About us

Romanian

Description of the organization:

The Centre for Social Work with Youth has existed since 1995. It was created by a group of young professional clinical and social workers as well as young people who were strongly motivated to help their peers. The main activity of the organization is to help young people identify, solve or minimize the problems which have been created by the misbalance between them and the society. Some of our basic activities are: realizing projects and programs connected to education, culture, health care, professional qualification of young people, as well as adaptation of separate social groups /orphans, disabled, blind, deaf-and-dumb people/ to the conditions of developed civil society – through financial and methodical support.

Some of our other purposes are fighting drug abuses, abnormal behavior among adolescents as well as developing youth tourism as a form of an ecological way of life and preserving nature.

So far the organization has realized several large projects:

1.             The first project of the foundation was implemented in the beginning of 1997 and it was named “Children’s smiles”. Its purpose was to eliminate conflicts among adolescents due to their ethnical differences. There are regions in Bulgaria where population belongs to different ethnical groups (gypsies, Turkish, etc.). In these regions there were created consultative offices and some initiatives were held which helped young people rediscover the culture and customs of their peers in the spirit of creativity. Donator: the EU program Phare - € 90 000.

2.             “Weeks of Charity” – a project which was realized with the help of the Agency for Foreign Support. It was aimed towards involving and activating society about the problems of children orphans. A national fund-raising campaign was held and as a result € 120 000 was given to the orphanages in the country.

3.             Project “Following the Steps of Botev’s Troup”, financially supported by the State Agency for Youth and Sports (SAYS). It allowed 600 disadvantaged young people to take part in the traditional expedition Kozlodui – Okoltchitsa. The purpose of the project was to put young people in an untypical situation where coping with the extreme conditions demands team working. Thus the participants, no matter what their social status was, created a community and their integration to it developed their social skills and taught them reject self-isolation. Donators: SAYS - € 15 000.

4.             “Ecological World” is a project of CSWY which aims to change the way of thinking of young people and make them realize the need of ecological way of life. Donator: Ministry of Environment and Waters and private donators - € 35 000.

5.             Project SIBYP (“Social Integration of Blind Young People”) realized the creation of a specialized training facility for guiding dogs of young blind people. Donators: the EU program Phare and private donators - € 60 000.

6.             A specialized educational centre “Common World” – a place where young disabled and not well seeing people can get access to the Internet and the distanced forms of education. Donator: The Laguna foundation - € 15 000.

7.             Hosting volunteers on Action 2 of the Programme YOUTH (European Voluntary Service).

8.             Many projects on Action 1 of the Programme YOUTH (Youth Exchange).

9.             An initiative to synchronize Bulgarian laws concerning young people to European ones.

The foundation has also been a partner on many other projects. It is very important to remark our collaboration with “Centre for Independent Life” on a project for overcoming isolation of disabled people and realizing activities in a daytime centre in Sofia. Our experts took part on the topics: “Participation of Disabled People in Decision Making”, “What Does Life in Isolation Cost to Us” etc