Establishment of a social economy pizza shop and vocational training for hearing impaired and other disadvantaged young people

At the beginning of November 2018 has started the social entrepreneurship project „Deaf we can!”, implemented by Ikaros Foundation together with Special School no 1 for hearing impaired young people from Bucharest. The project is financed by the German charitable organization Renovabis and co-financed by the two partner organizations. The aim of the project is to facilitate social inclusion and labour market integration of hearing impaired young people and other disadvantaged categories by creating access to vocational training in the field of pizzaiolo, a pizza specialty from Naples.

During the two years of project implementation, 40 young people (hearing impaired, others who are leaving the child social protection system or who are in a very high risk of social and economic exclusion) will have access to vocational training, to counselling, internships in pizza restaurants and shops from Bucharest and to tutoring and mediation activities to become employed. Certification of the 40 young people will be offered by the Scuola Nazionale Maestri Pizzaioli from Italy, a school which has international recognition in the field. The two trainers, Vasile Vezeteu and Iuliana Ion, are certified trainers of the same school and have a consistent experience of more than 10 years in the field.

Once certified all 40 young people will receive support to finally obtain a job and 4 best of them will have the opportunity to work in the social pizza shop that will be opened in the first year of project implementation.