Association La villa has been created in 2005 with the goal to develop and facilitate cultural education amongst youngsters and unemployed youth of the town of Gelos. Its initial goal was to recreate a roman villa using ancient technique of construction and mobilising for the project the local youth, teaching them practical knowledge, raising their interest for history and experimental archaeology in the process. Since then, the association has diversified its activities to better respond to the needs of the local youngsters and fulfill its mission of cultural education. We are organizing international training courses on which we teach youngsters how to use circus as a tool of their work, how to use games in educational purposes, how to create board games… We also opened a free library containing more than a thousand books on various theme, from history to philosophy to furniture making and propose learning support for students of the area. Since the closure of the youth centre in our town, Gelos, the associative life and youth activity proposition is dwindling and youngsters from the town find themselves without much to do in their free time but hang around in the park along the river, a notorious spot for homeless and drug users. So the members from association la Villa are looking for new creative way to engage youth into constructive activities.
La Villa operates in close relation with the town hall and specially the department of youth and cultural affairs and was declared of public interest in 2012.