Microsoft congratulates the following Unlimited Potential (UP) grant recipients. We are proud to support their work.
Bulgaria
Institute of Public Administration and European Integration (IPAEI)
IPAEI provides IT training and will partner with Microsoft and a number of government ministries to establish centers for vocational retraining, with a focus on IT skills. Bulgaria has a 20 percent unemployment rate. This initiative will provide four training centers, two in Sofia and two in Plovdiv, to serve a broad range of unemployed people.
Czech Republic
Charta 77 Foundation
The Computers Against Barriers Account of Charta 77 Foundation provides assistance to individuals with disabilities, including subsidies for equipment, personal assistants, and accessible housing. Computers Against Barriers provides IT training for individuals with disabilities to help them develop new professional skills, ranging from basic computer literacy to certification (ECDL). The organization has seven labs located throughout the Czech Republic. More than 900 clients have been served in past six years.
France
Emmaus
Emmaus is a multiservice center providing support to those who are homeless and impoverished. Funding from Microsoft will be used to expand an existing computer center and training at a drop-in center in Paris that serves homeless individuals.
Italy
Arche
Arche provides various programs for disadvantaged youth throughout Italy. Funding from Microsoft will help develop labs in penitentiaries to provide IT skills training to inmates, with a particular focus on younger inmates.
Associazione Interessi Metropolitani (AIM)
AIM focuses on projects that explore the impact that social and technical changes have on the city of Milan. This project will provide IT literacy training (online banking, shopping, and communications) to seniors in 15 provincial capitals throughout Italy.
Rotary Lombardy Region
Rotary is an organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide who provide humanitarian service. Rotary, together with the local government, is providing education programs for new immigrants using school settings. Funding from Microsoft will support the addition of IT skills training to the existing program.
Romania
Asociatia petru Promovarea Tinerilor/Association for Youth Promotion (APT)
APT is a new nonprofit that works to promote local opportunities for young people, thereby reducing the 41 percent emigration rate among young professionals. Support from Microsoft will help establish a Learning and Research Center that provides Internet access and IT skills training for unemployed students and young professionals. The project will set up a Learning and Research Center for students and young people who are temporarily out of work, although the lab will be open to the public. Partners include Total Net (Internet provider) and Coca Cola (in-kind).
Serbia
Cherish Our Children International
Cherish Our Children is an organization dedicated to promoting the healthy development of children. Microsoft funding will provide computer training to small groups of children with disabilities on a weekly basis in Belgrade, Valjevo, and Sabac.
Sweden
Hemse IT Café
The IT Café in Hemse Library provides access to computers, specialist IT aids, and programs that provide individuals with disabilities and the elderly access to computers. In addition, the IT Café teaches this audience how to use a computer and how to navigate the Internet for information gathering, communication, and access to services. Funding from Microsoft will be used to expand the existing training programs and to hire additional staff to meet increased demand for program services.
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