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Description
Many rural town halls are unable to offer the necessary services to vulnerable groups, because public employees are either too few or insufficiently trained, and they do not work together for an effective case management. Such is the situation in Coroieni (Maramures county), a commune with 2470 people, out of whom 700 are severely impoverished Roma.
The project aims to (1) produce systemic changes in the way public services for vulnerable groups in Coroieni are delivered and accessed, in order to facilitate social inclusion, decrease inequalities and develop the entire community; (2) use the direct experience to improve national public policy regarding integrated community services.
The project involves public employees in applying a horizontal (social services-education-health) and vertical (local-county-national) collaboration model to help them solve vulnerable groups’ severe/urgent problems; creates interaction routines among actors, to sustain this collaboration in the future and in other communities; documents the process and formulates public policy recommendations, and informs county and national authorities through constant communication and advocacy.
In parallel, it increases community members’ capacity to access public services, through remedial education, personal development and leadership training for children and youth, health education for mothers and women, by mobilizing a Local Initiative Group and by organizing community events that create positive interactions between people with different socio-economic backgrounds and ethnicity.
Reality Check has direct experience in community development in Coroieni, in policy evaluation and advocacy. Coroieni Town Hall involves the integrated local team and makes sure that the systemic changes proposed are applied. New Horizons brings experience in team building and leadership, community organization and literacy, and PeStop contributes with expertise in health and hygiene education.
Summary of project results
Many rural town halls in Romania are not capable of offering the necessary services to vulnerable groups, because public employees are eighter insufficient in number or insufficiently trained, and they do not work together, as a team, for an effective case management. This applies also in Coroieni (Maramures county) a commune with 2470 people, out of whom 700 are severely impoverished Roma (400 children) who live in severe poverty and social exclusion. Most of them live in Ponorata, 7 km away from Coroieni. There is a kindergarten and a primary school in Ponorata. The secondary school, the town hall and the dispensary are in Coroieni. In Ponorata there are 100% Roma, physically and socially isolated from the rest of the commune. The birth rate is high at 22%. Access to medical services is low. The social worker and the medical assistant of the commune are overloaded.
The project tested a new way of providing integrated social services, in difficult communities, with the help of an interdisciplinary team at the local and county level. The project improved the way public services are provided to vulnerable people from Coroieni (Ponorata), by achieving the following results: 1. strengthened a structured way of working of the local integrated team - case interventions. Most families made progress, even if it is small given their multiple vulnerabilities. 2. mobilized public authorities to support the vulnerable community, through meetings of the local and county action groups; 3. supported directly vulnerable children and their families, through: a) educational programs: the core of children who attend school regularly increased to over 218; 62 children benefited of remedial education, 104 participated at sports education activities and 10 youngsters benefited of literacy class. Approx. 60% progressed educationally and 90% behaviorally. b) health, hygiene and childcare education - 171 unique participants; 4. 13 people regularly attended the Local Initiative Group (15 members) meetings and are actively involved in the community; 2 Roma women were hired in the project. 5. organized 5 community events, attended by a total of 716 people. 6. documented grassroots challenges and informed the authorities on ways to support them in solving the problems encountered; recommendations are in the policy report. 7. ensured the visibility of the project through a dedicated website, press briefings and information sent to county and national institutions, Facebook posts and advocacy meetings
Following the advocacy campaign a series of policy paper drafts have been elaborated and discussed by representatives of Education, Health and Labor Ministries. The Roma community in Coroieni started a process of sustainable change, which takes time, effort, motivation, action. The promotor will remain partially engaged in the community to keep and develop the results of the project, as sustainable change in a severely poor community as Ponorata, takes time.