Romania

Florina Balint has 24 years of experience in child protection, working in both public and non profit sectors. She started as a social worker and case manager in Bucharest, focusing on residential care, family based care, and adoptions, before becoming a Programme Development Expert and Advocacy Advisor for SOS Children’s Villages Romania. Her expertise includes developing policies and partnerships for child protection, project management, research, strategic planning, advocacy, and innovative projects like social businesses. Since 2022 she has worked as an independent consultant, helping organizations build their capacity to serve children and young people, with a focus on child participation, grant writing, research, and safeguarding. She holds bachelor’s degrees in social work and law, and a Master’s in Social Politics.

Passport for Success specializes in emotional intelligence and psychology programs for personal
development. Their mission is to grow a new generation with self-confidence and without fear. Amongst many topics they address, the most outstanding are: self-confidence, leadership skills, emotions management and communications, financial education and MBA, relationship management and conflict resolution. They also address specific needs and requirements of participants, with programmes developed for targeted learning and exam preparation, public speaking, vocational direction

Institutionalised Youth Council (CTI) is a Youth-led Organisation focusing on institutional care, care leavers and child protection systems based in Romania. CTI has long-lasting experience in the field of defending and promoting the rights of the institutionalised young people currently or not (post-institutionalized) in the special protection system and increasing their active participation in their communities. Most of their team has first-hand experience as care leavers. CTI has great experience working with children and including them to events and public speaking. They are also known their active policy making effort which resulted more than 200 amendments in the last year in the area of deinstitutionalization. CTI is the member of the European Care Leavers Network and the Federation of Non-Governmental Organizations for Children (FONPC) in Romania  also Eurochild member. The current President of the organization is Mr. Andreeas Novacovici.

FARA Foundation’s mission is to transform the lives of marginalized children and young people from Romania’s poorest communities. It aims at providing a loving family, specialist therapy, access to education and training and preventing homelessness.

Founded in 1997, the Federation of NGOs for Children acts for the benefit of children and community by promoting and monitoring children rights. It aims at ensuring the inclusion of children’s rights in all public policies and the implementation of a national monitoring system. The Federation gathers about 100 NGOs.

Hope and Homes for Children in Romania is focused on reforming the childcare system by closing down old state institutions for children and by developing a range of family-based childcare services. Preventing separation of children from their families, reintegrating children back into their birth or extended families, social reinsertion of youngsters leaving care, social audit and training and technical assistance are part of their focus as well.

Friends of Children Romania is working with children living in care. They are committed to support families in difficult situation and vulnerable children. They work in partnership with the Child Protection Directorate – the county authority responsible for supervising child protection in Bacau which is a rural area close to Moldova where the organization operates. They provide quality care for children in their homes (have two residential homes 7 children each) and they have a solid work ethics (this was acknowledged several times by the Bacau CPD Director in his discussions with HHC). They are committed to respecting children’s rights and to encourage and foster child participation, supporting the integration of children in local communities.

Justice for Minors is an NGO formed by a group of professionals with over 15 years of experience in the field of juvenile justice. It collaborates with experts in legal field, lawyer, mediators, psychologists and experts in child behaviour and social assistance experts. Their activities are based on guaranteeing and protecting children’s and family’s rights and improving the national and European justice system safeguarding the children’s best interest. They have gathered a working group of legal professionals that share the same feedbacks and goal in developing a network platform with access to all judicial communications related to cases that involve children.