About Us
Our MIssion
To empower those with diverse needs to grow into their potential.
The humor and joy I feel at Aregak Bakery, and the presence of the other mothers of special needs children, tunes out all other troubles. These women understand what I feel; they feel my pain. They understand both my laughter and my tears.
Anahit
Caregiver & Danish Pastry Magician |
Armenia
Our Values
Love
We love and respect the people who enter our doors.
Growth
We support people with the resources they need to thrive.
Social Justice
We challenge the status quo to ensure everyone has an equal opportunity for a full and independent life.
Our Approach
Click on a circle to see our detailed approach
Family & Therapies
We provide community, support, and developmental therapies ranging from psychological to art, music, and physiotherapy, to children from 1-18 years old at our Emili Aregak Center.
Training & Jobs
Through our 9 Steps to the Labor Market course we offer young adults training to prepare for work. We also offer them through Green Aregak and Aregak Bakery, places for them to work.
Community & Jobs
We offer jobs for the caregivers of the people with disabilities such as bakers at Aregak Bakery & Café and cooks for Emili Aregak Center. These places of work provide them an empathetic community, encouragement, and support. We also provide annual retreats with partnering hotels for caregivers to have respite.
Awareness
Those in the Gyumri community who interact with us including neighborhoods kids who play in the inclusive playground, people who visit the bakery & café experience a higher level of awareness of diversity and get opportunities to interact with people with disabilities who are often hidden in this society.
Training & Advocacy
In partnership with other institutions we advocate for inclusive laws and also train individuals, kindergartens and schools on how to be inclusive.
Self-Sufficiency
We aim to have a positive impact on our natural environment by using the resources around us wisely through solar panels, greenhouses, thermal heating, and cleaning the garbage around us. We also impact Gyumri through our example and sustainable programs.
Our Finances
Here is how we use your generous financial gifts for our foundation and Emili Aregak Center since this is our main focus. Because our other social initiatives are self-sustaining, such as Aregak Bakery & Café, this information does not include the budget for those.
Providing Therapies
Providing developmental therapies is the focus of our work. This means providing salaries for the therapists, accessible transportation to and from the center for the children, ensuring the equipment is maintained and the space is clean and safe.
Management
Without the blood, sweat, and tears of our HR, office manager/technical support, and director the therapies wouldn't be able to run smoothly and we wouldn't be able to seek creative ways to reach our vision.
Marketing & Fundraising
Our goal is to be financially self-sufficient. Yet we are still setting up the these sustaining systems by increasing visibility and support through videos/print materials, maintaining the website and donor platform, writing grants, and seeking the input of our amazing donors.
Accounting & Legal
This entails monitoring and evaluation, audits, bank charges, using financial services and expertise, and legal advice.
Our Founding Partners
Caritas Austria
Armenian Caritas
Our Partnerships
We are proud to collaborate with local and international organizations who share our mission!
King's Ransom Foundation
Helping fund nourishing meals for 3 years.
Impact Hub Yerevan
Partnering on social entrepreneurship projects.
Birthright Armenia
Working with incredible volunteers from the Diaspora
Dialogue for Understanding
Promoting inclusion in the cultural sphere.
In the early 2000s, a small group of occupational therapists saw the challenges that children with disabilities and their families struggled with in Gyumri. Faced with social isolation, stigma, poverty, few therapy options and little awareness of their rights, families affected by disability are some of the most vulnerable in Armenia.
At that time, there were very few services available for this population. Many parents felt ashamed to bring their children into public places. With inclusive education efforts in nascent stages, many children simply spent their days at home on the couch. Others languished with speech and mobility problems which could have been assuaged through early therapeutic intervention.
Together, Aregak’s founding members devised the idea of a daycare center that would not only provide therapy and care for children but also support for families. The project began as a joint initiative of the NGOs Caritas Vorarlberg/Diocese of Feldkirch and Armenian Caritas.
Realized in 2008, Aregak operated with only a few employees and ten children. Before long, however, it was clear that the services provided by the center were in high demand, and the old house in which it operated was neither barrier-free nor sufficient in size to accommodate all the beneficiaries.
In 2015, with donations and support from many individuals and organizations, a state-of-the-art center was built. Replete with barrier-free bathrooms, wheelchairs, physiotherapy equipment, a kitchen, and accessible walking paths, the Emili Aregak Center – named after its primary donor Emil Nachbaur – now serves more than 120 children and families each year.
Section on Aregak Bakery and Green Aregak
Our Family
It takes a special sort of person to work at Aregak. Our job isn’t easy. There are days we celebrate, and there are days we cry. But we love what we do, because every day, we see the difference we make. And every day, our kids make us better people.
Our Leadership
Tigranuhi
Director & Chief Firefighter
Tamara
Emili Aregak Center Manager & Mother Hen
Diana
Aregak Bakery & Café Manager &
Lilit
HR Manager & Master of Ceremonies
Marine
Training and Cooperations Manager & Dot Connector
Varduhi
Emili Aregak Center Service Manager &
Vahan
Technical Manager & Mr. Fix It
Sarah
Development Manager & Excitement Officer
Armen
Finance Manager & Number Cruncher