Close in the Distance is a non-profit organization founded in 2022, originally emerging as a civic and informal group of people who today live across Italy and Europe, primarily between Milan and Palermo.

Our team includes youth workers, psychologists, trainers and family mediators who, alongside their professional work, have always been involved in youth-oriented initiatives and activism, gradually engaging with Digital Youth Work during the COVID years. We all come from the non-profit and social project development sectors and bring a wide range of experience in promoting diversity and inclusion, including work with people experiencing vulnerability or hardship, those at risk of dropping out of education or, more simply, those who lack the means or opportunities to access learning activities, guidance or support services.

Our Story

Close in the Distance was founded precisely for this reason: to preserve the work we had done together during the pandemic and for some time afterwards, and not to lose what we had shared online and on a voluntary basis through platforms and channels such as Discord and Reddit, as well as within different virtual communities connected to gaming and gaming culture. During that period, some of us began providing psychological support and parent-training online, working with individuals and families experiencing isolation who, even before the pandemic, lived in remote areas and regions that would otherwise have been difficult to reach without digital tools. Others, including educators and facilitators, began moving their work online, using digital tools and channels to develop activities and learning opportunities with people from across Europe.

And then there were youth workers who, looking for a meaningful way to use the time spent at home, developed socio-educational and non-formal learning activities for young people and adolescents, many of whom were experiencing loneliness. These included small online experiential workshops, opportunities for discussion, collaborative activities and even role-play sessions set within virtual and gaming environments. Alongside this, tutors and other educational professionals continued to offer support with more practical aspects of everyday life, from studying and school organisation to difficulties related to daily social interaction.

Once the pandemic and the so-called post-pandemic period had come to an end, Close in the Distance was eventually founded as a way of building on the experiences, skills and methodologies we had developed by engaging with people through a computer, a smartphone, a voice channel, a discussion thread or social media. We had come to realise that yes, it was not only possible, but also useful and impactful, to support lifelong learning within virtual spaces for conversation and exchange; that socio-educational work and psychological support did not have to stop at face-to-face activities, but could cross borders and distances precisely through a screen, a tool that is as useful as it is often demonised. In doing so, we were able to reach people we might otherwise never have met or come to know.

Close in the Distance is the banner under which we all came together, quite spontaneously, right from the very beginning. And it could hardly have been otherwise!

Our name comes from the title of a song, part of the soundtrack of a well-known online multiplayer game which, like most MMORPGs, brings together a huge number of people of all ages: teenagers, adults, entire families and older people. Much of our digital work during the COVID years actually began there, within virtual spaces and through in-game characters.

It was there, for example, that we first became involved in online LGBTIQA+ activism, meeting people who, through an avatar, came out for the first time with us, looking both for emotional support and for professional resources and points of reference. Within those same spaces, we also experimented with socio-educational activities, opportunities for discussion and other forms of participation, which helped us understand just how much a community originally built around a videogame could actually “work”, both for us and for the people taking part.

From there, we gradually moved towards other platforms, bringing the same experience into educational and training activities for adults, organisations and staff from both public and private institutions in Italy, without ever forgetting how much virtual and gaming communities had come to mean for us beyond gaming itself.

Close in the Distance also means being close despite the distance or, if you like, bridging or reducing the distance. This is why choosing these words as the name of our association came naturally to us. They became a symbol of the kind of space we wanted to create, both physical and virtual: a place where people can come together, grow closer to one another and make the most of what is genuinely positive about the digital and virtual culture that is now part of our everyday lives. It is a culture that is often discussed in negative terms, without much consideration for the fact that very few things are inherently good or bad and that, ultimately, what matters is how we choose to use them.

Today, we continue our work as youth workers, educators, psychologists and trainers, with the commitment and aim of promoting, as far as possible, a healthy, conscious and inclusive approach to everyday digital culture in all its forms, without forgetting where we come from and, above all, the people we started this journey with:

• We develop youth work activities, workshops and non-formal learning programmes focused on social inclusion, participation and digital citizenship, while also integrating feminist and queer perspectives and SOGIESC-related topics. We mainly work through participatory approaches and group activities, seeking to involve underrepresented groups of young people as well.

• We carry out educational and awareness-raising activities around everyday digital life, using videogames, digital role-play and online communities as tools for learning, discussion and participation. We experiment with these approaches through workshops and non-formal activities for young people and adults, particularly to support the development of relational and civic competences.

• We provide support and identity-affirming activities primarily for young LGBTIQA+ people, reaching them also through online spaces and communities and creating opportunities for discussion, socialisation and participation. We work in particular on discrimination, online and offline bullying, and family conflict, while also supporting parents and caregivers in developing greater understanding and dialogue around coming out and gender identities.

• We also promote dialogue and exchange with European organisations working in youth work, adult education and social inclusion through projects, mobility activities and collaborative initiatives. The aim is to expand opportunities for learning, connection and participation, particularly for young people with fewer opportunities and for their families.

• We promote parenting support and family psychoeducation programmes, offering spaces for discussion around digital education, family communication, inclusion and supporting children through different stages of development, with particular attention to diverse family structures and situations of vulnerability.

• We provide qualified psychotherapists, social workers and professionals working in the field of disability with free access to the association’s physical and virtual spaces, helping make support activities and services more accessible to both neurotypical and neurodivergent people. We also support the organisation of recreational, social and inclusive initiatives, including through digital spaces and communities.

• We also address problematic forms of digital engagement, including gaming- and social-media-related addictions, through workshops, educational activities and open-access resources. Precisely because videogames, platforms and digital communities are part of our culture and everyday practices, we aim to promote more conscious ways of engaging with them without overlooking their risks and potential drawbacks.

And above all... We promote the culture of nonprofit, of actions and initiatives with no profit motive. Everything we do is, and will always be, accessible, free, and open to all who are interested in our topics and our work, always inspired by the key words Accessibility, Solidarity, and Collaboration. These values describe what the online world once was and what it can still be, with everyone's commitment and a bit more awareness and guidance.