Nr. 9March 2014

Published by European Co-operation in
Anthroposophical Curative Education and Social Therapy
Hasenöhrlstraße 12, 1100 Vienna, Austria
tel. +31 6 5020 4989; ;

Editors: Adrienne Thier, Bernard Heldt

Contents

  1. The ECCE office will be moved
  2. Preparation for a new treasurer ECCE
  3. Next General Meeting, May 8–11, Emerson College, Forest Row, UK
  4. The future of ECCE
  5. Cooperation in Europe
  6. ‘Creating social art’, Living in the encounter congress,

Brussels,6-9 May 2015

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Dear members and friends of ECCE

It has been a long time since you heard about the activities of ECCE. This has all to do with the office change from Zeist in the Netherlands to Vienna in Austria. Our management assistant Roelien Kort took leave from the ECCE in June 2012. The Committee is very grateful to have found Mrs Renate Chwatal willing to replace Roelien from the 1rst of January 2014. In the meantime Bernard Heldt has done the job on a voluntary basis.

  1. The ECCE office will be moved

The Committee decided to put the website in Austrian hands and thanked Vincenzo Ruisi in Rome, who took care of the ECCE website for so many years. In this very period the digital office, folders, files and e-mail boxes will be transferred to an Austrian internet performer. Once the paper archives will be moved to Renate Chwatal in Vienna the installation of the ECCE office in Vienna will be completed.

It was quite a lot of work and many things still have to be done but it is going on! For 22 years the office was located in Zeist and it is not easy to unfold and re-establish all the patterns. But it is healthy for ECCE and the Committee is sure that new forces will grow out of this new environment.

Renate Chwatal will be the spider in the ECCE web and will naturally be supported by the secretary, Thomas Kraus, and the other Committee members.

  1. The new treasurer for ECCE

The Committee found Mrs. Ann Naeyaert, representative of the Michaelis Foundation, that means the umbrella of professionals in Belgium, prepared to become the new treasurer. She will present herself in the next General Meeting in Emerson College near London (UK). The members will have the occasion to vote for new Committee members during the administrative part of the General Meeting. Ann is one of the supporting forces of Christoforus Community, a social therapeutic community in Munte near Ghent in Belgium.

  1. Next General Meeting,May 8–11, Emerson College, Forest Row, UK

At the end of January this year, the Committee of ECCE had its meeting in Emerson College,address: Hartfield Road, Forest Row, East Sussex RH18 5JX, UK. Tel: +44(0)1342 822 238.

Emerson College is close to London. To get there the best airport is Gatwick airport, about one hour by car/train to Emerson College.

Emerson College in Winter time

The Committee was very happy that Paulamaria Blaxland-de Lange joined the meeting to prepare the hosting and the program of the General Meeting, which will be held from May 8 – 11.

The theme of the General Meeting, including the symposium on Saturday, will be:

90 years Curative Education and Social Therapy in Europe (1924-2014).

An invitation letter with more details will be sent to you after theCommittee meeting in March 22-23 in Paris.

You may join the working group ‘Future of ECCE, Wednesday May 7 (see 4). Parents may organise a parent meeting as well.

Emerson College in spring time

Emerson College provides adult education that integrates the spiritual, social and practical dimensions of life and work. Courses at Emerson encompass land-based studies, therapeutic education and the arts, set within a rich learning environment. Emerson’s international community of students, staff and initiatives work collaboratively to discover truly human approaches that address global questions.

  1. The future of ECCE

Last year,May 2013, the Annual General Meeting (GM) of the ECCE took place in Miskolc, Hungary. Mr Laszlo Jakubinyi, director of the Simbiosis Foundation, hosted the meeting. There were several main themes on the program, next to the organisational and financial issues.

First came the introduction to the situation of anthroposophy and curative education in Hungary and the history of Simbiosis.

Secondly the inauguration of the new daycare-centre Saint Francis in Simbiosis. This building incorporating the daycare-workshops was sponsored by the European Union, with support of the ECCE.

Thirdly the working on the theme of ‘ the inner source of quality’ and on the future of ECCE. Clarine Campagne guided us during this process by using Otto Scharmer’s Theory U based on the 3 fold human being (open mind, open heart, open will).

The last morning, Paulamaria Blaxland- De Lange suggested the proposal to work on the theme of the future of and the social renewal into the ECCE, together with interested members, before the next GM. So she organized an informal preparation meeting with Bernard Heldt, Sabine Von der Recke and Ann Naeyaert, guided by Clarine Campagne, in order to brainstorm about social renewal. Finally this group mainly worked on a presentation of the tasks of ECCE and how to represent ECCE to the colleagues in Dornach and to the parent organisations.

So now the question is how to continue the process that started in Miskolc, to go into the future with an open heart, open mind and open will.

ECCE stands for an ethical view on human beings. This means, that:

  • the spiritual level must come into consciousness again and again;
  • in the meetings we exchange on the social and relational level;
  • and what is happening in the institutions and the everyday life of curative education and social therapy brings us to the practical level.

We decided to come together the day before the GM, on Wednesday the 7th of May from 9:30 AM till 17:00 PM to form a working group on the theme ‘the tension between regulations and reality of everyday life’, with the Guiding Principles of ECCE as basis for the discussion. Interested members can still join in, contact me by email:

Parents who join these working group, can take the change to organise a parent meeting during the day, on Thursday the 8th of May, before the start of the GM. The location costs for the working group and parent meeting are for the ECCE. Subsistence costs and accommodation are – just as for the GM – for the participants.

Ann Naeyaert

Member of ECCE for Michaëlis vzw, Belgium

  1. Cooperation in Europe

On several occasions Committee members joined meetings with European NGO’s in the field of persons with disabilities (European Disability Forum (EDF), European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD), Inclusion Europe (IE) and anthroposophic working areas, (ELIANT).

EASPD and ECCE are preparing a shadow report on the answer of the European Commission at the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities.

Pim Blomaard and Bernard Heldt have been in Brussels to prepare this with Luk Zelderloo and also Michael Mullan will cooperate.

In the run-up to the European elections, this project isin the European Commission for some months on a low flame.

The ELIANT Newsletter of October 2013 was dedicated on ECCE with the title: “Dignity and freedom for people in need of special care”, author Bernard Heldt, with a nice photo of the marriage of the daughter of Sabine von der Recke (with her permission). The newsletter can be found on – the website of

The Alliance ELIANT.

ELIANT needs now to grow and tries to reach a total number

of one millionmembers of interest and a sufficient quantity

of sponsoring members - evenif it would be for one year only.

ELIANT will be successful when it is carried by many people

who either areas interested citicens on our mailing list and/or

give us yearly donationsup to 200€. Our budget for a full year with a NGO-Manager is 170’000€.

Inorder to finance this basic work we therefore need

between 7’500 and10’000 sponsoring members.

On the website of Alliance ELIANT you will find all information about supporting membership and the application form. You can make online donations easy and quick.

M. Glöckler (Steering Group; IKAM, IVAA, FAM), H.-J. Schumacher (gesundheitaktiv), A. Biesantz (Steering Group), M. Sieh (Steering Group), B. Heldt (ECCE), S. Küfer (Steering Group; Demeter International), U. Hurter (Steering Group; IBDA), C. Aerts (IASWECE), C. Clouder (ECSWE)

  1. ‘Creating social art’, Living in the encounter congress, Brussels (BE),

6-9 May 2015.6th European Congress for People with Disabilities

At the final session of the 5thCongress in Vienna the participants expressed their wish that there would be a 6th congress ‘In der Begegnung Leben’ . One of the Belgian participants suggested that it should take place in Brussels, Belgium, at the heart of the European Union.

Brussels is a treasury of arts and culture. More than 215 countries are represented here. The complex history and structure of our country have given us a lot of expertise in“the art of meeting and working together”.

A conversation can be refreshing, enlivening, can bring relief. What can I do to make this happen?

New impulses, inspiration and courage to take a new step in life can be born in a meeting, in a conversation or in a festival we celebrate together.

Can I create the right mood so this can happen?

In working with art we encounter and connect to the world and other people on a deeper level.

How can we encourage and facilitate the way we meet and work together?

How can we make our congress into a piece of art? (We are already working on this right now!).

The congress is at the Centre

For Fine Arts, BOZAR, in

Brussels, next to the

Central Station, 10 minutes

walk from the Town Hall.

Brussels airport is 20 minutes

by train.

Easy to reach by public transport. (not so easy to park a car or bus nearby).

Lodging is in Youth Hostels in Brussels.

We can welcome 650 participants; contribution: € 500.

More info and contact information:Centre of Fine Arts, Brussels

Bart Vanmechelen

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