Pentru Voi Foundation in collaboration with Inclusion - The federation of Organizations for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities from Romania has the pleasure to invite you to the national conference with international participation Giving meaning to life, which will take place in Timisoara, Romania between 21st and 23rd of September. The conference is organized with the financial support of the European Union trough PHARE Programme, Component 5 - Social Access and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.
The theme of the conference is community living for people with development disabilities, with focus on day services. In 2007 Romania will most probably join the European Union. Community living is a target of the national strategies in the disabilities field in the EU countries for more than a decade, the deinstitutionalizat ion being now finished in some of the Scandinavian countries and implemented at full-speed in other countries. What is the situation in Romania? Although strongly claimed, the deinstitutionalizat ion exists in the texts of the national strategies, but it is mostly absent in reality.
The life in the community involves the provision of day services for the people with developmental disabilities. In the European Union those are:
1. Supported Employment with Ongoing Support programs: they help people obtain jobs and provide ongoing job-related supports to help workers with disabilities maintain employment.
2. Segregated programs, such as sheltered employment or work activity still continue to be provided. In these centers, people with disabilities perform work tasks or activities in an environment where they receive continuous job-related supports and supervision.
3. Day activity/habilitati on centers are segregated programs for people with profound disabilities which focus on psycho-social skills, activities of daily living, recreation activities and/or professional therapies. Participants are provided continuous supports and supervision.
At this moment, a very small number of people with disabilities from Romania have access to the few existent services. The conference will debate the development level of the day services and identify what should be done in order to raise the number and the quality of these services in order to give meaning to the life of people with developmental disabilities.
The debate will be based on the conclusions of "The Study of the processes and used methods for improving the life conditions of the people with intellectual disabilities" , based on the examples of good practice and on the experience of the Scandinavian countries in community living and deinstitutionalizat ion. The conference will also examine what is going on the European level in terms of advocacy for, campaigns for and progress towards de-institutionaliza tion in Europe.
On 21st of September Pentru Voi Foundation will celebrate 10th years anniversary.
Please confirm your participation by 11th of September, by phone, fax, or
e-mail. For any question, please contact Nicoleta Foica, phone:
004-0256-228062, phone / fax: 004-0256-421215, e-mail:
www.pentruvoi. ro
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