CEMEA del Mezzogiorno onlus

CEMEA del Mezzogiorno onlus is an Italian non-profit organisation placed in Rome. It belongs to CEMEA - Training Centres for Active Education Methods - a worldwide educational movement of trainers and social workers started in the 50s. The action of CEMEA del Mezzogiorno deals with disadvantaged young people, the promotion of non-formal education through training, the development of local communities and active citizenships. In its initiatives CEMEA del Mezzogiorno involves children, youngsters and adults through play and recreational activities, which are the main tools of its work. Our activities can be summed up in: training stages for educators, teachers, animators; educative centres for children, teenagers and youngsters; artistic and cultural activities within social programs; holidays and spare time centres; international exchanges; workshops outside compulsory education; ecological and environmental education; exchanges with universities; national and international meetings and seminars; publishing activities (bulletins, books, reviews…). Vision: CEMEA promotes the respect of people diversities, believing in everyone's desire to better one self. Making this opportunity accessible to each individual is CEMEA’s main aim. Mission: CEMEA’s educational activity, combined with the international learning opportunities offered by the European Union, support participation, intercultural approach, local dimension and active citizenship as basic elements for collective and individual actions. Cemea del Mezzogiorno manages directly different services in Rome (playgrounds, adolescents and youth centres…) aimed to support children, adolescent and youngsters development through non formal education. The centres are focused on the personal development of users through any kind of activity that can stimulate creativity and participation. Intercultural exchange and respect for diversities are transversal objectives in the work with these of target groups, especially in a capital like Rome with a relevant number of immigrant families. The main aims of the educational work done in the centres are to help people to: - express themselves; - find new cultural inputs; - recognize and valorise personal and collective entrepreneurship; - foster self-esteem and develop a positive approach towards society; - acquire abilities and specific competencies; The working method of CEMEAs is based on the belief that people’s growth develops in trust’s atmospheres and conditions, where there are non-violent and non-competitive attitudes, where there is no judgement, where there everyone – according to the own role – is asked to gain awareness about him or herself without feelings of guilt or fear. According to CEMEAs, the growth is based on ‘doing’; the activities are an important means to understand and to relate with each other’s. An activity must hold individual and social meaning. We are not interested in ‘doing it’ for the sake of just doing. We care that what it is done could involve in the person as a whole, in its entirety and complexity. International mobility as well is conceived as an educational tool to foster self-confidence and to increase transversal skills, exploiting all the added value of an intercultural environment. Active methodology rejects any kind of free time entertainment and asks to the educational team to avoid to offer simply structured activities. Indeed, the personal activation is needed in any moment of the centres’ everyday life. A special attention to the process is more important that an amazing final product of any activity. To express their own needs, to match a possible idea to fulfil them and to deal with the full realization of the activity will empower people of any age and will prepare them to be active citizens. Throughout the years CEMEA del Mezzogiorno has developed a strong network of partners at local, national and international level (youth centres, schools, NGOs, cultural associations and organisations deal