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Description
Civic engagement of Roma young people aged below 29 in development of public policies has been extremely low in Bulgaria. With regard to young people aged below 29, low education level, lack of initiative, unemployment and lack of engagement result in apathy and looking for opportunities for migration. That is why persistent and targeted effort should be made to train representatives of vulnerable groups who can influence their community. The project will study the reasons for low civic engagement in the Roma community and among young people aged 18-29 and will identify the ways vulnerable groups can have influence over policies in the local community. Opinion leaders in the local communities will be selected and will be trained in advocacy; they will develop advocacy campaigns and solve specific problems. Training will bring together all the stakeholders by including representatives of the Roma community, young people and public institutions at local and national level. They will have to work together to solve the issues they have identified on their own. The partner organizations will combine their expertise to create an effective training program in the field of advocacy aimed at respecting human rights and increasing the civic and economic participation of vulnerable groups at the local level. The Bulgarian School of Politics (BSP) will participate in the study of the problems of the vulnerable group, in the creation of the training program, in mentoring, and will contribute to focusing the attention of public policy makers on the civic participation of Roma. New Road Association and BSP will continue to build a working network of project participants. The studied good practices for work with vulnerable communities in Norway will be extensively presented to the general public and published in a guide. The goal is to make the guide a textbook to train the representatives of vulnerable groups to be actively engaged in the process of development of local policies.
Summary of project results
The project aimed to –
- Explore the reasons for low civic participation in the Roma community and young people aged 18 to 29 and to identify ways in which vulnerable groups can influence local community policies.
- Provide training in advocacy to representatives of the Roma community, youth and representatives of public institutions at local and national level by bringing them together to deal with and solve problems that they have identified in their communities. The aim of the project participants was to transfer the acquired knowledge and skills to other members of their community and to contribute to positive changes in it.
- The studied good practices for working with vulnerable groups from Norway contributed to the transfer of Norwegian experience in Bulgaria - a handbook with the best Norwegian examples was published and distributed.
The trained representatives of the Roma community and young people participating in the project are already part of the Network of Alumni Program for active civic inclusion and development of advocacy skills, which has existed for 3 years and will continue to exist after the project with over 30 participants. They will have the opportunity to participate in trainings for civic and political leaders of the Bulgarian School of Politics, which will help them attract more stakeholders to solve the problems of vulnerable groups. The dissemination of good Norwegian practices in the field of human rights protection and work with vulnerable groups identified under the project continues.
http://bbc-buildbridgesforachange.eu/?page_id=154
Summary of bilateral results
The studied good practices for working with vulnerable groups from Norway contributed to the transfer of Norwegian experience in Bulgaria - a handbook with the best Norwegian examples was published and distributed.