Creating community and a sense of belonging, starting from the history of one’s territory and stimulating children’s imagination and creativity through play. It is one of the intentions of “NEMO (Nature and Education for new participatory models): the educating community of Borgo Bambino”project selected bySocial Enterprise With Children as part of the Fund to combat child educational poverty. To experiment with permanent community welfare services, the social and cultural promotion association The Hidden Track APSamong the partners of NEMO, is creating some “community workshops” during the activities of the parish Grest of Holy Family of Manfredonia which every year welcomes many children and teenagers for the summer oratory.
“We first identified the needs and requirements of the community – explain Michele Sacco and Maria Grazia Trotta of ‘La Traccia Nascosta APS’ – and then co-planned, trained and supported the educators, with whom we conducted three workshops. The works carried out will be used for the charity auction, which will serve to raise funds for the purchase of useful material for the parish’s activities”.
“I am grateful to the NEMO project – declares Don Salvatore Miscio, parish priest of the Holy Family – for having trained both adult educators and adolescent entertainers, but above all for having created a community style that involves everyone, allowing children and teenagers to receive the right accompaniment even when having fun”.
The first laboratorytitled “The Tent of Emotions”, stimulated creativity and discussion among the children, who were put to the test with the composition of a fairy tale about emotions. In the second laboratory on the Street Art the young artists created, with the stencil technique, a boat on which each one added details and details to make it a unique work of art. “Community and Territory” it is instead the theme of third laboratoryorganized in collaboration with the Association ArcheoSipontum of Manfredonia, during which the miniature stratigraphy of a hypothetical archaeological site was created.
“It was a truly enriching experience, says Davide, an animator just 16 years old. Before now no one had ever taught us how to actively form a community. Working in a group helped us understand ourselves and others too”.
“Building an educating community – concludes Barbara Torraco, president of Patto Consulting Impresa Sociale, leader of the NEMO project – means building an environment that breathes a common educational desire, which has a benevolent and positive outlook towards the new generations. And this is precisely what we try to do with NEMO, a project that pushes us to invest in pedagogical processes, to be courageous and to experience educational professions as an exciting challenge”.
