Workshop “PANAGIA ELEOUSA”
The Workshop “PANAGIA ELEOUSA” is the fruit of the vision and initiative of the founder, Mrs. Maria Tsoutsou, mother of Georgios Tsoutsou, a child with intellectual disability, supported by distinguished citizens of the cities of Messolonghi and Agrinio, which was founded in 1990.At times of exclusion of people with intellectual disabilities and their families from society, the Workshop “PANAGIA ELEOUSA” is the first center for special education, training and social inclusion for people with intellectual and related disabilities in the prefecture of Etoloakarnania, freeing these individuals from social exclusion and marginalization and claiming their dignity.
It is a Private Law Legal Entity, of non-profitable nature, certified as an Institution of First Degree and Second-Degree Social Care by the Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity.
It provides lifelong education and training, accompanying support services as well as care to 180 people, trainable and exercisable, with intellectual and related disabilities, motor, sensory, speech, mild mental disorders, autism, Down syndrome and other, over 15 years of age, from the entire prefecture of Etoloakarnania, completely free of charge.
It also provides Accompanying Support Services to their families, completely free of charge.
The training of the young people of the Workshop aims at developing their individual and social skills in lifelong learning, education, vocational training in workshops of sewing, silk-screening, waxwork, floriculture, folk art, artificial aging of images, textiles, ceramics, confectionery-bakery, bookbinding, office work, computers, environmental education, etc. The workshops produce handmade products, which are available on the market through our two showrooms, in Messolonghi and Agrinio.
For people deprived of parental care, the Workshop established and operates three model Supported Living Facilities-Boarding Houses in Messolonghi and Agrinio, through the NSRF, where a total of twenty-seven people with disabilities reside.
In Messolonghi, in addition to the Educational Centre, there is the “Nautical Sports-Environmental Center”, which operates as a day care center, a space for environmental, sports and cultural activities for the young people of our Workshop, as well as an autism department. The summer camp also operates in the same area, during the period when the Day Care Center is not operating, since the center is located in the Messolonghi Lagoon, an area of particular natural beauty.
With the aim of raising awareness among society as a whole and the social inclusion of young people, the young trainees participate in parades during national anniversaries, in cultural activities, within the prefecture and throughout Greece, with the theater group, the folklore group of traditional dances and the choir. With the sports team, it participates in Special Olympics competitions. It also organizes events, meetings, and conferences with the participation of important personalities from Greece and abroad. It publishes a calendar and the magazine “Pleiades” once a year.
It also obtained the EQUASS EXCELLENCE certification for best practice in the field of social services five times (2008, 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2020) from the European platform E.P.R. on rehabilitation issues after evaluation.
Since 2024, the Workshop “PANAGIA ELEOUSA” has been certified with EN ISO 9001:2015 for the provision of quality services to people with intellectual disabilities.