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Pedagogical Center Upendi is an association of social promotion, made up of young professionals in the field of pedagogy, education, entertainment and circus art, aimed at social rehabilitation of children at risk, the promotion of culture and art in all its shape, aiming at rehabilitation of children at risk through recreational and educational activities. Upendi, further more, works as a meeting place in the name of social and cultural interests, fulfilling a social function for civil growth, through the ideal of permanent spreading, promoting and emphasizing the importance of music, reading and art in every literary genre, and especially broadcasting and disseminating the philosophy of smile, humor and self-deprecating.

REGULAR ACTIVITIES
- Educational workshops of Circus Arts for children aged 7/13 years
- Performances of Clowning and Circus Arts
- Workshops of Circus arts for children aged 14/20 years
- Workshops of Clowntherapy
- Pedagogical workshops
- Training for parents
- Pedagogical workshops for parents and children
- Child guidance
- Support in school difficulties (management and organization of tasks, support in the techniques of study, help in school integration difficulties)
- Support for post-school
- Support with homework
- Regular meetings with teachers
- Approaching and coaching to new technologies

The innovation of the proposal of Pedagogical Center Upendi, is to exploit the Pedagogy of the Circus and the teaching workshop putting them at the service of education, creating positive synergies between the activities and taking care of the child / teenager in their every day needs. Methods and strategies used:
- Social Circus:
teaching of circus arts aimed at individuals at social risk, with the aim of transfer not only direct skills related (juggling, acrobatics, clowning etc.) but also to develop their positive qualities and virtues (spirit of cooperation, responsibility, creativity, autonomy, self-esteem) and transmit values to reduce the risk of delinquency and promote the integration of individuals;
- Pedagogy of the Circus:
set of disciplines that have as their object of study the educational process, and then education legislation, the body awareness, self-knowledge and its limits. Through the study and application of the circus arts, the kids know more about themselves and others, while developing their own potentials and self-esteem.
- Peer Education:
peer education among people refers to a transfer of knowledge, information, emotions and experiences between people belonging to the same status, equal to each other. For peer education it means a rap-port of education, mutual influence that both formal and informal develops between persons of the same group, where between receiver and sender information is equal to social or cultural level. It promotes the active protagonism of adolescents and they are perceived as a resource and potential.
- Role Playing:
method based on the simulation of a situation or event through its staging that helps the individual to play a role and implement a behavior.

Centro Pedagogico Upendi is situated in the center of the city Gravina in Puglia, in Italy's south, and has about 44.000 inhabitants. Gravina is situated in the National Park of the "Alta Murgia", 60 km from the regional capital Bari, famous for it's cathedral, archaeological sites which go back until paleolitic times.

Viðfangsefni tengd samfélagslegri þátttöku

This organisation is willing to involve volunteers who face situations which make their participation in activities more difficult, from the following categories for different types of project:

• Cultural differences
• Economic obstacles
• Geographical obstacles