The project
Objectives
Municipality4Roma is an ambitious project that aims to contribute to the inclusion of the Roma community in Campobasso by applying an intervention model based on an informed and mature dialogue between public and private services and the Roma community.
The two-year project aims specifically to:
- Stimulate the convergence between the Roma community and the different categories of operators belonging both to the public and private system
- Share a model of acceptance of the Roma community in the institutional and welfare system capable of employing the right levers for a profitable and effective involvement of the community, taking into account the current rules and the social and cultural factors that affect this integration process
In other words, Municipality4Roma aims to provide concrete tools and common languages between the operators of public and private services and the different users related to the Roma community of Campobasso, in order to overcome mutual mistrust and build real collaboration between these two worlds.
Actions
These objectives will be achieved through a coordinated series of actions:
- Analysis of the training needs of the actors involved, in order to outline a well-founded and effective intervention program. The needs analysis is conducted through the administration of questionnaires and focus groups
- Training for operators operating in the area of Campobasso to improve the social inclusion process and develop more homogeneous and effective procedures
- Training aimed at the local Roma community to ensure an easier access to services and greater civic participation
- Creation of moments of meeting and mutual learning between operators and Roma communities to facilitate constructive discussions and the creation of shared inclusion paths
- Dissemination of the inclusion model developed so far in other communities in Bulgaria (Municipality of Tran) and Greece (Municipalities of Athens, Philadelphia-Chalkidonia and Moschaton) to guarantee a wider reproducibility of the intervention model and provide the project with an international scope
Methodological framework
Social interventions aimed to improve the inclusive abilities of the institutional system too often lack an integrated approach that takes into account the various social actors that populate it. They often only focus on the Roma community. To develop effective interventions it is essential to recognize the importance of the relationship between the Roma community, institutions and other stakeholders that interact with them.
What has been described so far represents an important methodological choice made in the ROMUNICARE project (http://www.romunicare.eu/), of which Municipality4Roma is the continuation. Romunicare is a project funded by the European Commission that in 2016-18 tested an integration model that not only included support for the Roma community in Rome in a correct and informed approach to public services, but also a careful work developed with the same municipal offices to make them transparent and substantially respectful of anti-discrimination legislation.
In addition to the already tested Romunicare model, Municipality4Roma also includes in the integration process the series of non-strictly institutional stakeholders that belong to the extended welfare system and that, interacting with the local Roma community, still play an important role in the integration process of these citizens.
In addition, the M4R project envisages an innovative dissemination strategy, through which four European municipalities will study how to apply the intervention model to local needs.
Expected results
At the end of the project, the intervention model will have achieved the following results:
- Greater awareness among service operators and the Roma community of the anti-discrimination aims pursued by the European Union
- Improvement of the inclusive capacities of the local institutional system through the development of dialogic and collaborative approaches between the operators of the various services and between these and the Roma, in a bottom-up perspective of response to real needs
- Implementation of the project in some local contexts of the European territory: the Municipality of Tran in Bulgaria, the Municipalities of Philadelphia-Chalkidonia, of Moschaton and a district of the city of Athens (Kolonos)
In doing so, the project activities, with particular regard to training, will involve:
- 60 employees of the Municipality of Campobasso and the other Municipalities of the ATS (55 operators and 5 managers);
- 15 associations operators involved in social inclusion interventions;
- 30 school operators;
- 50 Roma
- 60 employees and operators of the municipalities of Tran (Bulgaria), Philadelphia-Chalkidonia, Moschaton and Kolonos (Greece)
