Innovation – Casa Ioana’s History
Since it began more than 10 years ago, Casa Ioana has continually expanded the range of services it offers to meet the changing needs of its beneficiaries. Below is a brief history:
1995
The Casa Ioana Association is established according to Romanian law and establishes a non-governmental organisation (NGO) resource centre in a small apartment block situated in the Ferentari area of Bucharest. The building is known as “Joanne House” and part of a project started by the British NGO, the Joanne Trust, although the project was passed on to Casa Ioana in the winter of 1994/1995.
1995 – 1998
Local and international volunteers help Casa Ioana to refurbish Joanne House and the building is renamed “Casa Ioana”. During this time, a number of local NGOs are helped to establish a range of projects, including a school for children with special needs, a computer-training centre for adults with disability, a halfway house for post institutionalised young adults and a socio-medical centre for the 300 Roma families living in the area.
1997/1998
Casa Ioana begins its work with homeless people when it is asked by the Mayor of Bucharest to establish the country’s first night shelter. Working with a small group of homeless men, Casa Ioana staff determined what a night shelter should offer and what rules and regulations should be established. A former fruit and vegetable shop (67, Blvd. Bucureştii Noi, Sector 1) is rented to Casa Ioana by the municipality to house the night shelter. The shop is refurbished using volunteers and homeless men and in April 1998, opened its doors to 20 homeless men. The shelter is named “Casa Ioana”.
The building (formerly known as “Joanne House”) is attacked by the local Roma families and ransacked whilst the police and media look on. What was not stolen was destroyed, including the heating, electrical and plumbing systems. Casa Ioana is forced to abandon the building because it could not guarantee the safety of staff and beneficiaries.
1999
The capacity of the night shelter is increased to 40 men nightly and additional shower and toilet blocks are built.
1999/2000
With a World Bank’s ‘Romanian Social Development Fund’ grant, Casa Ioana employs a team of social workers to develop and implement highly innovative community-based services for the night shelter’s beneficiaries, focusing on empowering beneficiaries.
2000
Casa Ioana participates in an EU funded European trans-national project looking at innovative services for homeless people and building best practices.
2000
The municipality rents another former shop (39-41, Şoseaua Olteniţei, Sector 4) to Casa Ioana to expand its services to homeless people. Due to an increase in the number of women becoming homeless, Casa Ioana begins accepting homeless women into the night shelter. The new building is also called “Casa Ioana”.
2001/2002
Another ‘Romanian Social Development Fund’ grant enables Casa Ioana to implement a project that encourages homeless people to go back to work and maintain a place to live.
2002/2003
Using an EU Phare grant, the original night shelter is converted into a day centre that provides homeless people with easy access to social support services, job training workshops and pathways into employment.
Homeless men are now also accommodated in the Şoseaua Olteniţei facility.
2002/2003
Another EU Phare grant enables Casa Ioana to develop a night shelter in Şoseaua Olteniţei and provide social services to homeless women and single parent families.
2004 - the ACASĂ Programme is established and incorporates all the projects implemented so far by Casa Ioana.
2005 - 2007
Casa Ioana develops its accommodation facility in Şoseaua Olteniţei to provide a range of accommodation types from emergency night shelter through to hostel type accommodation.
Casa Ioana develops and produces its Organisation Manual and monitoring and evaluation tools.
2007
Casa Ioana closes the day centre because of a lack of demand amongst homeless people, principally because the facility is too far from the centre of the city.
A shift towards providing beneficiaries with temporary accommodation, as opposed to night shelter, is established with beneficiaries having unrestricted access, no matter the hour.
Both facilities are upgraded and refurbished to provide temporary accommodation, with families and single women being housed in Şoseaua Olteniţei and single men in Bucurestii Noi.
2008/9
To meet the increasing demand for shelter and social services by homeless families, Casa Ioana decides to concentrate on providing services for this particularly vulnerable group of homeless people. The Bucureştii Noi facility is closed and refurbished to provide individual family rooms.
