Aura Foundation

The Aura Foundation was founded in October 1989. This non-profit organisation was initially formed as an association and operated as a private foundation since 2004. In 2012, it became part of Invest for children.

The work undertaken by the Aura Foundation aims to significantly increase the number of differently-abled people who are able to enter work in the coming years. Invest for children is committed to financially supporting the Aura Foundation and providing managerial and strategic consulting skills. Leading companies have already joined the Aura Foundation initiatives to facilitate the integration of differently-abled people in the working environment.

The Aura Foundation pioneered the ‘Supported Employment’ programme in Spain by implementing and developing its methodology. The Foundation aims to improve the quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities by helping to integrate them into society and find employment by using the ‘Supported Employment’ model.

The Aura Foundation has received significant international recognition for its 'Supported Employment methodology' from the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE), the European Union of Supported Employment (EUSE) and the European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD). As a resuit of its success, this model has been also implemented in organisations in Europe and Latin America with the support of Aura.

Aura was invited to the United Nations headquarters in New York in 2018, and to the UN Geneva headquarters in 2019, as a speaker at the World Down Syndrome Day Congress, for being pioneers of the 'Supported Employment' methodology in Europe. In 2019, people with intellectual disabilities from the Aura Foundation presented a Manifesto on 'Supported Employment' at the Congress of Deputies in Madrid.

In 2020, The Aura Foundation visited Dubai to be awarded the "World Down Syndrome Day Recipients" prize for its work over 30 years in the social and employment inclusion of people with Down syndrome.
https://www.ds-int.org/news/2019-wdsd-award-recipients

Today, the Aura Foundation continues to focus on increasing the quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities through social and employment inclusion and, most importantly, giving participants confidence in their own abilities and in the possibility of change and improvement.