ESTIA

ESTIA is a recognised Charity overseen by the Ministry of Health & Social Solidarity. It was founded in 1982 by parents of intellectual disabled children.

ESTIA, with the motto “Each person is unique and their uniqueness should be met with respect” specializes in providing support and care to people with intellectual disabilities from 18 years of age in aim of improving quality of life and supporting their inclusion into the community. In 1998 it was certified as a special vocational training centre for implementation of ESF projects. Since 2009 ESTIA is certified according to DIN EN ISO 9001:2008

The services provided at the centre are: vocational training, support services for the disabled and their families, supported employment service, social skills training, creative learning and leisure time activities, sports programmes, creation and implementation of Supported living units.

The funding sources of ESTIA are: grants from ESF projects, grants from Ministry of Health& Social Solidarity, Ministry of Labour, the local government, social insurance bodies, membership subscriptions, donations, sponsorships and from different fund raising events.

ESTIA has a long experience in international cooperation in EU programmes. We have organised 3 Life-long learning projects and been partner in 10. In the last years it has organised 6 international conferences in specialised topics of education of people with mental disabilities. The methods used in its educational projects are mainly based on non formal education

The ESF programmes have been of great importance for the improvement of the quality of services provided by ESTIA. Through these programmes we got know-how and skills to make sure that that we can keep up to our motto “Each person is unique and his uniqueness should be dealt with respect” At ESTIA non formal learning is very important.

For more than 10 years we have been involved in the YOUTH-programme, both as organizers 15 projects and as participants in around 50. These co operations with domestic and transnational organisations have been important factors in our struggle to improve quality of life and combat exclusion for our target group. About 80 service users with mild or moderate intellectual disability are attending the services on an everyday basis.

The staff occupied at Estia comes to 30 and they consist of: specially certified disability educators, occupational therapists, special teachers, speech therapist, psychologists, social workers, administrative staff. Many of the staff members have 20 years work experience in the disability sector.

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