Paper
Paideia’s recreational activities: Evaluating informal experiences in bringing families together
- issue: Issue 1 / 2009
- authors: Fabrizio Serra, Federica Liscio
- keywords: sharing, empathy, needs, siblings, Italy
- views: 3543
- downloaded: 1
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abstract
Background. Paideia organizes recreational activities for children with disabilities involved with the Foundation: these leisure and formative initiatives also include their siblings and nuclear family (parents, grandparents, cousins, etc.)[1]. The experience, gained over several years, has shown the importance of bringing together assistance and support services with opportunities to socialize and play.
The sharing of time and space away from the normal, often heavy, everyday life, leads to an easier relation between families and social workers and helps build reciprocal relationships. Through recreational activities the Foundation provides informal settings: helps build friendships, promotes interpersonal exchange between families, finds common interests and concerns.
Recreational and cultural activities are rarely recognized as "primary needs". However, it is crucial to promote this type of settings, as stated in the United Nations International Convention on the Rights of the Child. Here Article 31 declares that "states parties shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activities".
Every year the Foundation proposes day trips to various locations and week-long trips to the seaside, in which we involve a large group of volunteers who help parents and children in their everyday tasks and facilitate the relationship building process between participants.
From Paideia Foundation's early years, it understood the difficulty faced by families with ill or disabled children in going on vacation its main issues are organizing things and events tailored to children's needs, finding help in the caring for children who live in a different setting and lack financial resources.
Arising from this need, the idea of a vacation for the entire family came to our mind; the first vacations were done in small beach structures only for a limited number of families. In the following years, other types of residences were sought out and we were able to find a large vacation resort village that was convenient and accessible for everyone. Each family has its own bungalow and volunteers stay together in their own living quarters.
During the first years of vacation (from 2001-2004) we invited around 20 families to come for one week. In 2005 we decided to increase the number of weeks up to 5 weeks with 12 families during each week.
Particular attention was paid to siblings, so they could have a real vacation without having the usual responsibilities of caring for their disabled sisters or brothers. For this reason, Paideia creates groups not only focusing on children with disabilities but takes into consideration the needs also of their siblings.
The objective of the seaside vacation was to create a "special" experience for the entire family, where there is time for friendship and having fun and this doesn't revolve exclusively around the disability. The Foundation creates groups of volunteers both through training conducted by experts - organized during the year - and through one to one training based on real life situations.
The investment for summer vacations is becoming a consistent part of Paideia's activities as an organization and in terms of the budget. In summer 2007 the Foundation invested around 70,000 € for the project.
Vacations are offered without families and volunteers having to pay.
Purpose. To evaluate the vacation experience allows the Foundation to look at different types of issues: the coherence between the initial hypotheses and the actual realization of vacations, the effectiveness of experiences, the analysis of the conditions (organizational, professional, social, cultural) which are favorable or unfavorable in meeting the objectives, and the elements needed to improve the progression of the initiative.
We decided on the qualitative approach based on the participation of family members, Foundation workers, and volunteers involved in the vacations.
Specifically, the evaluation plan was developed in 3 phases:
- administer a self-evaluation form with open questions to family members, Foundation workers, and volunteers;
- organize 4 focus groups, two composed by families, one with the volunteers and one with the Foundation workers;
- provide the opportunity to discuss the results and to find strategies which will improve the initiative in the future.
Contacts: Fabrizio Serra, Fondazione Paideia, Via San Francesco d'Assisi, 44, E-mail: fabrizio.serra@fondazionepaideia.it; federica.liscio@fondazionepaideia.it, Phone 011 5520454.
[1]. Paideia was founded in 1993 by a group of families in Turin to help disadvantaged children by promoting new initiatives and giving concrete support to those involved in this work. It is active in two main areas: "support area" - family support and recreational activities - and "promotion and development area" - grants to organizations dedicated to helping disadvantaged children and social research (www.fondazionepaideia.it).