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Description
The purpose of the project is to empower disadvantaged people to solve both their own and community problems in order to prevent and eliminate social exclusion by implementing preventive programs. Also, the goal is to empower the target group in society and support their participation in decision-making. By involving adults in the activities of the Assistance Center in Janov, we will increase their competences, help the community to improve or restore its ability to function better and contribute to stabilizing the community and its members. By implementing project activities, we will motivate, activate, educate and practice various skills with individuals.
The goal of the project is to empower a selected disadvantaged group to solve the situation of the locality through community activities. Find more effective ways to solve the situation of target group using the principles of community work in the excluded location of Litvínov. To provide the target group (adults and children) with support and help to acquire the skills to resolve their situation on their own or with the support of the project staff, or with the joint efforts of the given community. Such a possibility is the intention of the presented project, which offers the target group the possibility of implementing three main project programs:
- actively contribute to improving the situation in the locality where they live,
- improve your practical skills,
- increase the competence of the individual,
- strengthen self-confidence,
- improve communication skills and improve social mobility,
- draw information, learn.
It will offer the feeling that they can create and at least partly influence what happens around them. Using project activities to strengthen them in society and involve them in decision-making on public matters.
Summary of project results
The organization operates in Litvínov, an area with a concentration of marginalized populations facing severe challenges. Residents in this socially excluded locality have limited interaction with mainstream society, low education and employment prospects, a high number of single mothers, emotional challenges, reliance on state social support, and passive life attitudes. Many children attend special classes, lack adequate education preparation, spend free time on the streets, and may not even complete school attendance.
The primary issues faced by this population include inadequate housing, poor employability, low education, usury, limited children''s leisure activities, insufficient maternal care, and high unemployment.
The root causes are the concentration of socially excluded individuals in a small area, a community-based lifestyle, identification with this way of life, long-term unemployment, lack of involvement in decision-making, and the impact of housing privatization over the past 15 years.
The project aims to empower this disadvantaged group in Litvínov through community activities. It seeks to improve their situation by enhancing practical skills, boosting competencies, increasing self-confidence, improving communication, and enhancing social mobility. The project offers a chance for the community to actively contribute to local improvement, while also fostering a sense of control over their environment and participation in public affairs.
By involving adults in the center''s activities, we enabled support for a larger number of individuals who found themselves on the brink of social exclusion, and we helped them prevent feelings of inferiority and uselessness. Above all, we offered a broader range of activities important for both individuals and the community and locality - they acquired practical skills and learned, for example, how to search for and use accurate information. In addition to group work, an individual approach to the problems of individuals and the entire community was important, as well as the activities of the core group.
The Assistance Center project in Janov was focused on information activities, practical activities, as well as empowerment and education of adult Roma and socially weaker adult members of the majority, as well as their children, both directly in the community threatened by social exclusion and through the Assistance Center.
The project''s activities were based on three main programs focused on P1-individuals, P2-community, P3-social network. Supplementary activities were aimed at children.
P1 and P2 - activated the community by involving them in the decision-making process, participation, and event organization. Initially, through the activation of individuals - for adults, 95 project participants'' main goal was to involve them in the project''s implementation, and then, through participation in project activities, to increase the competencies of individual members through motivation, activation, education, or skills training.
P3 - shaped, built, and strengthened the social network of actors operating in the excluded locality by building relationships, contacts, and resources.
The overall impact of the Janov Assistance Centre project resonates in the community of the excluded locality of Janov as such - at the moment it can be observed that the
target group is aware that the project works, what its activities and benefits are, and can distinguish them from the social services provided within the Janov Community
Centre. In the framework of the project, the workers tried to motivate and empower the residents of the excluded locality to change their lives, actively address their
situation and reduce social exclusion through various activities, discussions, field work, etc., which led to an increased interest in the current situation of the housing estate
within the community in general, and to active participation in the change of several individuals of the target group. The project activities have had an impact on the whole
community of the excluded locality - people in the housing estate are already becoming aware that the implementation of the opportunity to expand their practical skills and
knowledge, and some individuals are beginning to see the benefits of the social interaction offered by the project. The project has succeeded in establishing a functioning
core group, which is a great achievement within the community of the Genoa estate, where the population turnover is high, which is actively involved in activities. The
project has also benefited greatly from the events for children, which have had a long-term positive impact on the community - parents spend time with their children in a
meaningful way, and at the same time can social bonds of people within the community can be strengthened in a non-violent way. Parents with children benefit the most
from the project, as it provides an opportunity to spend meaningful leisure time, reinforces responsibility in a non-violent way, and offers the opportunity to really
participate in changing life on the estate, as well as individuals who want to change their current way of life, how they spend their leisure time, or who want to
expand their knowledge and skills and then use this practically in their lives.