Timis County Youth Foundation

Timis County Youth Foundation

Timis County Youth Foundation (FITT) is an umbrella organisation for youth NGOs in the west part of Romania. Founded in 1990 and having 30 youth NGO members, FITT is the most important and old youth NGO in this part of the country.

Programs and activities implemented by FITT range from social programs for disadvantaged young people to cultural programs, active citizenship and policy development (at local and national level).

FITT, itself, is a model of democratic behaviour, being administrated by a General Assembly made of the youth NGOs in Timis County (West part of Romania) and a board consisting of 11 young people.

The organisation is in possession of Timisoara Youth House, an impressive 11.000 m2 building – which has been awarded in 2016 with the Council of Europe Quality Label for Youth Centres. We are one of 14 such Youth Centers in Europe that have this accreditation and the only one in Romania. The initial purpose of the Youth House in Timisoara was to host cultural and artistic events. The construction started in 1971 and it was put into use in 1978, designed with the artworks of great artists. Thus, its facade is plated with a concrete mosaic representing the artwork “Aspecte din activitatea tineretului” (Aspects of youth activity, 1975) signed by the sculptor Peter JECZA, and inside, the ground floor and the first floor have walls plated with a mosaic, representing two artworks of impressive size: “Comunicare” (Communication, 1975) signed by Adalbert Luca (ground floor) and “Aspecte din viața culturală a tineretului” (Aspects from the cultural life of youth, 1975) signed by Diodor Dure (1st floor).

In the post-December period, starting with organising a concert to launch the album of one of the oldest rock bands in Romania, every year, we developed and diversified our cultural-artistic activity, in all the 30 years of activity, FITT has been organizing, supporting and hosting approximately 400 cultural and artistic projects and activities (Details here: http://bit.ly/FITT-culturalprojects ).

The Youth House has the following facilities: 3 dance rooms, a cinema, a spectacle room (with 404 seats), exhibition and concerts halls, one room for vocal singing, a space dedicated for students, a library, 3 seminar rooms, 2 computer labs, a hotel where young people can rent rooms while visiting our city, a restaurant, an art-music club, a gym and a café-bar with live music.

Also, the Youth House has an art studio (for painting and ceramics), an art gallery, a theatre studio and a summer garden for cultural, educational and formal events.

More than this, during the summer of 2019, FITT has organised the biggest volunteering project in Europe by the number of volunteers, Youth Centres UP, which brought more than 90 international volunteers, who, together with local volunteers and the community, they have turned 5 industrial buildings into 5 youth centers in the neighbourhoods of Timisoara.

What makes the organisation unique?

FITT is unique as most of the youth and cultural spaces were arranged and set up together with the support and involvement of the community through donations, participatory arts and volunteering.