School ends and the need of many families whose both parents work is to find a place for the children, especially if the precious grandparents are not there.
The demand for summer recreation centers (Cre) is high, despite the Municipality of Ravenna offering, thanks to the Oasi31 platform (www.oasi31.it), many choices, both public and private. There are 68 accredited structures, 15 of which are municipal, an increase compared to the 13 in 2023.
The councilor for family, childhood and birth policies, Livia Molducci, explains how the offer for the CRE works.
Molducci, requests for contributions from the Emilia Romagna Region closed yesterday, how did it go?
“There were 1261 applications for the request for contributions to combat educational poverty and work-life balance, of which 361 for the 3-6 age group, 875 for the 7-13 age group and 25 for the 14-17 age group who are children with problems. Families with an ISEE of up to 24 thousand euros can be admitted to the contribution to support the fees of both private and public centers. It can reach up to a maximum of 100 euros per week, the amount of 300 euros cannot be exceeded for 3 weeks. The contribution concerns children from 3 to 13 years old, to which are added boys/girls up to 17 years old for those with a certified disability”.
How are the requests for the Cre going?
«There is a high turnout, in line with the previous year, also high for the period, so much so that we have requests for all 4 shifts. We offer fortnightly shifts: two in July and two in August. The rankings are released at the end of May so that families have the opportunity to organize themselves in another way if they are not included in the list. Furthermore, parents can also take advantage of parental leave. There are 850 shifts assigned for nursery school, 467 applications submitted, and to date 132 families have not been accepted. For the nursery there are 820 shifts with 382 applications, 56 families not accepted. It is a constantly evolving figure because families have time to communicate a possible withdrawal up to 5 days before the start of the Cre and then the ranking is scrolled down.”
How many Cres are active this year?
“There are 32 for the 3-6 age group, 47 up to 17 years, a total of 68. The public Cres are funded by the Municipality of Ravenna and are added to the private ones: there are 8 for the Cren (summer nursery recreation centers) for 0-3 years, for the months of July and August, 4 in the city, 2 at the seaside, 2 in the countryside. While the Crem, for 3-6 years are 7: 4 schools in the city, 1 at the seaside and 1 in the countryside. In the summer the Municipality takes advantage of this to do maintenance work in the schools, but the structures, such as the Ottolenghi elementary school, which are not undergoing work, can be given in concession to the various associations for the Cres.”
Do you think of a possibility in the future to increase the number of places?
«It will be difficult because the Cren are managed with a procurement contract, the costs are established in the contract, at most we could ask for an expansion, but we would have to increase spending on this item. The problem is that many of the social cooperatives that were awarded the contract complain of a lack of staff with the appropriate qualifications. We must also think that there are also Fism (Italian Federation of nursery schools) nursery schools and nursery schools which expand the offer”
A summer all tailored for children and teenagers, from English to activities related to the sea and art
There are 68 accredited associations that offer recreational summer camps for boys and girls aged 0-17, just browse the website www.oasi31.it to find the one that can satisfy the desires of our children and our pockets.
If you want summer to be a time of fun but also an opportunity to teach your child English, then you can choose «Pingu’s English Full Immersion Summer Camp»: Aleksandra Kukula, creator of the association, explains: «We have been at Rocca Brancaleone for three years, we did the first Cre in 2019 in our school in via Pirano, then there was covid and we moved to the public gardens, now we are happy at Rocca which has become the summer headquarters of the school. During the school year we hold English courses in via Pirano, our audience is made up of children from 0 to 12 years old because we use a method through play, which also works with very young children of 6 months, the smallest child I have had. We stop after the third year of middle school when the study method changes and play is no longer used as learning». Kukula continues: «It is a very dynamic Cre, for children from 4 to 13 years old, we do many outdoor activities: pet therapy, break dance, mosaic, cooking workshops. Our special feature is that it is all in English, our teachers only speak in the language with the kids: 8 hours of full immersion, we insist a lot on this. The important thing is the many collaborations with other associations, with scouts, with musicians, with athletes. We are growing as an association because there is not much on offer in this sector, we try to make everything child-friendly, to make them feel at home, the teaching thus leads to different results, the children feel it». Kukula concludes: «This year there will be about a hundred children who have chosen our Cre».
Maria Francesca Piccini and Elena Paciotti are the souls of the «Tra le clouds» association, which unites the two souls of the creators, the first graduated in environmental sciences and passionate about games, the second an interior designer capable of creating anything with her hands. President Piccini tells the story of «In the Clouds»: «We were born to carry out projects in schools, we combined our skills and different aptitudes to dedicate ourselves above all to children. We run a walking bus service, but we also do educational projects in schools and will soon do one in prison.” There are 5 Cres that the association is offering this year, explains Piccini: «We welcome children from 3 to 15 years old, we have two nursery schools under concession, in Ravenna there is room for 40 children while in Marina for 30. In Marina in Ravenna we use the athletics field for children aged 6 to 12: it is a beautiful area, with lots of greenery, completely fenced, near the sea. It allows us to organize many activities with the Cestha centre, with the Carabinieri biodiversity unit. We organize initiatives related to the sea, we have also released a turtle into the sea, we take the kids to the climbing tower of the Mercurio association. It is a Cre of nature and sport. Also in Marina at the Ottolenghi school we have a Cre for the 3-6 year age group. In Ravenna, however, for children aged 6-12, we are at the public gardens, where we do activities with the Planetarium with astronomy workshops, but also mosaics. The key words could be play and art. For the same age group, the Cre at the Garibaldi school in Ravenna focuses on creative workshops in mosaic, painting, art, but also team games and gymnastics. Finally, another project with pre-adolescents is Junior staff, aged 13 to 15, with activities in line with their interests: the Holden library, Imaginary Radio, nature excursions, podcasts, treasure hunts with orienteering. We use both the athletics field in Marina and the public gardens in Ravenna. We are always looking for many different collaborations with other associations, from pet therapy to the sailing club and the equestrian centre.” At the moment registrations are going well, concludes Piccini: «At the moment there are around 1500 registrations, but they can still increase during the season: we have around 500 children a week in the different Cres. At the end of the season we usually have 2000-2200 registrations. Many children have been following us for years and we always try to make different proposals.” (e.nen.)
