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The Garvald Centres are a group of six affiliated but independent Scottish charities that support people with special needs and learning disabilities. It is based on the work of the Austrian esotericist Rudolf Steiner. The charities operate in the Midlothian, Scottish Borders and Edinburgh area of Scotland.
The Garvald School and Training Centre was founded near West Linton in 1944 by Dr Hans Schauder, his wife Lisl and others who decided to join him after working at the Camphill community in Aberdeen for some years. Dr Schauder himself was of Viennese origin and had fled Austria some years previously as he came from a Jewish family. Connected with anthroposophy, the medical and therapeutic work of Rudolf Steiner and with the group around Karl König, he had been among the founders of Camphill. After working at Garvald for some years he opened his own practice in Edinburgh and developed his own method of counselling until meeting the Dominican friar, Lefébure, with whom he wrote his best-known work Conversations on Counselling. [1]
The Garvald school later became the Garvald Training Centre and later became six independent communities:
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The centres are based on the work of Rudolf Steiner, in particular his ideas on social therapy expressed through the type of opportunities provided, the approach and the interdependence they try to create. The goals are to give structure and rhythm to member's lives, bring people together to form a solid community through common activities or the celebration of events and emphasize the quality of what the workshops produce so that everyone can take pride in achieving the best possible. Within this philosophy, the items produced should have a value or benefit to others rather than making things for one’s own sake.
They provide creative working environments focusing mainly on craft, catering, artistic skills and agriculture. There is a focus on craft activities because they strive to offer a wide range of possibilities for people to express creativity. Crafts are also a tool used to encourage a connection to nature. In addition, they engage in approaches such as the talking points methodology, which focuses on outcomes for service-users and carers. The centres themselves produced Talking Points tools which have been designed specifically for people with learning disabilities. The program hopes that by providing these resources, there is an opportunity for anyone coming to one of the Garvald centres to affect their environment and community — local and beyond. A range of therapies like eurythmy, creative speech, massage and various other therapeutic arts are also offered.
In addition to providing structured and creative working environments, the majority of their studios and workshops have an enterprise focus: returning income to offset running costs. These opportunities are designed to help people gain confidence, with a focus on those leaving school and transitioning into adulthood. The workshops teach skills that one can apply in a work environment as well as skills to continue developing their creativity.
They have experience in supporting people with a range of needs and syndromes including autism, Down syndrome, fragile X syndrome, epilepsy, Prader Willi Syndrome, dual diagnosis and those with other physical and communication difficulties. Members' ages range from sixteen to the mid seventies.
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