General presentation

The Intercultural Institute of Timisoara (I.I.T.) is an autonomous, non-governmental institution, having a cultural, civic and scientific activity, without political purposes, which adheres to the values and the principles of the Council of Europe concerning interculturality. The I.I.T. was established in 1992 with the support of the local authorities of Timisoara and of the Council of Europe.

By its programmes and its activities, the I.I.T. pursues the development of the intercultural dimension in the fields of education and culture. The I.I.T. also promotes, at the national and international level, the climate of tolerance and interethnic communication specific to the town of Timisoara and to the region of Banat.

The I.I.T. has established a wide network of partners from different regions of Romania and from several European countries, including institutions, NGOs and professionals from its interest areas. I.I.T. is cooperating very well with local, regional and national authorities in the fields of education, culture, youth and national minorities.

A particularly fruitful cooperation has been developed with the Council of Europe, mainly with the departments of education, culture and youth and with the Confidence-Building Measures Programme.

The Intercultural Institute has been actively involved in several important projects of the Council of Europe:

• Democracy, human rights, minorities: the educational and cultural aspects
• All different, all equal - youth campaign against racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance
• Education for democratic citizenship

Since 1996, the Intercultural Institute

• has implemented, as coordinator or partner, over 20 pilot projects, mainly related to intercultural education, at local, regional, national and international level, with financial support from :
  • Confidence-Building Measures Programme of the Council of Europe
  • European Commission ( Socrates, Leonardo, Phare )
  • Open Society Foundation
  • European Cultural Foundation
  • Swiss Research Fund
  • Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe - United States of America
• has published 16 volumes resulted from different projects, in Romanian, French, English and Hungarian and has published the Romanian version of four volumes of the Council of Europe, including :
  • "The case for intercultural education" by Antonio Perotti
  • "All different, all equal - Education pack on intercultural education" elaborated by the Youth Directorate of the Council of Europe

In 1998 the Intercultural Institute has become the first Eastern-European institution that coordinates a transnational SOCRATES - COMENIUS action 2 project - the EURROM project, whcih aims at developing methodological guidelines and resources for teachers working with Roma children in order to integrate Roma culture into the educational process. The partners of the EURROM project come from Romania, France, Slovak Republic and Spain.

Since 1998 the Intercultural Institute has developed close partnerships with several civic, minorities and youth NGOs from the neighbouring Yugoslavia. Two representatives of the Intercultural Institute are currently members of working groups of the Education Task Force of the Stability Pact for South-East Europe.