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Description
Community organizing shall be an effective tool for bringing citizens together, empowering, helping, and connecting them. It concerns activities such as, creating leadership structures, defining problematic issues, and organizing campaigns towards positive changes within communities. Unfortunately, this method only works in communities "ready to be organized" and might be challenging for vulnerable groups/communities while lacking basic needs or skills. The project aims to support the community organizing in 6 Roma communities (Slovenská Ľupča, Skalica, Banská Bystrica - Cementárenská, Banská Bystrica - Hrb, Banská Štiavnica - Šobov and Banská Štiavnica - Povrazník) where the promoter has been active for the last 2-5 years. The project shall also provide support in other topics, such as community development, advocacy, public campaigns, and education. This project offers systematic solutions for significant problems such as housing, education, health and discrimination, advocacy, and education level. In direct effort, it shall empower 6 Roma communities - around 1 000 Roma people. Additionally, the project shall include also depolarizing approach towards the general public. The main goal of the partners will be to support the project activities through direct involvement in the community development.
Summary of project results
The project aimed to address long-term problems in Roma communities in the field of health, education, housing and discrimination. Furthermore, the project sought to shift the excessive reliance of Roma people on Slovak social system and assistance towards more active participation of Roma people on solution of their problems.
The project used the tool of community organizing in the Roma communities and incented involvement of the communities in the problem solving. Other activities organised within the project focused on education trainings in the field of soft skills development, health as well as on strengthening relationships within the communities through common activities. The community organizing was complemented by communication tools such as videos, discussions, blogs and podcasts to raise awareness about problems in Roma communties.
The project introduced community organizing to 6 Roma communities and improved living conditions in these communities. The project also highlighted the importance of involving Roma citizens in the problem solving. Community organizing, resulted in several meetings with Members of Banská Bystrica self-governing region and a resolution of the town Banská Bystrica to address the issue of affordable housing sufficiently by creating a strategic document. Within a project an advocacy campaign called "Decent Housing" was created, which also helped to raise awareness of the housing problems in the Roma communities. In addition, other communities at risk of unaffordable housing, such as single mothers, large families, and families with disadvantaged children gradually joined the campaign. The project has also highlighted the lack of solutions to housing issues at local level, non-transparent dealings between local authorities and housing companies and discrimination in the allocation of social or transitional housing. Education trainings improved soft skills as well as health related knowledge of Roma people in the communities. Proactive approach of Roma people within community organizing improved image of Roma people and helped to bridge Roma and Non-Roma people.