The Guest House of the C.S.D –
Gould Institute is run by the Chiese Evangeliche
Protestanti, a coalition of Italian Protestant
Churches. The profits from the guest house
support various social service programs for
children, the elderly, and people in need. In
the same building, the Institute operates a
social service center for minors in difficulty.
History of the Building
The Guest House is located in a palazzo
constructed in the mid 1600’s as a residence for
the noble Florentine family Del Rosso. The
palazzo later passed to other important
families, first to the Salviati family for a
long period (the building is commonly know as
the Palazzo Salviati) and then to the Ricasoli
family. In 1861, with the help of Dr. R.W.
Steward, the Presbyterian Church of Ireland
purchased the building and donated it to the
Waldensian Church. The Palazzo Salviati then
became the seat of the Waldensian Faculty of
Theology that remained in Florence until 1922.
From that moment, the palazzo has belonged to
the Gould Institute. The name comes from Emily
Gould, American philanthropist who founded a
children’s home in Rome in 1871 that provided
education and job training for minors in
difficulty. The home moved to Florence in the
1920’s. Today the Gould Institute has two
principal activities. The first is assistance to
youth in difficult social conditions. The second
is the guest house, whose profits are utilized
to support the programs of the Gould itself and
other social service structures under the
direction of the Synod Commission of the
Deaconate, a governing body of the Waldensian
Church. The social service sector begins with 2
residential family-style houses called Arco and
Colonna where minors, entrusted to the Gould by
the Juvenile Courts and the governmental social
services network, come to live. There are also
two daily after - school programs, Limonaia and
Girasole, where children are tutored and
supervised. There is also an external apartment,
Casa Airone that hosts young men and women
coming from the residential community of the
Gould or similar communities who have reached
their 18th birthday and have not yet
found a job and/or lodging. Finally, there is a
program of supervised encounters between parents
and children for those parents who are divorced
and, in accordance with the ruling of the
Juvenile Courts, may spend time with their
children only in a safe environment monitored by
our social workers.
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