In attendance Alberto Zanobini, President AOPI (Association of Italian Pediatric Hospitals) and General Director of Meyer, ABF Vice-Chair Veronica Berti and Architect Massimo Alvisi.
The initiative was promoted in the framework of the collaboration agreement with the Ministry of Education

Florence Jan. 24, 2023 – “Developing and improving education remains the most effective response, for the self-affirmation of individuals and communities to which they belong. It is the seed of a path of knowledge that can transform oneself and, in the long run, one’s community, one’s country.” – With these words Andrea Bocelli, founder Andrea Bocelli Foundation, welcomed attendees to the hall – “I am convinced that education (musical and non-musical) contributes to the only great revolution that is both desirable and possible: the Inner Revolution.”

The presentation of the pilot project “ABF Educational Center for School in Hospital,” which will be implemented in close proximity to the Playroom at Meyer Children’s Hospital in Florence, actually reflects this approach, because while it is true that the fundamental right of every child is to have access to quality education, exercising this right encounters quite a few difficulties in complex and difficult settings where it might not be seen as a priority.

“As Italian Children’s Hospitals we see this as the challenge of the future: culture and learning as an integral part of a comprehensive concept of health for children and young people. We are happy that this first pilot project with the Bocelli Foundation is starting at the Meyer” – said Alberto Zanobini.

 A facility, a place which is beautiful to look at, to experience, to offer the best educational conditions in terms of space, time and relationships. A repository of useful tools for the creation of innovative educational paths, such as those that the Foundation already pursues with art, music and digital workshops. These spaces can guarantee organizational flexibility, which can accommodate multiple dimensions of experience and offer differentiated disciplinary perspectives in knowledge-building processes from ages 3 to 18. With the possibility of “opening times and fruition every day of the week, throughout the day. An opportunity to experience multiple and diversified educational relationships”. The Educational Center’s main function is to restore centrality and visibility to the value of educational processes even within healthcare settings. Beautiful, well-detailed and well-differentiated spaces, which ensure multiple and multi-faceted opportunities, empower the School-in-Hospital teachers, and all educational professionals including ABF atelieristas working within the hospital, with a key role in the journey that hospitalized girls and boys undertake. In this context, teachers and education professionals in fact represent the ones who take care of fostering potential and resources of girls and boys, and thus they require an appropriate place and tools to pursue this task.” Serafino Carli, Head of Italian Educational Project.

“The new pavilion is a safe place of growth and discovery. It therefore was created as a simple gesture, a light LEAF floating between the sky and the green space where one can seek shelter.” – stated Massimo Alvisi, Founding Partner Alvisi Kirimoto Studio. The pavilion will be named after ABF Ambassadress Maria Manetti Shrem who first believed in this initiative and generously chose to dedicate major fund-raising efforts so that the project could come to life. Alongside her special friends such as The Club Firenze and the Ricci Family, Paola and the Rovellini Family, Generali, Festival Napa Valley, Dolce&Gabbana.

Outdoors, as an extension of the spaces, a themed park/garden will be created in which concepts such as time, senses, mountain landscapes will come to life in order to entertain, educate and inspire young patients. A green place where themes such as sustainability, human-nature relationship shall take on shapes and paths where children and butterflies shall encounter each other. This project will be made possible thanks to the contribution of Chopard Italia, a maison that has been working alongside the Foundation since 2017 to create projects and educational spaces aimed at the empowerment of the citizens of the future.

The ABF Educational Center represents the third step in the project ABF H-Lab, which integrates and defines the intervention models experimented in the ABF network Schools within the Italian Pediatric Hospitals. Eight hospitals in the AOPI network are already active in the project: Meyer Children’s Hospital in Florence, Giannina Gaslini Children’s Hospital in Genoa, Salesi Hospital in Ancona, IRCCS Materno Infantile “Burlo Garofolo” in Trieste, A. O.R.N. Santobono-Pausilipon in Naples, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria “Gaetano Martino” in Messina, Azienda Ospedale – University of Padua, Azienda Policlinico di Bari “Giovanni XXIII Hospital” in Bari.

To date, more than 17,000 students in 2022 benefited from the ABF project interventions which are also part of the ABF H-Lab such as the ABF Teachbus, a veritable digital library that hosts devices that are configured according to the school curriculum of the age of the young student (notebooks and tablets) and first and foremost it can guarantee that all the girls and boys involved can maintain the relationships with their peers, teachers and atelieristas; the digital atelieristas who act as librarian 4. 0 specialized in the use of new technologies for education who, teaming up with the ABF working group, promotes new and transversal perspectives on the use of technological tools for children, while supporting teachers and families in making the best use of these devices.

“In Italy alone, more than 70,000 very youngsters – mostly preschool and elementary school students – face the need to attend school in hospitals, in specialized facilities and/or at home. But if we consider children with chronic conditions, affected by complex diseases, the number exceeds one million,” stated , ABF Vice-Chair Veronica Berti, who reiterated that “fostering access to quality and equitable education has always been at the core of the work the Foundation carries out in Italy and around the world.”