The 'player's place' in the experience of 'Projeto Casarão'

Abstract

This work is part of an intervention program of occupational therapy in the social field, which has been developed by professionals, lecturers and students from USP/UFSCar. The information here presented is part of a project thãt may be seen, from a methodological point of view, as a participative research. Our intervention was based on an ethnographic and epidemiological study that we carried on. The 'Associação de Construção por Mutirão do Casarão' an urban movement for housing (Brás, São Paulo) has proposed to the 'Núcleo USP/UFSCar' (part of 'Projeto Metuia') a partnership that has the purpose of promoting solutions to problems that have been detected in its social circles. Therefore, the 'Projeto Casarão - Centro de Cultura e Convivência da Celso Garcia' was conceived to search ways to meet the needs of a risky and vulnerable population. One of the purposes of 'Projeto Casarão' is to care for children from zero to six years old, providing activities such as toys' and plays' workshops, territorial support and individual monitoring. This article describes the work done at the 'Oficina de Brinquedos e Brincadeiras' ('Workshop of toys and plays') and some its implications. We have observed that the activities developed are producing a feedback to the whole project and that they contribute to other interventional programs in community spaces - specially in the area of children and adolescent care - which try to promote better life quality, making available increasingly supporting social nets, which are not really part of the everyday life of most Brazilian children.