Having a successful company comes along with financial benefits and opportunities to give something back to society. Every year we choose a non-profit organization to aid, bring smiles and make people feel good, as we all like to feel. But this time, we were keen to get involved in a cause closer to our people.
The School Center for Inclusive Education from Babeni offers educational services to kids with special needs and multiple deficiencies: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Longdon-Down Syndrome and associated deficiencies.
In fact, they need special programs in which they are monitored and through which they can effortlessly progress. Specially trained teachers support classroom activities, but the need for educational materials was higher than the ones available.
This is how the idea of a toy library that includes sets of materials to support the instructive-educational and therapeutic activities in the classroom came about.
The reasons behind Wave Studio’s involvement in this project with Pastel Association
In short, the reasons are both personal and rational. Personal because we are all kindness promotors and we want to manifest it in any way we can. Rationale because it just makes sense to donate a part of our income tax, which is not so complicated and it can come with big benefits for the ones that receive it.
That’s exactly why after all these years in which we’ve sent our donations to different associations, we’ve teamed up with Pastel Association. We chose them as a long-term partner to help us implement projects for causes that speak the most to us.
How does this project resonate with Wave Studio’s core mission?
Building a toy library for kids with disabilities aligned in a perfect place with our CSR philosophy. Wave Studio is a promoter of feeling good, that’s voicing through our products and our team. And we believe education is the basis of evolution for all, so by all means, it shouldn’t be a hard-to-get luxury in 2022.
Why is it essential that companies get involved in projects like this one?
Throughout the years, we’ve learned that having a healthy team culture is important. People tend to feel more connected and lean more towards helping a cause if they see that everyone is a part of it.
Now as our team has expanded, we are even more driven to keep our internal community engaged. This naturally contributes to better cohesion and team satisfaction. Not to mention that social projects aligned with a company’s mission have the potential to up the ante when it comes to a business reputation. So why not do it then?
How do we engage our team?
We initially got a few proposals that we showed to our team so that we could choose together the causes in which we’d like to get involved. Bogdan, our art director, has come up with the suggestion to look into the Babeni’s School Center for Inclusive Education. He knew there was a need for education assets, as his sister teaches there. So basically, the missing piece we needed landed on our to-do list. We wanted to help with the toy library, and Pastel Association was there to make it happen.
Our partnership with Pastel Association has enticed our taste for personalized projects. We plan to continue to get involved in causes like this one, chosen by our team members and empowering them to make a difference.
The outcome of this project
So all in all, here’s the outcome of this social project:
- We have transformed one of the rooms in the center into a Toy Library, a special space that will allow children to differentiate between work and play tasks. According to one of the teachers there, “changing the environment, leaving the classroom and arriving in a space where the game is intended, play activities help children with autism spectrum disorders to integrate these activities into their daily routine, to differentiate the types of the activities they carry out, to orient themselves temporally and to create temporal schemes depending on the type of activity in which they are involved ”.
- We have provided nearly 450 educational materials, including educational kits, building and wooden cubes, puzzles, counters, magnetic boards, educational and creative games, dominoes, moldable sand, and a child restraint.
- The materials provided have a dual purpose: use in the classroom and the special space of the Toy Library
All these educational assets benefit 200 children and 72 teachers.
We are glad that this space has materialized and that the children from the center will have all the materials that will lead them to gain autonomy and independence in school and social life.