Casa da Santa Isabel
A therapeutic community for children, adolescents and adult people with dependency needs
Introduction
Casa de Santa Isabel is a therapeutic community for children, adolescents and
adult people with dependency needs. At Casa e Santa Isabel we aim to build a
community that provides each person the possibility for self-development,
healing, and fulfilling their potential.
The community was founded in 1981 and is situated in São Romão, in the
northern foothills of the Serra da Estrela, the highest mountain of Portugal. It
is lead by co-workers who strive to implement and develop the practice of
anthroposophical curative education and social therapy, as inaugurated by the
Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner Ph.D.
The school, craft shops, land and houses are all shared as a community. With
imagination, joy and persistence, each individual is encouraged to discover
their potential and destiny, in addition to learning about caring for the
natural environment.
The name of the holy Queen Isabel of Portugal was chosen for our community. She
is generally known for her compassion and love for the poor and the needy. Queen
Isabel also introduced the cult of the Holy Spirit in Portugal, which lead to
the great maritime discoveries of the Portuguese during the 15th and 16t
centuries.
Every year many friends visit us or share our work for both long and short term
periods.
Become one of them!
Mission Statement
The mission of the Casa de Santa Isabel is to create a living, learning and
working community, for children, adolescents, and adults with (complex)
dependency needs and their co-workers. Co-workers of the Casa de Santa Isabel
attempt to build healthy social relationships in an environment dedicated to
personal and social renewal, healing, and caring for the land. Recognizing the
full potential of each individual fosters both independence and interdependence.
This enables each person to grow into the life of the community while allowing
the community to grow with the individual.
Casa de Santa Isabel is guided by a community impulse and by the social,
cultural and economic principles of Anthroposophy, inspired by Rudolf Steiner
Ph.D. (1861-1925), a world-view which embraces a spiritual understanding of the
human being and the universe.
Anthroposophy
Anthroposophy embraces a spiritual understanding of the human being and the
cosmos, based on knowing rather than faith. The insights of anthroposophy can
help lead the modern scientific consciousness towards the rediscovery of the
spiritual sources of the material world.
As an inner path of self-development anthroposophy is also practical, rather
than mystical, emphasizing study, concentration, meditation, the schooling of
perception and awaking to fully conscious thinking.
Throughout his life, Rudolf Steiner, lectured and taught in the major cities of
Europe. In 1924 in Switzerland he founded the worldwide Anthroposophical Society
for people everywhere who want to ‘foster the life of the soul, both in the
individual and in human society on the basis of a true knowledge of the
spiritual world’.
He offered his own definition of ‘Anthroposophy’ to the Encyclopaedia
Britannica: ‘Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge leading the spirit in Man to
the spirit in the Universe’.
The application of the results gained through spiritual science in practical
life, are put into practice in Waldorf Education, curative education, social
therapy, medicine, pharmacy, agriculture, the different branches of the arts and
sciences, and the renewal of the sacramental life of religion and economics.
Facilities:
Casa de Santa Isabel is a therapeutic community rather than an “institution” and
our facilities reflect this philosophy. The houses and the land of the community
are located on 35 hectares in the foothills of the Serra da Estrela, a mountain
ridge in the centre of Portugal. The village of São Romão is 5 minutes away and
the small town of Seia is at 3 kms distance.
There are a total of five houses in Casa de Santa Isabel. The households vary in
size from six to eleven students or companions and four to six co-workers and
their families. Three households, the elementary school - Escola Micael - and
the workshops are close to São Romão. Nearer to Seia is a plot of land called
the “Formigo”. In a small valley and around a vegetable- and herb garden and
many walnut-trees are two households where adult people live.
For children in our care, their home is their base. It provides warmth, security
and daily rhythm around meals, routine tasks, and recreational activities. The
companions live together in a family-by-choice, each person doing his part
towards the upkeep and the smooth functioning of the dwelling.
Households celebrate special events, birthdays, Christian festivals and other
activities together. They play an important role in providing stability and
engendering a warm, positive and well-structured environment.
The community itself is situated on eroded granite and the soil is quite poor,
but with a lot of effort the vegetation has changed by planting more than 4000
leaf trees to substitute the predominant pine trees and eucalypti. Students and
companions take walks, ride bicycles and can move safely from house to house
within the immediate developed area of our community.
Rooms for co-workers are modest and well cared for and are an integral part of
each house. The students have roommates in a small group of 2-3 with a
“dormitory parent” responsible for the ongoing care and supervision of the
students’ personal needs. Companions have a single room or share with a
colleague.
Anthroposophy at work
Curative education – educating the whole child towards creative responsibility
Residential and day students attend our elementary school. They have a variety
of difficulties and challenges in their lives, from epilepsy, brain damage to
behaviour disturbances and communication problems. The aim of the school
programme is to enhance and actualise each child’s potential for growth and
bring latent abilities to their fullest expression. Because of the favourable
student/teacher ratio, all students receive individualized instruction and
supervision.
Rudolf Steiner – and later Piaget and others – recognized that a child passes
through specific developmental stages both physically and psychologically.
Different faculties, interests and problems arise at different stages. Every new
phase is important and needs special care. The curriculum of the Waldorf School
is based upon this understanding. It is designed with the growing child in mind.
Year by year, following the developmental stages of childhood, the curriculum
mirrors the inner development of the child and seeks to give the child
experiences that they are unconsciously yearning for. This makes the lessons
naturally relevant and satisfying. All the important areas offered in
conventional schools are taught – with an approach carefully developed for each
age, but the timing might be different.
In anthroposophical curative education an adapted curriculum from Waldorf
Education is used, with its focus on experimental learning through the fine and
practical arts. In addition to cognitive training appropriate for each child,
emphasis is placed on social, artistic, and practical abilities at school.
The breadth of the curriculum is a unique aspect of Waldorf Education and the
material covered is used as an integrated whole with one part always enhancing
the other.
Adolescents and Companions – Social Therapy or Accompaniment on the basis of
dialogue.
Adolescents:
After leaving our elementary school, students are being gradually introduced to
working. During 4 years they participate in a training programme, constituting
an essential component in their motivation to grow and mature into adulthood.
In the mornings they attend class and during the afternoons they share the
workshops with the companions and receive vocational training.
Companions:
The companions work with their work masters and other co-workers in the bakery,
the pottery, the wood workshop, the weavery, the washhouse, and the metal
workshop, the cooking group, in addition to the vegetable garden and the work in
the forest.
The products of the workshops are sold in our shop in the village. They
especially serve the needs of our community.
The work in the forest and on the land does not have visible short-term results.
Casa de Santa Isabel is set in a hilly region and the soil is quite poor. In
1988 a plan for reforestation was drawn up and our land group started
substituting the predominant pine and eucalyptus trees, with over 4000 chestnut
trees, oaks, larches, birch trees and fruit trees.
It is our goal not to work in workshops for the handicapped, but in workshops
with handicapped people. Workshops in which the different capacities of all
participants, from the work masters till the deeply handicapped, work together
to create a product. In this way work becomes ‘developmental humanizing help’.
A life-sharing community with adult handicapped people is in its human-social
aspect, based on reciprocity and same rights, where people with and without
handicaps live and work together as a family-by-choice, in Goethe’s sense.
Together they try to realize their ‘ego-task’, their destiny in life, with
recognition of mutual help and support.
For the adolescents and companions, who have become the majority of the people
in our care, this is valid in both the residential setting and in the craft
shops.
During the last years social therapy has been guided by a change in norms.
Care and guidance of the handicapped person used to be understood as being
dependent on the co-worker. His role and his concept of self used to be the
norm.
It is now suggested that co-workers do not only deal with the imponderables of
human encounters, but take a distance from their own ideas and leading thoughts
and do not work towards pre-conceived solutions. They follow processes that may
very well take a different course from the one they pre-conceived. It also says
leaving concepts such as ‘care for’ and ‘the treatment of’ behind. Instead,
tolerance, openness and solidarity are seen as basic professional attitudes.
The principle of solidarity is particularly important for greater independence
and liberty of people with a handicap. Only then, a society willing to include
people with handicaps, will be viable; a society willing and able to balance
inequalities in the destinies of human beings.
The goal of social therapy can only be the creation of a social structure, like
the Casa de Santa Isabel, which is healing for all its members. If not, it would
constitute a hospital- for- life with no social organism.
A social organism develops its healing powers when its acting forces are in
balance, and it heals when it knows no differences, i.e. if everything is
reciprocal. This has to do with the position of and the relation between people.
Its members are receivers and givers, even when, one or the other side may
dominate.
It is important that the handicapped as well as the non-handicapped carry
responsibility for the inner life and the totality of the social organism.
Through shared responsibility for the health and the healing structure of such
an organism, the division between the handicapped and so-called normal people is
being dissolved.
Accompaniment on the basis of dialogue is the communicative correlate for its
structure.
Co-workers and volunteers.
"In a community of people working together, the well being of the community is
greater the less the individual worker claims for himself the proceeds of the
work he has done, and the more he makes these over to his fellow workers.
Similarly he allows his own needs to be met out of the work done by others."
Rudolf Steiner
Volunteers and long-term co-workers are a diverse group, coming from many
countries, professional and educational backgrounds, religions or racial
backgrounds.
All Casa de Santa Isabel staff is referred to as co-workers, whether volunteers
or long-term co-workers, and are a vital part of our community. Co-workers give
themselves physically, mentally, and emotionally and are rewarded with joy and
success at Casa de Santa Isabel. They are open and receptive to helping and
contributing to the community in any way possible. For many co-workers, this
means becoming involved with activities and events that are new to them. They
adapt quickly to these surroundings and embrace the challenges that await them
each day.
Many of the co-workers have specialized training in Waldorf- or curative
education, social therapy, (curative) eurithmy, massage, bath therapy, forestry.
They remain in the community as resident or external co-workers to take on a
variety of tasks such as being a dormitory parent, taking responsibility for a
house, being a work master, a teacher or a therapist. Long-term and experienced
co-workers accept responsibility for all aspects of life within the community.
Every year the community receives a number of volunteers who are a great
contribution towards our social fabric and our work. Also they come from many
different countries and diverse backgrounds, and usually they stay for a year.
Volunteers give a very valuable help in the running of the households; work
alongside in the daily accompaniment of the people in our care, the workshops,
the land and educational and recreational activities.
Co-workers need to be physically and emotionally healthy. Life is demanding and
full. Flexibility, openness, and a serious willingness to work with the
handicapped people and co-workers alike are very important to a co-worker’s
success as well as that of the Casa de Santa Isabel.
For everyone in the community, the basic impulse is that members work together
to build a healing environment that encourages each person to develop his or her
full potential.
What is expected of a Co-Worker?
To live in the Casa de Santa Isabel presents a challenge for most people. To
share one’s life with children and adults with complex disabilities in a
communal setting can be demanding and tiring, especially in the beginning when
there is much to learn. Yet it is intensely interesting, often humorous, good
fun and is a life full of idealism.
The responsibilities are wide-ranging and diverse; including all the activities
related to the general welfare of the community: indoor/domestic, outdoor/land
and garden work, craft and cultural activities, leisure activities and
excursions.
As may be imagined, primary responsibilities focus on the immediate and general
welfare of the people in our care. Co-workers are responsible to participate in
community celebrations, housework, educational activities and other meetings to
organize the wide range of activities in the community.
Care is a continuous element. Living together does not constitute a job so much
as a way of life.
Infrastructure
There are various groups that work and study together, e.g.: therapists,
teachers, work masters, co-workers of the houses (curative education and social
therapy), festival group, financial group, the administration group, and the
co-workers council. In meetings related to work, decisions are taken by
consensus.
All groups are dependent and have to respond to the council, which is the most
important group in the infrastructure. New co-workers can join the meetings of
the council one year after joining.
Accommodation /Finances
Co-workers receive room and board in family style households and a stipend for
personal expenses. Everyone in the household shares the same facilities and
daily life. Through the Social Fund full financial support is given to
co-workers who commit themselves for longer than a year.
Financial obligations like loans, debts, and dependents remain the
responsibility of the co-worker.
Medical insurance/Health expenses
Casa de Santa Isabel provides basic State health insurance for all co-workers.
Medical Certification of a recent examination, signed by a licensed M.D.,
including a statement that the applicant is free from any communicable disease,
is required before joining.
Dental expenses
Our Social Fund provides coverage of dental costs for long-term co-workers and
their families.
Short-term co-workers, who commit themselves for up to one year, are responsible
for taking care of dental costs they may incur. If necessary there is financial
support in case of emergencies.
Dental Certification of a recent examination and completion of all necessary
treatment are required of all co-workers before joining the Casa de Santa
Isabel.
Co-workers code of conduct
Co-workers are models for the people in our care and we expect a high level of
maturity and judgement from our co-workers at all times. The safety and well
being both physical and mental, of the people in our care, is of primary
importance. The conduct of our co-workers must be, at all times, supportive of
this requirement. The use of drugs or alcohol, as well as smoking near our wards
and companions or in the houses is not permitted. A co-worker’s personal conduct
must support the well being of the life of the community at all times.
If you wish to volunteer or join us as a co-worker…
Young and old, from all walks of life are welcome to share the life in the
community. We would like a commitment of living and working here for at least a
year. However, it is also possible to work for a short period during our summer
holidays (July and August).
If you are interested in volunteering, or would like to find out more about the
Casa de Santa Isabel, or wish to make an exploratory visit, you can contact us.
Email directly from this page, or write, fax or telephone following indications
in the contact page.
How can we practice fraternity and morality in the economic sphere?
The Social Fund
This fund was created through various thoughts and questions.
In Portugal every ‘employee’ has by law to receive a salary. Casa de Santa
Isabel receives a variety of subsidies; for the school, the houses, the craft
shops, in addition to salary subsidies. The latter being variable, depending on
the training of co-workers. The value of our work, whether in the residential
setting, the school, the craft shops, the therapies or the office, cannot be
expressed in money.
At Casa de Santa Isabel we base ourselves on the principle that the needs of
others should be more important than our won. If we want to take the well being
of our colleagues at heart, we have to search for the human being: know the
needs, follow the development, and help to take new steps in life. Tactfulness
is required: the steps others take are not mine. Our needs are different!
In practice:
Long-term co-workers can join the Social Fund and donate their salaries towards
it.
In order that this donation does not become a mere formality but remains a
conscious deed, all participants monthly donate their paychecks towards the
Fund.
At various times throughout the year, the participants meet in order to assess
needs and create a budget or choose the contact persons participants can talk to
about specific needs or any other concern regarding the functioning of the Fund.
The budget includes a monthly stipend (which in principle van be variable) for
participants, their children, extra holiday money, health costs, cars,
memberships, subscriptions, donations, saving fund for children.
Useful links:
Queen Isabel of Portugal - www.portcult.com/OPS_11htm
Waldorf education - www.waldorfresources.org/readroom/articles.html
Eurythmy - www.eurythmy.org.uk/faq/eurythmy_faq.html
- http://eurythmy.org/
Contacting the Casa de Santa Isabel:
Casa de Santa Isabel,
Apartado 537,
São Romão 6270-956 Seia.
Portugal
Telephone – 351-238-390012
Fax - 351- 238-390075
Email - casa.isabel@clix.pt