Is social entrepreneurship a viable solution for Roma communities in Palermo?
We have discussed it with a group of experts and stakeholders who have been active for years in the social and cultural inclusion of these communities.
SERCo project – Social Entrepreneurship for Roma communities – was the context of an event that involved several local actors in an exploration of the project and its products, and especially in debating the still unfortunately hot topics for Roma people in Palermo and in Italy.
On February 28th 2017, in the hall of the Ex Real Fonderia of Palermo, provided by the Local Ministry for Participation, CESIE organised the first Info Day and Roundtable of the SERCo project, that is co-funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (REC) of the European Commission.
Our presentation of the project and its outputs was followed by a number of local expert speakers.
Elisabetta Di Giovanni opened the floor: researcher of Anthropology (Religious Anthropology and Roma Studies) at the University of Palermo where she is Assistant Professor, she talked about practices of informal economy and survival of the Palermo Roma communities, starting from her own field work and direct acquantaince with some of the members of the community in Palermo.
Umberto Di Maggio, sociologist and expert in innovative social entreprise start-up and participatory local development, presented the opportunities for the inclusion of Roma people through social entrepreneurship, supporting his arguments with good practices from social enterprises established by or with Roma people across Italy.
Fulvio Vassallo Paleologo, lawyer and one of the founders of the Legal Clinic for Human Rights (CLEDU), introduced a discussion about the legal barriers to the inclusion of Roma people in Italy, outlining a legal framework not very favourable, with which local actors are forced to work in order to achieve better conditions for the community.
Closing the list of speakers, Giovanni Paternostro, on behalf of his colleague Susanna Checchini and of the Special Programming Office of the local ministry for social citizenship in the Municipality of Palermo, presented the upcoming opportunities of funding of the PON Metro Programme, which can support social housing solutions for members of the Roma communities still living at the camp, and at the same time support actions for Roma employability.
The second part of the event was dedicated to a roundtable on several topics, with a discussion that can be imagined as more or less running parallel to the other roundtables of the project going on in the different project countries.
The topics of the roundtable were:
- good practices of social enterprise by Roma people;
- social and cultural barriers;
- opportunities for Roma entrepreneurship offered by the local authorities;
- the professional role of the Roma mediator;
- a bridge between local authorities and Roma communities.
The results and findings from the roundtable will inform the development of next project products, and will be especially important in the upcoming training of two rounds of members of the Roma communities about social entrepreneurship and the role of the Roma mediator.
Another info day and roundtable will be organised by CESIE in the month of September 2017.
You can follow the project FB page, project website and CESIE’s social networks and website to keep up to date about the project.
SERCo is a 2-year project co-funded by the Justice Programme 2014-2020 with the aim to promote social economy as an effective instrument for national and EU Roma social inclusion strategies.
The project partnership holds together 8 organisations:
- University of Piraeus Research Center (Greece, coordinator);
- ERIO – European Roma Information Office (Belgium);
- IDEA ROM Onlus (Italy);
- AMALIPE – Center for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance (Bulgary);
- AFRR – Asociatia Femeilor Rome din Romania (Romania);
- FPC – Fundació Privada Pere Closa (Spain);
- FOUR ELEMENTS (Greece);
- TMAF – Tolerance and Mutual Aid Foundation (Bulgary).
For further information, please contact justice@cesie.org.
