“Karin Dom – the Next 20 years” Project

“Karin Dom – the next 20 years” Project – Establishment of core training and service center for social inclusion and independent life of children with special needs and their families

Aim:

The project meets Karin Dom’s needs to develop further its activity in its own building, that functionally covers the organisation’s requirements for provision of social, educational and medical services.

The project’s aim is construction of a state of the art facility that will increase our ability to spread the knowledge, help many more children that are the heart of our work and introduce supportive and inclusive environment for these children at policy level and in the society. Additional aim is to develop partner’s network for knowledge exchange that will include universities and providers of social, educational and medical services.

Activities:

1) Planning and construction of a new building on a plot, provided by the Municipality of Varna. The selection of an architect and construction company will be done through a competition/ tender procedure. The new facility will provide space for development of the services that are applied by Karin Dom and partners, and also for expanding the Training center. The medical center for physiotherapy and swimming pool will meet the needs of the children, visiting Karin Dom.

2) Knowledge-Network – experience exchange through participation and organization of workshops, study visits with partners from Bulgaria and abroad. Development of tools for parents and professionals. Karin Dom will provide practical trainings for students and professionals. The results of the proven methods and expertise of the team will support the work of the policy-makers in the area of early intervention and inclusive education.

3) Information campaign – marketing and PR activities of the new Karin Dom’s service model; issue of information materials and guides; organization of conferences and events for sharing project results, policy recommendations and best practices with professionals; media coverage.

Expected outcomes:

The new building will provide better opportunities for introduction of innovative integrated services that will ensure better results for the inclusion of children with special needs in the education and later for their independent living and employment. The further development of our Training Center, collaboration with universities and provision of practical trainings to social, educational and health service providers will have an impact on development of quality services and support to the de-institutionalization process throughout the country.

ABOUT THE VELUX FOUNDATIONS

THE VELUX FOUNDATIONS are comprised of the two philanthropic foundations VILLUM FONDEN and VELUX FONDEN. The projects they fund in Denmark and around the world are scientific, environmental, social and cultural. In 2018, foundations gave joint grants of approximately € 118 million.

Both foundations were established by graduate engineer Villum Kann Rasmussen – the founder of VELUX and other companies in the VKR Group, whose mission is to bring daylight, fresh air and a better environment into people’s everyday lives.