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Description
The project responds to the population'' needs affected by poverty and marginalization in Targu Frumos, Iasi County, in order to increase its proactive capacity to identify, address and solve problems, as well as to exercise their rights in relation to local decision makers. The beneficiaries of the projects will be represented by: families with Roma children, with educational risk, children with disabilities, in which the parents do not have a job, and live in precarious conditions. The issues will be approached gradually, through information and subsequent formation of 2 representative informal groups. The approach aims to empower the vulnerable groups to influence the quality, efficiency and diversification of public services in the city. The approach of the intervention is built as follows: provide information on rights, services, training for public representation, carried out in parallel with workshops for local leaders to facilitate social inclusion, dialogue with local representatives and increasing their responsibility as cross-cutting theme of the project. The provision of services has the role of responding to urgent needs but also to constitute a benchmark for beneficiaries in terms of standards in social services. The thematic areas of the public meetings will be: social services, education, housing and employment. The project will also map the social needs, as the applicant''s experience shows that the size of the needs in the city are not known by decision makers and in its absence, practically these groups remain invisible. The project will open new approaches in the community, in terms of partnership and collaboration between vulnerable groups and local decision makers in identifying solutions to problems raised by the community.
Summary of project results
The activities aimed at responding to the population''s needs affected by poverty and marginalization in Targu Frumos, Iași County, in order to increase its proactive capacity to identify, address and solve problems, as well as to exercise their rights in relation to local decision makers.
Following activities were carried out: information and training sessions for the beneficiaries (2 modules, 70 participants); a workshop for public participation (3 sessions, 25 representatives of vulnerable groups); 5 workshops for local decision-makers (40 participants from local public authorities and institutions); facilitating dialogue processes with vulnerable groups, and organization of open dialogue meetings between public authorities and vulnerable groups (8 meetings, 25 representatives of vulnerable groups involved); provision of psycho-socio-educational services to children at risk and their parents (54 children, 63 parents). Also, the project developed a map of social needs at the level of the local community, a methodology for empowering vulnerable groups including the approaches used in the project, and ran a regional workshop which brought together social and educational specialists together with representatives from institutions and public authorities from the NE region (52 participants). At the same time, within the project, digital donor management tools were developed for the efficiency and professionalization of the fundraising activities.
The training sessions and the public participation workshop created a context of information, debate, identification of problems in the community even by those affected, increasing their confidence to articulate the problems they face in front of the decision makers and identifying solutions.
The workshops for local decision-makers led to the mobilization of local actors from various fields to identify common solutions and be more active in the community development process, with new services development included.
The population-authorities facilitated dialogues contributed to the empowerment of the vulnerable groups to be more vocal, increasing the local dialogue and contributing to the identification of solutions.
The provision of services alleviated a number of social problems.
The map, methodology and the regional workshop increased the level of information and awareness regarding social risks on medium and long term.