Action Synergy, the Greek partner of the project has reached an agreement with the Municipality of Megara, a municipality of 30.000 inhabitants in the Western part of Attica with a big Roma community, in order to organize training courses for the improvement of the Financial Literacy of the local Roma population. The training courses are going to be organized with the active participation of the local authority, a local training centre and the Roma association of the region. The direct involvement of both the local authority and the Roma association in the implementation of the course will guarantee the sustainability of the project after the project’s end. The Roma people that are going to be trained are mostly young (18-30 years old) men and women. Before the start of the Financial Literacy Courses, the trainers are going to be trained first on the methodology and curriculum of the course. These trainers are going to be both adult educators and social workers with considerable experience in working with this target group.

At the end of October we had the opportunity to present projects Finally and e-RR at the meeting of Council of Professionals of Republic of Slovenia for adult education. The presentations were prepared by Gabi Ogulin Počrvina and Marjeta Gašperšič who was also the presenter. Present members of the Council were acquainted with both projects, the partnerships and key activities. The presenter specifically emphasised the curriculum of the programme for financial literacy and a rich collection of materials  for trainers and participants of the programme and the e-RR project’s platform as a rich source of information about different activities and materials in the field of Roma integration. This platform is also a great tool for dissemination of project results.

In month of September, the Faculty of Economics in Niš successfully completed the pilot implementation of FINALLY training course. This activity is considered crucial for the final quality checks and conformity of the teaching materials and other deliverables produced over the previous project activities. Trainings began in May, and continued during the month of September. Through the training program, it’s been educated not only twenty trainers – educators, mostly the members of the Roma population that are very active in organizations dedicated to Roma issues, but also more than twenty members of the target population. The full time program of education has been done with generous support of already educated trainers. Most of the participants expressed her undisguised satisfaction with the organization and content of the program as well as they expressed their interest in this training program suggesting that it should continue through clusters of trainings in different Roma communities.

Training was covered and filmed by the electronic media specialized in Roma issues. A reportage that lasts more than five minutes, along with web presentation of the project finally can be found at the following link http://romaworld.rs/?p=905. This video recorded statement of the participants, trainers, and some of the lectures given.

Parts of the training course developed for Finally project were tested by Codici in collaboration with ARCO social cooperative in a 20-hours training held in Piacenza. The participants were living in the camp hosted by the Municipality of Piacenza and in social housing. After the course they acknowledged the importance of improving their capacities. The most important issue, in their opinion, was related to finding a job or entrepreneurial opportunities, as most of the families collect iron for recycling and this activity is bringing ever lower incomes, leading to financial insecurity. The Italian version of the course materials will be soon available online in a user-friendly design, making it easy for whoever wants to develop Roma adult’s financial skills to access these validated training materials.

In May at the Faculty of Health Sciences and Social Work, Trnava University took place training of trainers. Community workers with Roma population and community outreach workers with Roma population pilot testing educational materials. During the three days, participants had the opportunity to test educational materials under the supervision of coaches. During the modules was a discussion on filling modules, on the experience of community outreach workers with education of Roma population and barriers to the introduction of education on financial literacy in practice.
After training they train the target group of Roma population. During September we implemented training for Roma in central Slovakia. Experiences and comments on training they swap with each other and with coaches on the online platform. Currently we are in the phase of evaluated all the activities in the project FINALLY.

During the summer months HESED performed the pilot actions of the Finally training activities with Roma. The results of the pilot actions are very optimistic. The participants gave a very positive feedback about the program and the approach used to involve them in the topics. The training course provided to the participants a new way of dealing with money and new opportunities for planning the future related with financial planning of expected events during the lifespan. Most of the participants found very useful the topic related with saving and reducing the expenses of the household on the basis of a saving plan. Additionally the pilot actions provided valuable feedback about the content of the training and the practical exercises included in the curriculum.

Finally partnership kindly invite you to join us at the international networking conference »Broaden Horizons – Networks and Experiences for Successful Roma Inclusion«, which will be held on 26th and 27th November 2015 in Terme Dolenjske Toplice in Slovenia. The conference is held under the honorary patronage of his excellency Mr. Borut Pahor, the President of the Republic of Slovenia.

The conference aims to highlight the importance of connecting the stakeholders working on Roma issues, to encourage networking and cooperation between ministries and institutions, creating new partnerships, exchanging best practices by using the literature and materials produced within diverse projects and it is intended for professionals and practitioners, as well as for policy makers and the representatives of governmental and non-governmental organizations.

The first day of the conference will be devoted to different thematic plenary contributions, which will be presented by renowned researchers and experts, while on the second day you will be able to participate in the project market, where you will be able to get familiar with a variety of interesting international projects in the field of Roma integration. At the same time, this is an excellent opportunity to disseminate and promote your project, project results and best practices.

For a detailed conference programme, contribution and cooperation possibilities, registration and accommodation details please follow the conference website www.en.broadenhorizons.si.

We are looking forward to meeting you in Slovenia.

Massimo Conte, researcher and founding member of Codici | Ricerca e Intervento, published on his blog on Qcode Magazine a focus in two articles about the Roma camp of Via Idro and its closure.

In fact, between late October and early November 2015, the municipality announced its dismantling. The camp was founded 26 years ago in Via Padova and is inhabited by more than hundred roma harwati. The inhabitants, together with associations and citizens, have mobilized against this decision of municipality.

They question the politics of dismantling nomad camps that has been carried out in Italy for years now with both migrant and Italian Roma, leading to even more exclusion and precarious life conditions.

Among them, Massimo Conte, who in his articles tells the story of the negotiations between the municipality and the other parties involved and the daily life of the camp, through a portrait of one of the families who live there since decades. A diary from the field of Via Idro which puts general questions, as what ‘home’ means and what it means to ‘inhabit a territory’. Read more on QCode Magazine.

Photo by Luca Meola