“Cluj Has a Soul” Is All About People: In Just 6 Months, the Foundation Helped 145 Teenagers
90% of young people successfully passed the grade. 31 teenagers found a job.
8 young people who come to Cluj Has a Soul Day-care Centre are learning a trade.
In its first 6 months of work, “Cluj Has a Soul” Foundation, a Banca Transilvania (BT) project – implemented by the Romanian Foundation for Children, Community and Family (FRCCF), supported about 145 teenagers from Cluj. These young people, who come from families on a very low income and from the childcare system, benefited from the team's support and from the programmes of “Cluj Has a Soul” Day-care Centre, located in Cluj-Napoca , at No 3 Gh. Doja Street.
Tiberiu Moisa, Executive Director of Banca Transilvania, stated: “It is such a great joy for us to see that the Centre helps teenagers with social integration issues . The facts do all the talking: tens of young people are supported every day, they go back to school, and they continue their journey of life with better chances to succeed. Cluj Has a Soul is a project that Banca Transilvania people really love”.
90% of young people successfully passed the grade
In the first six months following the start of the project run by Cluj Has a Soul Foundation, 90% of the teenagers who came to the Day-care Centre and who, at the beginning of the year, were at risk of dropping out because of their school situation – many resits, grade failures and truancy – successfully passed the grade. Moreover, 5 of the 7 teenagers that dropped out of school are planning to go back to school this autumn as they have become aware of how important education is for their future. Cluj Has a Soul also helped young people with issues of relating to others or with emotional or psychiatric problems to make progress in solving them. Thus, 17 teenagers of 27 who received support from the psychologist and psychotherapist feel much better and have fewer problems with relating to their family or friends.
Trade-trained young people
Another great thing is that 8 young people are already learning a trade and are supported to enrol in vocational schools or professional qualification courses to help them find a job in the future. With the help of Cluj Has a Soul Foundation, 31 teenagers - of 42 young people who are over 16 and can already work – found a summer job which will help them get some work experience and become more responsible, and also increase their family's income.
The offer of “Cluj Has a Soul” Day-care Centre
The young people who attend the Day-care Centre benefit from counselling and support services (social care, psychological counselling, medical counselling and health education, as well as psychotherapy), educational services (tutoring for Romanian, Mathematics, English and French and special education teaching) and socialisation (sports, birthday parties, going to the theatre, to the cinema, competitions, movie watching, good manners course, plastic arts group, etc.).
Cluj Has a Soul is all about people
The team of “Cluj Has a Soul” Day-care Centre is made of social workers, teachers, a psychotherapist, a psychologist, a medical counsellor, a special education teacher, a play worker and the coordinator of the Centre. For these 13 young child protection practitioners, with an average age of 29, generosity and commitment are a way of being.
Cluj Has a Soul wants to provide a better life to young people aged between 14 and 20, and it is a example of social involvement without precedent in Cluj – in terms of scale and approach. 100 volunteers collected over 100,000 supporting signatures from the people of Cluj. Since its very beginning – in 2007 – the idea of Banca Transilvania caught the attention of mass-media and became a talking point for the on-line community. Recently, Cluj Has a Soul was designated “Project of the Month” by the visitors of the niche website www.responsabilitatesociala.ro, which proves once more how appreciated the project is, even at national level.
Banca Transilvania & Romanian Foundation for Children, Community and Family
Banca Transilvania, in its 14 years of business, has become a national level financial institution, having 507 offices and over 6,300 employees. With a market share of 5.5%, Banca Transilvania is in the assets-based top 5 of Romanian banks. It is also the first Romanian bank that was listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), in 1997. The work of Banca Transilvania focuses on four main business lines – individuals, SME, large companies, and Medical Doctors Division – for which the bank has specific products and services, as well as committed staff.
www.bancatransilvania.ro
Romanian Foundation for Children, Community and Family: the mission of FRCCF is to support vulnerable and marginalised children so that they can grow up in a safe family environment and have access to the much needed education and healthcare. For ten years, FRCCF has been running projects in Transylvania and it is one of the biggest and most reliable Romanian child protection NGO's. Currently, its urban and rural community development programmes and the migration dangers and child trafficking prevention project cover the counties of Cluj, Bihor and Satu Mare.
www.frccf.org.ro |
