The Reggio Children Foundation – Loris Malaguzzi Centre (''Fondazione Reggio Children Centro Loris Malaguzzi'') is an international nonprofit foundation for the promotion of the Reggio Emilia approach around the world. The foundation, which is based in

Reggio Emilia Reggio nell'Emilia (; ), usually referred to as Reggio Emilia, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, and known until Unification of Italy, 1861 as Reggio di Lombardia, is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 172,51 ...

Emilia-Romagna Emilia-Romagna (, , both , ; or ; ) is an Regions of Italy, administrative region of northern Italy, comprising the historical regions of Emilia (region), Emilia and Romagna. Its capital is Bologna. It has an area of , and a population of 4.4 m ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, was launched in September 2011, and is dedicated to the memory of Loris Malaguzzi, who developed th
Reggio Emilia approach
NGOs and/or

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

s constitute most of the founding partners of the foundation: North American Reggio Emilia Alliance (NAREA;

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

), Reggio Emilia Institutet (

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

), Red Solare

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, Cooperativa Italiana di Ristorazione (CIR; Italy), Cooperativa Sociale Coopselios (Italy), and Fondazione Manodori (Italy). Other partners are EFFE 2005 Gruppo Feltrinelli S.p.A., a private holding company for ''la''effe (an Italian television channel owned by the Feltrinelli media group), and the municipal/city council of Reggio Emilia (''Comune di Reggio Emilia'').

History

Fondazione Reggio Children was established in 2011 in Reggio Emilia, the city that, immediately after the Second World War, has given birth to the Reggio Emilia Approach®, the educational approach based on the idea of children and human beings as holders of rights and potentials. In 1963 the first municipal preschool, the ''Robinson Municipal Preschool'', was founded in Reggio Emilia.
In 1971 the first municipal Infant-toddler centre, ''Centre Cervi'', was founded in Reggio Emilia.
In 1991 Newsweek recognized Reggio Emilia's Municipality preschools as the “most beautiful in the world” for their pedagogy, amongst the most advanced at international level.
In 1994 ''Reggio Children Srl'' was established as an affiliate company of the Municipality with a large shareholder group, and the ''Friends of Reggio Children International Association'' was founded thanks to the participation of the volunteers supporting it.
In 1996 ''Remida, the Creative Recycling Centre'', was founded in Reggio Emilia: over the years it has inspired a network of other Remida centres in Italy and around the world.
In 2003 ''Preschools and Infant-toddler Centres – Institution of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia'' was established as an instrumentality of the Municipality.
In 2011 ''Fondazione Reggio Children'', which holds 46% of Reggio Children Srl, resulted from the transformation of the Friends of Reggio Children International Association.
In 2012 the ''Loris Malaguzzi International Centre'' was completed.
In 2017 ''Pause – Atelier dei sapori Srl'' became an affiliate company of Fondazione Reggio Children, which is its sole shareholder.
In 2020 the Bylaws were adapted so that Fondazione could be considered an E.T.S (Third Sectory Body); In this year Fondazione also renewed its visual identity.

Research

The foundation states that its mission and aims include: * ''Participation and common good'': according to Fondazione Reggio Children, it is a right of human beings to be socially represented, to be recognised, at any age, as constructors of culture, active subjects in the dynamics of social construction of the community. * ''Contexts and technologies in learning processes'': in the educational experience of Reggio Emilia the encounter between pedagogy and architecture has supported the design and creation of environments and spaces conceived as educational interlocutors, offering children and adults experiences of play, discovery, and research. * ''Education and politics'': according to Fondazione Reggio Children, education is understood as a place of encounter, interaction and connections among the citizens of a community, and therefore a political place par excellence. * ''Play and learning'': in the research activities promoted by Fondazione, the importance of the playful dimension in learning processes is becoming increasingly evident. Various projects of Fondazione offer contexts in which the expressive potential of play relates to various aspects of everyday children's and adults’ life. * ''Sustainability'': according to Fondazione, sustainability takes into account not only the environmental but also the economic and social dimension in a systemic and synergistic relationship. * ''Taste and wellbeing'': to promote the right to wellbeing, Fondazione Reggio Children has set up a permanent research lab on topics such as food, food culture, and taste in children and adults. There are three major projects/foci of the foundation. *
Remida
': promoting both the collection, organisation and distribution of materials discarded by manufacturing businesses – and a culture of creative re-use of discarded materials; (The name is a play on words in Italian: "RE" is the initials of Reggio Emilia, ''mida'' means "gives me" and ''Re Mida'' is also Italian for "

King Midas Midas (; ) was a king of Phrygia with whom many myths became associated, as well as two later members of the Phrygian royal house. His father was Gordias, and his mother was Cybele. The most famous King Midas is popularly remembered in Greek m ...

".) * ''Educa'': (Italian: "educates") a joint project with the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

, promoting the role of the community in improving the quality of education for children aged from three to 14 years, and; * The Loris Malaguzzi Award, which recognises contributions to the promotion of the Reggio Emilia approach, the thought of Loris Malaguzzi, and/or children's education in general.

References

External links

*{{Official website, https://frchildren.org/en Educational foundations Children's charities based in Italy 2011 establishments in Italy Foundations based in Italy Organisations based in Reggio Emilia Organizations established in 2011