Training center

The training center, which has been an integral part of the project since the start , has two target areas:

• the development of professional training courses for health workers looking after oncological patients with advanced disease;
• Training for those who wish to reflect and discuss on issues such as the meaning of life, suffering, disease and death.

The general approach is based on awareness that for many issues there are no solutions, yet there are ways, even if limited and uncertain, that may help control and deal with complexity. Training implies interaction with multiple entities, each with its own knowledge and expectations.

The educational program is strongly connected with the experience in the House, where difficulties and problems are continually dealt with. Questioning experience and learning from it means evaluating training not just as a simple delivery of contents but rather as a process to identify problem-areas and share complex non-standardized answers.

The three guidelines of the training approach are:

• understanding
• contextualizing
• communicating.

Comparisons and group work are fundamental for learning. The Center therefore is a place designed to promote and spread cultural changes so that people can gain awareness of limits and partiality of their experience and contribution. It is a place where one learns that ”to take care of” does not mean personal heroism, but rather it is the offer of a conscious presence that gives back value and humanity to life.