RIC Novo mesto is engaged in activities for better Roma inclusion for many years. We are working closely with a variety of experts, organizations and the municipalities in region. Moreover, the Roma from the local environment are not included in our activities as participants but also s our colleges, co-workers and partners.  Because of the importance of cross-sectorial and regional cooperation in field of Roma integration on the 16^th of April RIC Novo mesto hosted  experts from municipalities, schools, labour offices, prisons, social work centres, libraries, NGOs, adult education organisation, invitation also representative of the Roma community.

We’ve carried out the event by the method of world cafe. In the beginning project coordinators presented  four RIC Novo mesto’s current projects, two Grundtvig Multilateral project, FINALLY – Financial literacy for Roma and e-RR (e-Roma Resource) and Daphne, Early marriage – culture or abuse and the project of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism SORO (Cooperation for the health of the Roma).  In addition of the world cafe event all the participants searched and discussed opportunities for concrete cooperation and activities that will increase and influence processes of integration of Roma population.

The event was very valuable contribution to e-RR project. We had opportunity to present the e-RR platform and demonstrated the applicability of the platform in their daily work. As feedback information they provided us concrete needs of their organisation. By the end of our creative debates with beneficiaries we outlined and determined some concrete exploitation activities.

World cafe for successful cooperation in the field of Roma inclusion

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The research phase consisted of two main sources of information namely a situation analysis (State of the art) and needs assessment of the target groups. All participating countries conducted research based methodology guide and processed results in the national reports. Slovakia as a leading partner package (Research of current state and assessment need) was responsible for the creation of transnational report with the results of the analyses for all the participating countries. Situational analysis from individual countries highlighted a number of problems in the availability of information on the Roma population but also on general issues which Roma face. In the context of the situation analysis were processed number of available sources on the situation of Roma in the participating countries and included many organizations working with Roma.

The second part of the research focused on the needs assessment through a questionnaire. In assessing of needs has been addressed a wide range of professionals working with Roma.

To the questionnaire survey were interviewed total 176 professionals from partner countries and we can say that the respondents have the extensive experience and their opinion represents a good basis for the suggestions and preparation of contents of the e-RR platform.

Respondents from all countries had the opportunity to assess the overall quality of information available on Roma issues.  In general, more than half of respondents from all countries consider the quality of available data insufficient. There are not always fully available data. For example information about potential partners in their activities, list of potential employers for the Roma population,  examples of good practices, the list of the most efficient interventions but also many others. Looking at the content and form of the platform, respondents indicate areas which they consider as the most important part of the platform as field of education and training, employment, social integration, equal opportunities, discrimination but also contact details of institutions and on-going activities (completed projects, programs…). For the respondents, information should be available in the form as interactive database, documents, reports, database of contact details of individual institutions, calendar of important activities, but also photos and video material.

According to the research we can say that there is a big problem with the availability of the information about Roma in all countries and the platform can be a valuable source of new and useful information for more effective work with Roma.

In September our project team worked on preparing the proposal structure and contents of the international platform. Prior to the above preparation we analysed the current situation on different Roma topics in our partners’ countries and throughout Europe.
Subsequently we had two meetings with our partners from LU Kočevje and Croatia Employment Service, RO Karlovac, where we presented our proposal to them. We made some improvements together. Prior to starting with the preparation of final proposal, we discussed the proposal with Multikultura from Poland, who is responsible for the implementation of the platform. While preparing the final proposal we took into consideration all the suggestions of the partners present.

The aim of the platform is to have as many different materials as possible collected in one place. We hope that the platform will be used by teachers, adult education providers, social workers, Roma community workers, etc. Various potential beneficiaries from partners’ countries will be asked about their needs. Their opinions will be taken into consideration when preparing the final platform.

Since you have also been engaged in that field, we would appreciate your answering some questions that you can find on the link. Thank you in advance for your kind cooperation.

You are also free to share your thoughts with us by using the following e-mail err.project@ric-nm.si.

On the 2nd and 3rd of October RIC Novo mesto e-RR project team participated in a conference Empowering marginalized groups through education and training in Danube region in Wiena. The conference was organized by Austrian agency for international mobility and cooperation in education science and research – Department National Agency of Lifelong Learning and the Austrian Ministry of Education and Women’s Affairs. Emphasis of the conference was on the integration of socially disadvantages pupils – particularly Roma Children’s access to education in the Danube Region Countries. The main aim of the conference were discussion, awareness raising and networks formation.

Half of the conference was held in four parallel workshops, where best-practice multilateral Roma project were presented. RIC Novo mesto presented e-Roma Resource project at the workshop Awareness rising and networks focusing on Roma.  Beside the main information about the project we also presented the proposal of the designed e-RR portal for the first time. We’ve received very positive responses from participants and good recommendations and comments of experts, who are potential users of the portal. All this gave us further encouragement for our work on the project.

The conference was good opportunity to present the e-RR portal and invite potential users of the portal, to use the e-RR portal as dissemination tool for their projects and project results.

Between 18th and 19th of September e-RR project partners meet on our second meeting. The host organization was University of Trnava. Since we had a lot of things to discuss, we had very busy meeting. Most of the time we worked in two groups – “researchers group” and steering group.

After the common session, where all partners representatives present progress on the work in the WP they lead, researchers worked on the finalization of the Methodology guide for the State of art and needs assessment survey. Before coming to Trnava, partners just finished the pilot implementation and prepared the reports that partners discussed on the meeting. After the discussion the researchers agreed on the final version of the Questionnaire.

On the second day researchers discussed the structure and the content of the final result of the project – e-RR platform. Project partner Multikultura and lead partner RRIC Novo mesto presented their proposals. At the end of the second day partners prepared joined proposal of the structure and the content of the e-RR portal.

In the steering group project managers discussed about the recommendations of the 1st monitoring reports, about finalizations of the work plans for the work packages, financial management of the project and other things, connected with the project management.

Despite the busy agenda we manage to have a quick guided tour through Trnava, where we discovered beautiful ancient city and even met the mare of the city. Membesr of project team form Trnava University gave their best and organized excellent and fruitful project meeting.

On the link below you can see the report from the local television and also get impression about the meeting by viewing photos from the meeting.

http://www.mtt.sk/up/clanky-spravodajstvo/Elektronizacia-romskych-zdrojov-22-09-2014

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From 25^th to 30^th of May 2014, the members of the e-RR project team of lead partner RIC Novo mesto participated in the study visit in Krakow (as the part of the LDV – VETPRO, Sharing and Learning project). The host organization was The Union of Associations Multicultura, which is also a partner in the e-RR project.

The purpose of the study visit was to learn about best practices in the field of Roma issues, especially learning in the field of Roma inclusion. in the context of the study visit participants also have the opportunity to do discuss with the representatives of the host organization Multicultura on the implementation of the outcome of the e-RR project – the international platform, which will be devoted to the presentation of good practices, policies, materials, projects … in the field of Roma inclusion.

At the end of March e-RR project partners attended e-RR project kick off meeting.  The main purpose of the Kick off meeting  was to get to know members and organizations of the e-RR project  (although some of the partner institutions already cooperated in some previous European projects) and to plan ad discuss on the main  project activities. e-RR project is consisted of 6 work packages (WP), each partner is also the WP leader. One of the first project activities will be connected with the international research about State of art and needs assessment, which will be the basis for forming the structure and the content of e-RR platform.