Description
The project addresses the difficulties faced by Roma labour mediators and assistant teachers related to their isolation and lack of recognition. The project aims at empowering them, helping them improve their position with the local authorities and Roma communities and raising their motivation and efficiency. First, 6 three-day trainings of about 102 Roma labor mediators and assistant teachers will be held using the methodology of the ROMED Program of the Council of Europe and the European Commission. A regional awareness-raining conference will precede each training. Second, a website with a forum will be created where all materials and success stories will be uploaded. Finally, a conference with the stakeholders will be held and an association of Roma labour mediators and/or assistant teachers will be set up. The project will enhance Roma integration supporting not only the target group of Roma labour mediators and teachers but also the local Roma communities.
Summary of project results
The project addressed some of the issues that emerged over the last years during the integration of the Roma community related to the work of the Roma mediators (labour, education/assistant teachers and health) and the correct understanding of the mediator’s functions, obligations and vocation by mediators themselves, the community they represent and the institutions that employ them, in particular. The project emphasized the actual role played by the Roma mediator as a key mediator between the Roma community and the state institutions and proposed extension of the professional and organizational capacity of mediators, creating conditions for mediators to play a role for the social empowerment of the vulnerable groups they represent and directing them to take proper place between the institutions and the Roma community. The project uses the methods of the ROMED programme for intercultural mediation of the Council of Europe and the European Commission building a model of efficient intercultural mediation.
Summary of bilateral results