Resumen de A Chance for Roma Children: "Children of Promise" Foundation
Valentin Mirisan, Lavinia Onica-Chipea
The paper aims to analyse by emphasizing the virtues of the appreciative methods, how certain behavioural models, routines and positive practices regarding child protection are structured. After 1990, Romania adopted the idea of intervention in order to optimize the social life of disadvantaged social categories, by promoting solidarity and cooperation in what regards civil society. Thus, various social foundations and NGOs supported by non-governmental organizations in Europe and the U.S. were set. One of these newly established institutions is the “Children of Promise” Foundation, whose main activity is to support Roma children in order to integrate them in schools, to avoid dropout and to integrate them in social and professional life. We used the appreciative inquiry research method that involves institution building on the positive aspects of the organization, taking into consideration the specificity of NGOs and the Christian dimension of the organization. The results indicate a strong correlation between the culture of the organization and the achievement of its objectives, in this case between the values promoted by the organization (tolerance, empathy, trust, motivation) and the chances of social integration of Roma children.
