Centre for the Creative Development – ‘Danilo Dolci’
The Association is born from the experience and the social and educative work of Danilo Dolci and his collaborators that started in western Sicily ever since 1952. The association stems from the demand of providing the local communities with a structure committed in the practical resolution of the problems arising from constant meetings with the people. It is developed and set up as a creative space of popular auto-analysis and planning from the bottom, in maieutic collaboration with the local population and it is aimed at promoting the economic and social development of the territory.
Through non-violent fights, fastings, Marches for Peace, denounces of the mafioso-patronage system, the so-called “strike down”, Radio Libera, manifestations and Maieutic laboratories that have involved thousands of people, the conditions for a real change and development of the territory have been created, within the respect of the local culture. The real outcomes of the battles promoted by the Centre of Studies and Initiatives are today visible at local level, both in concrete works (the barrage on the Jato river, the agricultural cooperatives, the “Borgo di Dio” training centre, the Mirto experimental Training Centre) and in the conscience and historical memory of lots of Sicilian people that have contributed and have been involved in their fulfilment. Besides, there have been several awards and collaborations at international level with artists, scientists and educators such as Ernesto Treccani, Mario Luzi, Lamberto Borghi, Johan Galtung, Erich Fromm, Noam Chomsky, Carlo Rubbia, Ervin Laszlo.
In the mid 80s, the Centre of Studies and Initiatives is renewed and turned into “Centre for the Creative Development” deepening the relation between the non-violent education, creativity and development, and contributing to the search for a method, the reciprocal Maieutic capable of educating towards the creative development in the schools and in the territory. After Danilo’s death the Creative Centre was turned into the Centre for the Creative Development “Danilo Dolci”.
The Centre for the Creative Development ‘Danilo Dolci’ is currently a no-profit organization that involves young people and adults and has successfully operated for more than ten years mainly on the educational sector in collaboration with schools, universities, institutions, associations and social groups both at local and at international level.
Goals:
• Promoting the territory development starting from men.
• Supporting the youth and adults education through the Maieutical Reciprocal Approach and other innovatives educational methodologies.
• Educating towards the culture of piece and non-violence as an active resistance strategy against any type of violence, abuse or mafia.
• Encouraging the intercultural and euro-Mediterranean dialogue
• Disseminating the knowledge of the life and the works of Danilo Dolci.
Activities:
• Development and fulfilment of European and local projects in the education and formation field aimed at young people and adults; of the culture and active citizenship, of the social inclusion and of the culture in cooperation with the beneficiaries and the people involved.
• Proposal of maieutic laboratories in the schools, universities, association and institutions on issues related to creativity, legality, participatory democracy and human rights.
• Development of training courses on reciprocal maieutic, that can give birth to new educators-formators.
• Cultural and educative activities organization promoting the life and work of Danilo Dolci
• Knowledge, preservation, cataloguing and digitizing of the ‘Danilo Dolci’ archive for its availability to the public.
• Getting the Danilo works written in the past to be published and fulfilling anthologies collecting his works
• The Centre also wants to promote the innovation processes inside the public school, starting laboratories and maieutic seminars projects and taking as a reference point the experience of the Centre of Studies and Initiatives, and in particular all those activities that regard the birth and the following development of the “Mirto Educative Centre” in Partinico.