Description
According to a 2013 report by the European Council, over 40% of Romania’s population was at risk of poverty and children are particularly affected (49%). Poverty is affecting specific groups of Romanians differently and the most disadvantaged group of them all is the Roma ethnic minority.The main objectives for the project are to establish good bilateral relations with the relevant municipality and NGO’s in Romania. The approach should be community-based to provide better access to health care, education, social services, skills development and job training, activation measures and employment services. The City of Oslo and its partners will through city-to-city collaboration and strong involvement of local/regional NGOs perform a needs assessment analyses within the social sector and local labour market to determine what measures are necessary to alleviate poverty among the most disadvantaged groups. Through a series of joint workshops the partners will develop different pilot projects and small scale testing of the measures and incentives. The evaluation results will provide evidence of what can be achieved in the short term and what is required to achieve it. The evidence will be used to refine the model and develop proposed methodologies, standards and norms for enhanced and more effective service delivery for a main project.
Summary of project results
The project is a preparatory project established good bilateral relations with the relevant municipalities and NGO’s from Romania and City of Oslo with focus on testing out small scale activities, gain experience and knowledge in order to prepare a main project for the next financial period. The aim of this preparatory project was to increase the access to education and to improve social services with a long time goal of inclusion through employment for a vulnerable population. The project was split in two major phases:to develop a long term collaboration between municipality of Oslo and Romanian partners and to implement small scale projects with the new Romanian partners and to prepare a more complex intervention. All activities were implemented according to the updated plan made after the approval of the two pilot projects with small deviations. The promotor prolonged the activities with three months until April 2017. This prolongation had an important impact on the implementation of the activities from the two small interventions. The most important project outcomes are: 2 Romanian-Norwegian bilateral partnership for school and social inclusion; 26 school teachers with improved competences in social mediation trained to work for school and social integration of pupils at social risk (Craiova); 2 conference for coverage, promotion and dissemination of project results; 500 information leaflets about the project activities and results printed and distributed during its implementation; 1 intervention procedure for social mediation activities carried out in schools; A set of selection criteria for the identification and initial evaluation of social cases in each school from the network; A map of the local community schools with pupils at social risk; 3 workshops to develop the Methodological guide for school and social integration of pupils at social risk and their families; A Methodological guide for school and social integration of pupils at social risk by using non-formal education methods and providing social services; 5 workshops introducing Norwegian programs in the field of social inclusion; 4 workshops in Timisoara for empowering professionals; 2 small pilot project implemented; 1 main project application developed; 150 children receiving social assistance; 10 children receiving ID-papers; 500 children monitored for school attendance (Timisoara); 348 parents counselled/informed by school mediator about how to enroll in school/kindergarten (Timisoara); 208 parents participating in parenting sessions (Timisoara)
Summary of bilateral results