Associazione di Promozione sociale Lilliput

description of organisation

The APS "Lilliput", present since 2009 in the province of Ancona, operates in the education sector, from early childhood to adolescence, from supporting families to teacher training. Lilliput's educational mission arise from the social analysis of a territory which, hand in hand with the macro phenomena of globalization first and then the economic crisis, has suffered and suffers from intense social and relational fragmentation. It's essential, at this moment, that the third sector exercises the function of facilitating relations and enhancing interdependencies, of acting as a glue between the various human islands, to create synergies, bring support and inclusion. Lilliput has chosen to do so by investing in childhood, without however losing sight of the complex world of adults.
Lilliput made this choice by investing in an area that is poor in primarily educational initiatives, especially in specific experiments: it was born from the intuition of Emily Mignanelli, now a pedagogue and writer, at the time a crazy 22 year old eager to reconcile the need to give her son a truly puerocentric school and the ambition to practically decline some educational intuitions inherited from the great educators of the twentieth century. Thus was founded the Lilliput association, a name taken from the island of Swift inhabited by small men and women who drew strength from common work, and from here the Serendipity project was born, a special educational project dedicated to parental education. A path that has evolved over time, taking a libertarian path first and then growing into that of a dynamic school-community: a school-community, therefore, which around the centrality of the child and democratic culture, autonomy and parental responsibility , gives life to growth paths for all. The Serendipity project, which has seen it translated into a community school of nursery and a community school for primary and even secondary children: within it educators chosen from all over the province for their professional qualities, but also human and creative, give life to educational paths that evolve continuously, which value peer-to-peer education, assemblyism, Montessori influences and open air education, holistic growth and learning paths. The association promotes and, in its activities, implements a culture of childhood that places the child at the center, considering him a being in constant evolution, full of infinite potential, to be supported and protected in the very delicate moment of growth. It has three services in the field, spread over three different structures. Today, it is structured as follows:
Serendipity Project - Casa Colorata: an educational center for children aged 1 to 6, dedicated to parental education, recognized pursuant to art. 33 of the Italian Constitution.
Serendipity Project - Casa Azzurra: an educational center for boys and girls aged 6 to 12, dedicated to parental education, recognized pursuant to art. 33 of the Italian Constitution.
In 2020, the association also opened a pedagogical center, the "Corallo", which immediately became a reference point for the city and not only for educational activities, through training courses, consultancy and seminars activated right from the lockdown.
Corallo - center of dynamic and systemic pedagogy: it is a pedagogical center that integrates the activity in the two structures by giving educational support to families, accompanying them in the process of raising their children with: training courses, support groups for parents and grandparents, workshops, study holidays, conferences and seminars.
For some years the association has also opened outside Italy, establishing collaborations with other alternative and libertarian schools present in European countries (Germany, Finland) or extra-European countries (India), as also documented in the travel text by Emily Mignanelli "Hundreds of Buddhas". Promoting the circulation of European volunteers, who enrich the spectrum of possibilities of the Serendipity project, supporting educators and fostering intercultural dialogue with children and families, is a medium-term objective of the association: accompanying families for several years now, having hosted educators and volunteers from other countries on an occasional basis, Lilliput believes that it is the right time to permanently introduce long-term volunteers, who support the teachers and add educational and training opportunities around the intercultural encounter.