Care Project
The Ethics of Relationship: Electra’s Mediterranean Model
At the heart of CARE lies a shift in perspective: while traditional welfare merely “manages need”, our approach focuses on cultivating subjectivity.
- CARE Project: Community, Autonomy, Relationships, Empowerment
- European relational model for inclusion and autonomy
- Erasmus+ Programme 2021–27, Key Action 2: Small-scale partnerships
- Lead organisation: Associazione Electra APS (Arezzo, Italy)
- Partner: Prodis Fundaìió (Terrassa, Spain)
- Duration: 18 months
Beyond Hierarchy
The relationship between practitioner and user is not one-directional, but built on reciprocity: care is a circular process that transforms both parties involved.
Responsibility and Co-design
Staff, families and people with disabilities are not passive recipients, but co-authors of the life project, with their wishes and aspirations at the centre.
CARE: Vision and Concept
Support for people with disabilities has historically been characterised by a hierarchical and assistentialist approach. While it provides material support, it often fails to fully honour the dignity and autonomy of the individual.
In response to this limitation, Associazione Electra APS — which runs the CLA social day centre in Arezzo — has developed, over more than twenty years, a Relational Model based on reciprocity and subjectivity.
The CARE project was created to systematise this experience, enrich it through dialogue with European partners, and transform it into a reference tool for practitioners, organisations and communities everywhere.
CARE: vision and concept
In risposta a questo limite, l’Associazione Electra APS, che gestisce il centro di socializzazione CLA di Arezzo, ha consolidato in oltre vent’anni un Modello Relazionale basato sulla reciprocità e sulla soggettività.
Support for people with disabilities has historically been characterised by a hierarchical and assistentialist approach. While it provides material support, it often fails to fully honour the dignity and autonomy of the individual.
The CARE project was created to systematise this experience, enrich it through dialogue with European partners, and transform it into a reference tool for practitioners, organisations and communities everywhere.
The Community Becomes an Ecosystem
The ‘territorial pact’ and care as collective responsibility
CARE draws on the thinking of contemporary philosophers such as Martha Nussbaum, Eva Kittay and Joan Tronto to affirm that disability is not an individual limitation, but a collective responsibility. Care thus becomes a tool for emancipation and active citizenship. Inclusion cannot be confined within the walls of a centre; it must inhabit streets, squares and libraries.
The Ethics of Care
We regard care as the connective tissue of democracy. A society that fails to protect its most vulnerable members betrays its political mission. Care is a tool for emancipation and active citizenship.
Local Interaction
The CARE project aims to establish a Community Pact starting from Arezzo and involving our European partners, transforming the territory into a large ecosystem free of physical, cultural and sensory barriers, enabling the free exchange of good care practices.
Open & Universal spaces
Designing shared living spaces means making beauty and culture effortlessly accessible to all. Services must be designed for the full human being, not as a ‘reserve’ for specific categories.
Objectives and Activities
The project unfolds through a series of strategic actions aimed at creating a shared methodological framework.
Exchange of Good Practices
Mapping and analysis of outstanding European experiences, with the aim of enabling a mutual exchange of good practices applicable as a European model.
Training and Empowerment
Thematic workshops and webinars for educators, psychologists, families and people with disabilities on empathy management and burnout prevention.
Field Testing
Testing the model in international pilot contexts through transnational mobility, to adapt the methodology to different cultural sensibilities.
Expected Results: The CARE Manual
One of the key outputs will be the creation of a Practical and Theoretical Manual — an operational toolkit designed to: validate Best Practices and provide guidelines for the European scalability of the project.
Validate Best Practices
Gather proven strategies, from autonomy workshops to family involvement.
EU Scalability
Provide guidelines so that other organisations can adopt the relational model, keeping the ethical core of care intact.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the National Erasmus+ Agency — INDIRE. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Small-scale Partnerships in the field of Adult Education
Project: 2025-1-IT02-KA210-ADU-000358579