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 is composed of educators, tutors, psychotherapists, family mediators, and social workers who, alongside their professional roles, have consistently engaged in sociocultural promotion and activism, turning during the COVID years toward digital social work, online education, and continuous virtual training. We all come from the non-profit sector and the field of ongoing education and training, with diverse and extensive experience in supporting diversity and inclusion, including for people in situations of vulnerability or hardship, at risk of dropout, or simply lacking the means or direct access to educational opportunities, guidance services, individual support, or psychological and therapeutic care.

Our Story

Close in the Distance was founded precisely for this reason: to preserve the work we carried out together during COVID and in the period that followed, and to continue what we had shared voluntarily online through platforms and channels such as Discord, Reddit, and various virtual communities connected to gaming culture. During that time, some of us began providing psychological support and parent training online, engaging with individuals and families experiencing isolation who, even before the pandemic, lived in highly peripheral areas that would have been difficult to reach without virtual tools.

At the same time, educators and facilitators moved their activities online, using digital platforms to design and deliver initiatives and programs with people across Europe, sometimes brought together through multiplayer online games. Tutors and social workers also chose to make meaningful use of their time at home by supporting and guiding adolescents—often with special educational needs and limited social networks—offering practical help with school-related tasks and everyday social challenges. Once the pandemic and the immediate post-pandemic period had passed, Close in the Distance was formally established, building on the experiences, skills, and methodologies developed through engaging people via computers, smartphones, voice channels, online threads, and social media.

We came to recognize that ongoing education in virtual conversational spaces is not only possible but effective and impactful, and that social work and psychological support are not confined to in-person settings but can extend beyond physical boundaries through a screen—often criticized yet profoundly enabling—allowing us to reach individuals and families we might otherwise never have encountered.

Close in the Distance is the banner under which we all spontaneously gathered from the very beginning. It could hardly have been otherwise. Our name comes from the title of a song, a soundtrack from a well-known online multiplayer video game which, like many MMORPGs, brings together a vast and diverse community of people of all ages: adolescents, adults, entire families, and older players. It was precisely there, in those virtual spaces inhabited through avatars and in-game characters, that much of our digital work during COVID first began. From that starting point, we expanded to other platforms and tools, without forgetting how those virtual—even playful—communities had unexpectedly become something much more.

It was within those environments that we began engaging in online LGBTIQA+ activism, supporting individuals who, sometimes through a game avatar, came out to us for the first time, seeking both emotional reassurance and professional guidance. We carried out our work as educators online, supporting adults looking for new growth opportunities as well as Italian public institutions and their staff, at times learning ourselves—almost from scratch—how to use emerging virtual interaction platforms effectively. We also began using the association’s virtual spaces to provide psychological support, especially for individuals and families living in remote areas, both neurotypical and neurodivergent, ensuring affordability and maximum accessibility through online delivery. At the same time, we listened to and supported parents experiencing overload and burnout, caught between anxiety about work disrupted by the pandemic and concern for their families, at a time when leaving home was barely possible.

Close in the Distance also means being close despite distance, or, if we prefer, reducing distance. The name emerged naturally as a symbol of a space—both physical and virtual—where people can come together, connect, and make constructive use of what everyday digital culture can offer. While digital environments are often discussed in negative terms, we have learned that tools are rarely inherently good or bad; their impact depends on how they are used.

Today we continue our work as educators, psychotherapists, tutors, and family and parenting mediators, with the commitment to promote, as consistently as possible, a healthy, conscious, and inclusive use of everyday digital culture in all its forms, without forgetting where we started and with whom.

• We develop parenting support and family psychoeducation programs, creating spaces for dialogue on digital education, family communication, inclusion, and supporting children through the various stages of development, with particular attention to diverse families and contexts of vulnerability.

• We design educational activities and projects focused on social inclusion and its concrete implications in everyday and workplace settings, integrating feminist and queer perspectives as well as SOGIESC-related themes, with the aim of making these tools accessible even in marginal or underrepresented professional environments.

• We make the association’s physical and virtual spaces available free of charge to licensed psychotherapists, social workers, and disability support professionals in order to increase access to psychological services for both neurotypical and neurodivergent individuals. We also provide organizational support for inclusive recreational initiatives in Palermo and Milan.

• We carry out awareness-raising activities on everyday digital life, integrating videogames and digital roleplay into contexts ranging from therapeutic support to family guidance, using these tools to foster civic, democratic, and inclusive competencies.

• We address the problematic aspects of digital culture, such as new forms of gaming and social media addiction, through workshops and resources delivered both online and in person, and by training other professionals and public and private prevention centers. Because these tools are part of our own culture and daily practices, we recognize both their educational potential and the risks associated with uncritical use.

• We provide support and identity-affirming activities primarily for young LGBTIQA+ individuals, reaching them online as well, offering listening spaces, resources, and self-empowerment pathways, particularly in cases of discrimination, bullying, or family conflict. We also work alongside parents and caregivers in processes of understanding and dialogue related to coming out and gender identity, fostering a more informed and inclusive family environment.

• Finally, we promote dialogue with European organizations active in the fields of inclusion, updated parenting practices, gender policies, and disability support through exchanges and both virtual and in-person mobility initiatives, with the goal of expanding educational and developmental opportunities, including for adults with fewer economic resources.

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.