The Design for Children project, funded by Sapienza's call for Third Mission projects, confirms the partnership between the Sapienza Design Research interdepartmental center and Save the Children Italia to fight educational poverty. Within the “Illuminiamo il Futuro” campaign, since 2019 Sapienza researchers have been protagonists as consultants and teachers in the creation of a series of paths of approach to design through the creative use of technologies of both representation and prototyping and digital manufacturing, dedicated to young people between 12 and 19 years old exposed to the risk of social exclusion.

The first phase of the new Design for Children project began in March 2023, co-designed with the Save the Children team and the coop. Soc S.S. Pietro e Paolo for young beneficiaries of the Punto Luce delle arti in Ostia, one of the 26 high-density educational spaces through which Save the Children continues to fight educational poverty in the most disadvantaged contexts throughout the country in an area historically at risk of both educational and material poverty in the Roman suburbs. In this phase, the kids are the protagonists of two new paths of approach to digital manufacturing through the graphic art of comics and product design for cosmetics.

The second phase will see the kids guests at the Sapienza offices in Valle Giulia and Fontanella Borghese, for an event that on June 26 and 27 will see them protagonists of workshops, masterclasses, microstories and round tables of discussion on the role of the very young in social innovation through design, social enterprise, and the third sector.
On this occasion, the exhibition “Design al Punto Luce” will be inaugurated at the Valle Giulia gallery, which will showcase the works produced by the students during the design courses through the themes of screen printing and rapid prototyping for dynamic modeling, teacher Marco Chialastri; graphics for stop-motion, teachers Paolo Cenciarelli, Andrea Vendetti, Pierluigi Amato, rapid prototyping for jewelry, teachers Luca D'Elia, Lina Monaco, and Domitilla Baffigo, 3D art, teacher Lina Monaco, the robotics competition, teachers Viktor Malakuczi, Ioannis Chatzigiannakis, Andrea Vitaletti, and lastly 3D for comics, teacher Alberto Morvillo and rapid prototyping for cosmetics, teachers Lina Monaco and Luca D’Elia.