The main objective of the project is to empower Roma/disadvantaged parents to better advocate for their children’s education, healthcare, and other basic needs and rights. By raising awareness of universal children’s rights – especially those most relevant to the life of Roma communities in Hungary and Bulgaria – and by strengthening parents’ capacities to stand up for these rights, they will be able to manage their children’s lives more effectively and ensure more successful outcomes, primarily in their school careers.
The secondary aim is to promote a cooperative, inclusive mainstream local society by sensitising and strengthening the Roma inclusion skills of the relevant local professionals.
The capacity building of Roma parents will lead to improved civic engagement and more active participation in decision-making processes – more generally, it will result in a stronger manifestation of the democratic principle “nothing about us without us.” Roma children growing up in a more inclusive local environment will benefit from more successful school careers, better and equal access to social and health services, and the strengthening of inclusion and diversity in the two partnering countries.
Roma and disadvantaged communities have few opportunities to learn about their democratic rights, to improve skills for cooperative, democratic participation, and to gain peaceful and effective advocacy mechanisms. The project aims to create new, innovative non-formal learning paths to achieve these goals.
The project is also in harmony with the overall aims of the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child. It is especially relevant to the third pillar of the EU Roma Strategic Framework for equality, inclusion, and participation: “Promote participation through empowerment, cooperation and trust.”
The planned outcomes of the project are:
two curricula, jointly developed by the two partners based on their diverse yet converging expertise: one for the capacity building of Roma parents and another for sensitising and strengthening the skills of relevant professionals;
8 training/workshop series: one parents’ training implemented in two localities in each country, and similar trainings for professionals in the same localities;
following the trainings, 4 learning-by-doing processes will be facilitated, turning the skills developed during the trainings into practice – one in each locality (two in each country);
a methodological guidebook to explain the method and summarise the lessons learned from the project;
various dissemination materials and events to communicate the project.
The project is implemented by the Hungarian organization Rosa Parks Foundation, in partnership with the association World Without Borders. It is funded through the Erasmus+ KA210-ADU – Small-scale Partnerships in Adult Education programme and represents the second joint initiative between the two organizations.
