The training of trainers that was organized in the framework of the Financial Literacy for Roma project in the Municipality of Megara was successfully completed. In the training, they participated 20 people were social workers, public servants and other professionals that are working directly or indirectly with Roma. The training was organized in a room equipped with computers where the trainers had the opportunity to see also the training material in an electronic form. The feedback from the trainers was excellent as Finally provided one of the few opportunities that exist in Greece for continuous professional development in such a practical manner. The material and the focus of the course were considered very innovative. Many participants have expressed their will to implement some of the modules of the project also in their daily work with this target group.

Action Synergy, the Greek partner of the project, is going to contribute to the sustainability of the project results by organizing e-learning courses for teachers, social workers, university students and NGOs on the basis of the results of the FINALLY project starting from May 2016. The e-learning course are going to be held in the Greek language and they are going to be completely online in order to allow the participation of people all over Greece without needing to come to Athens or Heraklion where the organization is based. Registrations and more information will be announced soon in the website of our organization www.action.gr and the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ActionSynergySA

In the school year 2015/16 were in Elementary School Šentjernej decided to derive  innovative project with Roma pupils in the field of raising financial literacy. They got incentive on the Training of Trainers for Financial Literacy for the Roma, which was implemented by RIC Novo mesto in May 2015.
The project includes seven students of Roma women from the sixth, seventh and eighth grade.
The objectives of the project were participating in increasing understanding of the concepts of income, expense, need, desire, smart spending, encourage them to develop good shopping habits and to save planning and spending money. The project was part of seven meetings, which were carried out after school, mostly in the duration of a one hour, together nine hours. Meetings were held in a relaxed learning atmosphere where the participants allowing and encouraging them to actively participate. Prevailing methods were talking, explaining, the method of brainstorming, analysis of newspaper flyers or learning by experimentation, group work and role play. The basic principle, which Alenka Bašelj and Andreja Hvalec Žitnik followed, were a participant-centered learning process and the integration of learning content with the living environment and experience of participants.
In designing the content of the program the performers were using the literature that has developed within the project Finally, Financial Literacy for the Roma, which was held under RIC Novo mesto.

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Finally training course was presented in Italy in various contexts and raised a lot of interest. First, it was presented at Caritas Bergamo and at the Municipality of Romano di Lombardia. They work in Sinti authorized camps but also considered the course materials very useful for working with newly arrived refugees who are entering social programs.

Second, it was presented to the social workers of the organization La Piccola Carovana, in Bologna and their collaborators in the Municipality of Bologna department for Adult Social Services. These services work with Roma who carry out informal activities in the city area and with homeless people.

Third, the project and its results was presented to the team of Padri Somaschi, which is an Italian organization that carries out social services in most of the authorized Roma settlements in Milan. They too considered it would be very useful to apply such a program with their clients, who need support in managing all the financial aspects of their relationship with social services.

Fourth, the products were presented at the conference of Lega Consumatori. The Consumer’s League is a national organization that is active in the field of financial education and information to the citizens. Our project received appreciation also from the Italian Bank Association, who hosted and participated in the conference. Finally project was present with a desk for distributing promotional materials.

The toolbox consist of Workbook, PPTs and didactical game Romonopoly.

Testing in the pilot actions found out that Roma participants like the exercises and the topics, because are very useful, dynamic (different teaching/learning methods) and they recognized that this knowledge can help them in their real life. Also during training the trainers was collected good assessment. All the target group members perceived the material as high-quality tools. Material can be modified according to the needs and specifics of the target group – specific trainees. Some exercises might be omitted when needed. Material is culturally and content wise completely acceptable, clear and useful.

Testing in pilot actions gave positive feedback about selected topics, the number and quality of exercises. Quality of the Workbook, amount and type of information and exercises included were acceptable.

The game Romonopoly is offering a different approach for Roma education; it is very useful from methodological point of view, as well as a stimulating activity for the group dynamics. Game help to fully understand family budgeting issues, and to learn about it on easy and funny way. It is absolutely appropriate for target group. Also the quality of the game is very good. During the training the trainers it’s got excellent assessment. Concept is known from other games, but the cards, playing surface is really original.

Yesterday we presented to participants of the elementary school for Roma adults by RIC Novo mesto the program for financial literacy.The basic concept is to present a financial decision making process at family level as “a clever path” that learners can walk through to better understand basic financial concepts with the ultimate objective to learn how to better handle their finances.

Participants also got to know the didactical game Romonopoly. Throughout the game they experienced moments of everyday life which always are rounded around money. They liked the game and are waiting for a new financial challenges in the next sessions.

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A final press conference of the project FINALLY was on 28^th January 2016.  It took place at RIC Novo mesto, Slovenia. We presented the experiences gained and products developed during the three year project.

One of most important outcomes of the Finally project is the e-book entitled Managing uncertainty – Research on the financial literacy of Roma families in six countries. This book offers summary of transnational report, which was developed based on national reports about level of financial literacy and other relevant aspects of quality of life of Roma in six countries included in realization of Finally project – Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. Serbian national report derived from desk and field research realized by members of our team, Jelena Stanković and Ana Popović, teaching assitants from our Faculty.

The e-book is structured so that in the first part it offers information on socio-economic position of Roma in mentioned countries – about housing, employment and other aspects of social inclusion (health, schooling, education of adult Roma), while the second part offers presentation of the realized research about level of financial literacy of Roma – methodology and main research findings. The focus is on the following issues: earnings, consumption and expenses, savings, perceptions about economic success, relations with financial institutions, planning for the future. In the last part of the publication, conclusions and recommendations are presented.

This e-book can be useful for many individuals and organizations – researchers from this field, creators of related national policies, people engaged in NGOs dealing with improving quality of life of Roma, and all other interested parties – as a solid basis for future research and projects.

The free download of this publication is possible on the project Finally website – direct link: http://finally.splet.arnes.si/publications/ and on web page dedicated to project Finally on our Faculty’s website – direct link: http://www.eknfak.ni.ac.rs/srl/Projekat-FINALLY.php. Both locations also include more detailed reports – both national and transnational.

The project FINALLY in Greece has established a cooperation with important libraries of the Northern Greece in order to display the project material in these libraries and make them available to researchers, professionals and practitioners. The FINALLY project material is going to be promoted through a cooperation that exists between Action Synergy and these libraries in the framework of the DI-XL project which aimed particularly in the dissemination of results of LLP projects through libraries.

The training material (Curriculum, Workbooks, Trainer’s Manual, Didactical Game) of the project FINALLY is available also in the Greek language and ready to be used by teachers, social workers and other professionals in order to develop the financial literacy skills of the Roma. The translation of all the material of the project has been made in order to allow every interested person in the results of the project, independent from his language skills to benefit from the project results. The training material of the FINALLY project are characterized by their high quality in terms of content and design and therefore they will be really useful for the trainers that they would like to use them. They are available to download from here www.project-finally.eu