Integratio Foundation is a non-profit organization that was founded in 2000 and has decades of experience in implementing European and local projects.
The foundation’s activities can be organized around four concepts:
- Social research – under the aegis of the Foundation operates the Bálványos Institute (balvanyos.org). The aim of the institute is to provide scientifically grounded answers to important issues concerning the situation of minority communities in Romania. The Institute pays special attention to research on interethnic relations, language policy and education. The Institute’s core activities focus on data collection, evaluation, research and analysis, resulting in research reports, sociological studies and expert policy analyses as well as professional materials, which can serve as background for political decision-making bodies and advocacy organizations.
- Talent management and non-formal education – the Foundation has entered into several partnerships with schools in Timis, Hunedoara, Arad and Bihor counties. Within these partnerships we put great emphasis on programs that leave classical educational schemes and transmit knowledge to young people. We have implemented projects where students interested in certain fields (social sciences, visual arts, film, literature) can develop their talents under the guidance of established experts in the field. We have also realized projects that facilitate the involvement and active participation of students in social life in general and school life in particular. We have decades of experience in developing educational games that promote playful learning.
- Interculturality and multiculturalism – in our interpretation, multilingualism and multiculturalism is a virtue and a resource. Our Foundation has paid special attention to the development of methodological materials to help educators to integrate bilingual children into a monolingual school environment, as well as in developing their Hungarian or Romanian language skills and changing attitudes towards multilingualism. At the same time in several projects, we have tried to problematize the fragile relations between Romanians, Hungarians, Germans or Roma living together in Transylvania or Banat.
- The development of active citizenship and an active civil society – since the very first years of its existence, the main link binding the people involved in the Foundation’s programs, besides professionalism, has been the idea of active citizenship. Our programs are born from the belief that they should be socially useful and value-creating activities. Our outstanding project from this point of view is the website temesvaros.ro, which is designed to present the past, present and future of Timișoara from the point of view of the Hungarian community in the city.