What is the "Territory Theater" project

TERRITORIO TEATRO is a cultural and sports project for the social inclusion of people with physical, sensory and intellectual disabilities that aims to build moments of encounter and relationship between people, landscape and territory, through narrative and performative strategies. It arises from the awareness that the territory, with its naturalistic, artistic and historical riches, is by its nature open to be narrated, in multiple forms, by the people who live it and that the discovery activity, associated with narration and expression of oneself, opens to multiple possibilities of encounter and knowledge of the other, with one's own abilities and frailties. The aim of the project is to promote the autonomy of people with disabilities through a path of laboratory meetings aimed at guiding the process of knowledge and enhancement of the representative places of a territory, through narration and performative action. It consists of a series of workshop activities open, in an inclusive perspective, to people with disabilities and to those who take care of them professionally and family and provides for the return of work in the form of walking and itinerant performance on the territory. Culture, social, sport, participation and territory are linked in a continuous exchange of knowledge and enhancement.

Where did it originate

The idea was born from the union of knowledge and skills of professionals who come from the cultural, social, environmental and landscape enhancement world, with a view to enhancing good practices and the results of experimental projects carried out since 2017, with Assistance centers for people with disabilities, "La Ginestra" and "Villa Balli", and with the association "Senza Barriere Onlus", all realities operating in Castelfiorentino.

Thanks to the joint work with professional operators / educators and volunteers of the local associations, two different cycles of laboratory activities were co-designed with the aim of telling, through short collective itinerant performances in the area, the most representative places of the town of Castelfiorentino, their history, traditions, curiosities. The return of the workshop activities took place in a public way with the realization, within the annual event of "InCanti & Banchi", of a walk, open to all citizens, conducted and animated by a group of people with and without disability.

During the annual event held in Castelnuovo d'Elsa for the knowledge and enhancement of the Via Francigena, the outcome of the workshops that led to the realization of the walk-performance "I also walk the Francigena" was also presented. , a circular route along the streets of the historic center of Castelfiorentino, told by an inclusive group of 25 people who took turns in storytelling activities, group guide, and animation of the places.

The promoters of the project

The project is promoted by the Association - Toscana Hiking Experience ASD and by the TeatroCastello Association, both from Castelfiorentino.

The recipients

The project is aimed at:

· To people, adults and children, with physical, sensory and intellectual disabilities who attend the socio-rehabilitation centers present in the Empolese Valdelsa area;

· To those who take care of it: professional and / or family cargivers, educators and animators of cooperatives and associations that manage the services of the residences and day centers in the area.

The objectives

The project that unites and integrates different disciplinary fields - the knowledge and enhancement of the local territory and the possibility of acting and narrating it using tools and strategies typical of performative action - and which is aimed in particular at people who live the experience of disability, identifies and pursues the following objectives:

• tell the city, the territories and the people who live it by acting directly among the people and with the people, in unusual, suggestive places, often linked to history, to trigger processes of regeneration of the places themselves, foster relationships, share experiences of knowledge;
• promote processes of knowledge and reflection on diversity, with a view to breaking down cultural barriers and the stigma for which the person with disabilities is identified through their deficits, losing the recognition of their own and personal skills and the possibility of being valued as a person in that such;
• contribute to transforming the stereotyped vision of people with disabilities from recipients of care to protagonists of cultural and sporting events;
• make a contribution to the construction of a network on the territory capable of sharing the necessary skills from the point of view of assistance and skills in the cultural sphere in favor of the integration and inclusion of vulnerable people in social and cultural contexts;
• experimenting with the search for languages and expressive methods that go beyond physical, sensory and intellectual barriers;
• enhance self-awareness, one's own abilities and attitudes, enhancing the different abilities of each one in full compliance with the different needs, skills and abilities;
• promote group dynamics, the creation of new and significant relationships within extra-family contexts;
• offer professional and family carers an opportunity to learn about and experiment with communication techniques and strategies that can be used as a professional and personal resource;
• bring out unsuspected attitudes and abilities to reconsider the person in a new light, redefining relationships with educators and other members of the group;
• offer an opportunity to live a positive and well-being experience within an enhancing and empowering context that is able to activate and enhance emotional, sensorial and creative abilities, as well as to strengthen self-esteem and stimulate communication.

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