Ikaros Foundation Romania

Ikaros Foundation Romania was founded in September 2015 with the intention to bring and continue in Romania the experience and tradition of IKAROS group from North Italy concerning work with the most vulnerable groups: children, youths, NEETs, adults facing unemployment, people with disabilities. IKAROS group nucleus dates back to 1972. Starting from this tradition and benefiting by the experience of the entire group, as well as the experience of over 10 years in the social field of its employees, Fundația IKAROS will concentrate its efforts on developing instruments and programs dedicated to: - children (also for those coming from the social protection system) - youth workers (experiences or in training) - people with disabilities - unemployed people, focusing on developing integrated employment services and changing public policies The main actions that we will focus on are: Pillar 1 – DEDICATED TO CHILDREN AND YOUTHS • Educational and professional counseling • Tutoring as a measure of accompanying each individual in the educational and career path and monitoring individual progress • Non formal activities that will complement the national education system and will aim to support children/young people in attending school • Training activities for youths following the learning model experienced already for many years by IKAROS group in Italy. The model is based on ”learning by doing” as opposed to the traditional teaching of ”learn the theory first and apply it later”. The model will be put in force in Romania starting from the needs of the labour market by establishing partnerships with companies, SMEs, young entrepreneurs, local authorities, schools and universities. Pillar 2 – DEDICATED TO PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES • Integrated services to support people (children, youths and adults) with different types of disability to better integrate into society: professional training, vocational education, medical services etc. Pillar 3 - DEVELOPING INTEGRATED EMPLOYMENT SERVICES FOR THE UNEMPLOYED, ESPECIALLY FROM RURAL AREAS In Romania there is a huge discrepancy in the standard of living between large cities (over 80.000 inhabitants) and small cities or villages. From an economic point of view Romania may be divided in three parts: one that is agricultural (in the South) where most people live from subsistence farming, a second part composed of former mining areas where people live from local small tourism or subsistence farming, and a third part that is industrial and more developed. The first two parts are strongly facing problems such as: unemployment, early school leaving, depopulation and poverty. Therefore, in its future activities Fundatia Ikaros will also concentrate on developing projects that will support this target group. All initiatives are benefiting from one side by the experience and contribution of the group of companies and organizations of which Fundatia Ikaros is a part of, and on the other side, by the experience of its employees in the field.