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Description
According to the Marginalized Rural Areas Atlas, both Dimăcheni and Valea Seacă (two communities where the project is implemented) fall into the sever marginalized category. These rural areas are faced with large differences between different social or ethnic groups, lack of equal opportunities or social equity; limited involvement of authorities in terms of social justice and inclusion of vulnerable groups, including youth and Roma. The needs/challenges that the project aims to address are: school drop-out among the Roma population, social exclusion, lack of involvement of Roma in community life, unemployment and lack of permanent support for Roma.
The main expected results of the project are: Increased capacity for 170 members of vulnerable communities (Valea Seacă and Dimăcheni), including 50 Roma citizens and 15 young people; 70 children at risk, including 50 Roma, to have access to after-school social services; 77 vulnerable adults, including 28 young people and 53 Roma, to have increased access to social services for education and vocational training;
Medium and long-term development of the 2 interethnic communities of Valea Seacă and Dimăcheni through the development of a new tool - online platform to address the needs of vulnerable groups in the two communities: https://dezvoltarelocala.ro/
The added value brought by the Romanian partner is linked to its expertise in organising community consultations, facilitating workshops, activities supporting children''s rights or minority groups, especially Roma. Thus, the partner will be involved in the organisation/planning of community actions, but also in the training process of the lecturers who will be subsequently involved in the project.
Summary of project results
The "Active social inclusion through local development" project, implemented by the Star of Hope Romania Foundation in partnership with the Ursari Roma Association from Dagâța, aimed to increase the capacity of vulnerable groups from Valea Seacă and Dimăcheni.
To achieve this goal, 2 categories of interventions were used. Measures were planned to increase the capacity of 180 members of the vulnerable groups in the 2 communities. 20 members (2 young people, 11 belonging to the Roma minority) of the 2 established Community Advisory Committees benefited from 4 training sessions/community. The CAC members, together with other people from the community, supported by the project team, started to become a voice for the community members. Mobilizing 160 members (of which 21 young people, 58 belonging to the Roma minority) from the 2 communities, 11 community actions were planned (5 in Valea Seacă and 6 in Dimăcheni) which responded to the need to reduce social/medical exclusion, marginalization and insufficient representation
0 people from the 2 communities participated in a consultative process. The second category of intervention was represented by social services: 83 children (of which 59 Roma) benefited from After School activities that contributed to reducing the risk of school failure/dropout. 117 adults, young people (of which 40 young people, 65 Roma) from the 2 communities benefited from 2 work skills development programs (tailoring, sewing), 2 parental education sessions, 2 financial education sessions. In order to respond to the needs of vulnerable groups, an online platform was developed ( https://dezvoltarelocala.ro/ ) which was a very effective tool, useful in involving people in a consultative process. To respond to the need to increase the capacity and sustain the organization, a manual of effective management procedures was developed; 2 courses were organized (1 Public Policy course -33 participants and 1 Strategic Communication course -47 participants).