ESC: Brea it down: Accessible Voluntering for all

The origin of the Istituto dei Sordi di Torino (Turin Institute for the Deaf) dates back to 1814 when the king of the noble House of Savoy established a no-profit foundation to offer basic care and services for deaf and blind people and to train their teachers, making no distinction of age, sex, religion or ethnicity. In Italy, with the end of the seventies, the evolution of legislation in the education sector and the changing of the pedagogical orientations give rise to a profound crisis of special institutions, which in the next decade numerous close. The management of the Institute decides to adjust their offer: the boarding school was closed and the special schools opened to hearing children. Moreover, an innovative educational service for deaf students in the mainstream was inaugurated. The Institute's activities are not limited to blind, deaf and hard-of-hearing students: as required by the Statute from the beginning, training courses, conferences, seminars and publications are provided for teachers, educators, parents and health workers. With this in mind, the Institute aims to become, in addition to a centre of service, an important place of thought, research, reflection, meeting and of exchange of ideas. The core of the Institute’s activity has always relied on Education, particularly developing ad-hoc learning programmes for blind, deaf and hard-of-hearing students, while at the same time training teachers to deal with this kind of disabilities in their classrooms. Today, the range of services provided includes educational assistance for other schools where deaf children are enrolled, vocational training for young deaf people, Italian, English and foreign sign language classes, social housing, and a specialized library. In addition, strategic collaborations with the administrators of local cultural heritage enhance the accessibility of cultural venues in the North of Italy. The institute is in the north-west of Italy and operates at a regional and national level about services and at international level for special projects. The Institute is a Foundation, a non-profit organization, governed by a Board of Trustees totally autonomous from political or religious authorities. The Institution has 160 workers.