The Forteto Foundation onlus was established on September, 4 1998 by members of the Cooperativa Agricola Il Forteto.

Their goals are to organize research groups, projects, information and promotional activities regarding rights of children, adolescents, families and disadvantaged social groups on regional, national and international levels.

 

Their work also includes the study of relationships in various environments, both family and intrafamily related, in the school system and other social components within an anthropological, psychological, sociological and pedagogic perspective in order to evaluate interpersonal relationships and discomforts in an overall scenario.

The foundation also dedicates itself to the research on subjects regarding receiving those in need and in living in a community.

It is because of their life experience together that the members of the cooperativa Il Forteto dedicate themselves to the now established Fondazione and they have worked on a voluntary level for over thirty years.

In 1977, they were simply a group of thirty-three friends from Prato who decided to establish the cooperativa agricola Il Forteto and they soon moved into the area of Mugello.

 

The seventies represented a moment in which young people felt the strong need to take responsability and quickly make their mark in the world criticizing the marginating “wait and see” traditions. The members decided that the land in their possession could be used for the creation of jobs for others therefore consolidating their desire for solidarity, affective needs and human growth fundamental for people to live and grow. They proposed to create what we would call today a maintainable development.

The cooperative has since then built and examined closely a model of sociality and a welcoming community which is solid, respectful of differences and at the same time keeps the concrete, everyday needs of their work and economic auto-sufficiency in mind.