Centre for the Rehabilitation & Support of the Child – Hadjipaterion

The activities of the organisation, which later would be founded as the Social Work Foundation (SWF), started in 1946 as the Greek branch of a foreign humanitarian organisation called Global Ministries aimed to help reconstruct Greece after the Second World War, primarily focusing on social welfare. In 1967, the organisation was founded in Athens, in its present, legal form, as a public welfare, non-profit organisation.

Staffed by social workers and other professionals, the Foundation was recognised for its pioneering services in the area of social welfare, while also establishing applied social work as a discipline in Greece. The Foundation applied a series of programs for families in crisis, the elderly and individuals with disability, primarily focusing on urban community development and rehabilitation.

In 1973, the Social Work Foundation founded the Children Support and Rehabilitation Centre (C.S.R.C.) for children with cerebral palsy and similar conditions. In 1985, with the help of the I.K.Hadjipateras family, the Centre moved to new modern facilities in Metamorphosis in Athens (Attica). CSRC services are based on a day-care programme, a drop-in service for school-aged students requiring support in education, speech therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy, a daily living skills programme and an individualised intervention scheme for infants, as an early intervention scheme.

Between 1983-2005, the Foundation worked with the High Commission for Refugees of the United Nations to implement the first program for refugees and asylum seekers in Greece.

Also between 1985-1997, the Foundation implemented vocational training programs in computer sciences for young adults with physical disability, aged between 16-25, where a substantial number of graduates were pushed to the labour market.

The Foundation is chartered with the National Register of Non-Profit Private Sector Organisations Providing Social Care Services and the Special Register of Non-Profit Private Sector of Volunteer Non-Governmental Organisations.