2030 Agenda, which identifies in SDG 4.7 the need to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” as the “foundation to improve peoples’ lives and achieve sustainable development”.
All the Foundation’s educational projects are focused on promoting the pursuit of SDG 4.7 and guided by a purpose to build conditions that can foster and encourage children and adults alike to live a full and creative existence through the discovery, nurturing and development of their own potential and the recognition and enhancement of the potential of others.
This end is pursued by focusing the foundation’s educational projects on enhancing cross-cutting skills –namely all those skills that foster the ability to identify, adapt and cope with the complexity and uncertainty of change, thereby preparing them for the rapidly evolving world. By fostering strategic partnerships with private and public organizations, ABF works with experienced educators and experts to offer a curated and tailored education approach centered around music and aimed at unlocking participants’ potential and empowerment through the interconnectedness, culture creation and community building. Ultimately, the focus is to create novel ways of understanding and seeing the world.
Within this framework, ABF Voices of and ABF GlobalLAB are examples of two distinct pilot training models through which to build participatory educational places that are capable of touching the entire community.
Born out of a pilot project in Haiti in 2016 and launched officially as a global project at UNESCO in 2018, ABF Voices creates youth choirs in vulnerable or marginalized communities, offering empowerment opportunities to participants and their communities, by using music as an innovative language and tool to promote inclusion. ABF GlobalLAB is a strategic vocational project aimed at young people aged 19-25, and ideated to incentivize and drive the talent of the citizens of tomorrow. A committee which includes leading multidisciplinary thinkers, including Stefania Giannini, UNESCO Assistant Director General for Education, Giovanni Caccamo, singer and songwriter, and Max Frieder, artist and educator, help drive strategy and impact measurement, as well as engage directly with the participants.
Andrea Bocelli – Founder Andrea Bocelli Foundation
“Art and beauty are human rights. Studying, being around and practicing beauty is especially crucial for the children of today, who will be the citizens of tomorrow. Art has always represented an extraordinary opportunity for people to liberate themselves and make their dreams come true and, with them, the communities they belong to. Education (musical and otherwise) represents the beating heart of the Andrea Bocelli Foundation’s mission. For the large family that is “ABF”, real “empowerment” also means taking care of their education, utilizing innovative approaches and tools, which recognize art, music and digital technology as valuable educational resources. We are striving to adhere to the teachings contained in a maxim attributed to Socrates, which emphasizes that “education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel”. ABF’s purpose is to kindle so many flames that, one day, when they are many, they may rend the darkness (which exists wherever wars, evil and selfishness prevail).”
Ambassador Maurizio Massari – Permanent Mission of Italy to the UN
“This event today aims to celebrate the universal language of music and its profound impact on the lives of young individuals. Music is not merely an art form but an extremely powerful unifying force that transcends all kinds of barriers and boundaries – geographic, historical, linguistic, cultural. Music helps to build bridges, connects people and inspires a sense of human solidarity.”
Stefano Aversa – Chairman Andrea Bocelli Foundation
“ABF’s mission is to empower people and communities: we pride ourselves on our independence, global reach and focus on education. We developed our innovative approach to education since our founding back in 2011, guided by three fundamental elements we believe make a real difference in this complex world: strategic partnerships with global technical experts and local community operators, a curated and tailored approach with a keen attention to the context in which each project is developed, along with relentless drive to excellence to unlock the full potential through the concepts of beauty, culture, interconnectedness, and community building. We strive to develop self-awareness and in particular the awareness of everyone’s unique qualities and talents: these are fundamental steppingstones in the process of forming the citizens of tomorrow.”.