FOREWORD

"Goccia-Genera" is a project organized by the association "La Goccia" from which it takes its name.
The association "La Goccia" was founded eight years ago by women who wanted to make the female point of view heard and ever since then it has been working as a social, political, and cultural organization.
As a private non-profit-making association it had reached a certain maturity, therefore it was thought it was time to carry out an ambitious plan. This is what the project "Goccia-Genera" is: the desire to consider how state and private crèches work in our area.
This idea to improve the quality of local crèches became subsequently a project. It was examined by a commission of the European Community which, after considering its innovative value, decided to approve and to finance it. The European Community devises policies and investment plans for the development and the improvement of human resources. The idea behind these European policies is to help people living in disadvantaged areas to enter the world of work. Women are people who need initial help to start up an enterprise. Furthermore the region of Sicily in which the association carries out its work has been classified as an area with a slow rate of development.These two factors contributed, alongside the innovative value of the "Goccia-Genera" project, to obtain financing from the European Social Fund. European legislation obliges the recipients of financing to exchange their "know-how" with other partners in the European Comunity working in similar fields.
This exchange of "know-how" between the different partners has been an important cultural, technical, political and social moment.
The project "Goccia-Genera" consists in experimenting an educational model based on the relationship between adults and children. It was devised as a way of improving the quality of the crèche of the association "La Goccia", but also as an instrument of reflection and a stimulus for other similar situations, in order not to base work in a crèche only on the good will of the people operating there or on simple routine.
The quality of crèches where very small children are looked after cannot be considered an option, but must be seen as a fundamental issue. The most important aspect to take into consideration is that crèches must be considered as places for education. They must not be seen only as services to families, as happened when they were classified and first established and as they have been considered up to this moment.The present government is working to try to overcome the difference between the development of human sciences and legislation.The project "Goccia-Genera" has tried to solve this problem in Sicily by presenting a proposal for a bill to be approved by the Sicilian Regional Parliament.
A legal classification of crèches is not a simple listing procedure, but rather a way of recognizing their role, and of considering their activities more conscientiously to enable children to grow up in a healthy environment. Educational activities are fundamental for the development of a child's personality and the first three years of a child's life are essential for subsequent school education.
If the bill is approved the crèches will be recognized as places for education and they will be obliged to plan an educational syllabus and to evaluate the results obtained.
The project " Goccia- Genera" has devised a scheme for evaluation and this has been enclosed in the proposal for the bill which has been presented to the Sicilian Regional Parliament. This scheme for the evaluation of quality is based on a scale which, while listing moments of educational activity, also provides a system of points to measure the suitability, the inadequacy or the excellence of the manner or of the place or of the activity. This scale for evaluation is based on research entitled "S.V.A.N.I."(system for the evaluation of crèches) carried out a few years ago by Italian and American universities.The association La Goccia has worked on this system and has updated it, but has maintained the basic idea for the evaluation and control of quality. This updated scale is called "Svani-Goccia-Genera".

previous chapter | up | next chapter