Beschreibung der Einrichtung

Foundation “Charis” is a non-governmental non-profit organization, offering since 2005, informal education and care to the vulnerable people in the society. Foundation “Charis” primarily works among the Roma people who often are facing discrimination and exclusion, but also we receive any other nationality in the programs we offer. Vision of the foundation is that every human being has great value and the right to have a safe living environment, to receive basic resources like water, gas and electricity and the right to get education. Our goal is to offer those possibilities to the people who are in need of this. We are especially focused on children, who because of a lack of those rights, grow up with the risk to abandon school or drop the school system, resulting in social exclusion. In our education center “ Casa Speranta” we facilitate informal education, a warm meal, recreation and developing the skills of independent living, counseling, school orientation to help them to develop a good life in every aspects, so they will feel accepted, valuable, and receive hope for the future. We also focus on living a healthy lifestyle and influence them to (re)integrate to the school system and prevent them drop school or we can help them to reintegrate in the school-system. Through courses we also try to educate the adults so they will get a healthier lifestyle, a focus on the future and a reintegration in the society. Next to that we offer practical and social help for families with the risk of social exclusion from the society.To improve the reintegration of the child in the school system and local system we have collaborations with different schools, public institutes and foundations.

The regular activities are; the education project, different educational groups, medical care and improving social environment.

Since 2007 the Foundation is promoting voluntary service . The aim of our foundation is to inspire a sense of active European citizenship, solidarity and tolerance among young Europeans. It also promotes mobility within and beyond the EU' s borders, non-formal learning and inter-cultural dialogue, and encourages the employ ability and inclusion of all young people, regardless of their educational, social and cultural background.
Our Project is a tool for anybody who would like to participate in the ESC, be they 'participants' - the young people and youth workers.

The objective of our project is to offer young people the opportunity to identify common values with other young people from different countries in spite of their cultural differences.
The project also stimulate young people to reflect on the essential characteristics of European society and, above all, encourage them to play an active role in their communities.

The overall aim is to encourage young people to be active citizens. In order for the youth to participate and inform they have to :
- to increase the participation by young people in the civic life of their community
- to increase participation by young people in the system of representative democracy
- to provide greater support for various forms of learning to participate

Our project highlight important principles of participatory approaches in ESC project:
- offering space for inter-action of participants, avoid passive listening
- respect for individual knowledge and skills
- ensuring influence over project decisions, not simply involvement
- participation is a learning process as much as an outcome
- an approach and attitude rather than a specific set of technical skills

Participatory techniques are not just tools. The participatory approach is also a state of mind, an attitude. In a broad sense, this priority should be seen as a key method which will enable young people to take an active part in any ESC project at all stages of its development. In other words, young people should be consulted and be part of the decision making process that may affect their projects.
Moreover, our project encourages young people to get involved in projects that have a positive impact for the community in general.

The respect for cultural diversity together with the fight against racism and xenophobia are priorities of the Charis Foundation Project. By facilitating joint activities of young people from different cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds, the Program aims to develop the inter-cultural learning of young people. As far as the development and implementation of projects are concerned, this means that young people participating in a project should become aware of its inter-cultural dimension. The project should stimulate awareness and reflection on the differences in values. Young people should be supported to respectfully and sensitively challenge viewpoints that perpetuate inequality or discrimination. Furthermore, inter-cultural working methods should be used to enable project participants to participate on an equal basis.