The Kick-off meeting for the project SERCo – Social Entrepreneurship for Roma Communities took place on the 8th and 9th March 2016, hosted by the project partner FOUR ELEMENTS, in Athens, Greece. The Kick-off meeting brought together the project coordinator University of Piraeus Research Center (Greece), and the other partners: CESIE (Italy), ERIO – European Roma Information Office (Belgium), IDEA ROM Onlus (Italy), AMALIPE – Center for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance (Bulgaria), AEPMR – Association for Lifelong Learning in Rural Areas (Romania), FPC – Fundació Privada Pere Closa (Spain) and TMAF – Tolerance and Mutual Aid Foundation (Bulgaria).
The SERCo project is a 2-year project co-funded by the Justice Programme 2014-2020 that promotes cooperation, exchange of best practices, peer reviews as well as the development of IT tools, awareness-raising and dissemination activities, analytical and educational activities and mutual learning.
Specifically, the SERCo project objective is the development and implementation of actions to support an inclusive and integrated strategy to stimulate the development of innovative policies, dialogue and exchange of knowledge for Roma integration.
Thanks to the project, the partnership will promote social entrepreneurship as an effective tool for Roma social inclusion at national and EU level. Moreover, it will support the creation of sustainable social enterprises in Roma communities, providing them with the skills needed to plan the establishment and the sustainability of social enterprises within their communities.
Finally SERCo encourages mutual learning and the exchange of good practice and collaboration between all partners and stakeholders, with special attention to the Roma community, policy makers, public authorities and NGOs.
During the 2 years of the SERCo project, a series of outcomes will be produced:
- Needs Assessment Report [national and comparative]
- Mapping Social Entrepreneurship in Roma Communities
- Practical Compendiums on institutional barriers for social entrepreneurship and business ideas, applicable within Roma communities
- Guidelines for Roma social entrepreneurship and Policy Recommendations
- Two ‘train the trainers’ circles (Roma mediators), mentoring with potential Roma social entrepreneurs: mutual and flexible learning (moodle) and 4 training modules
- Mutual learning and exchange of good practices: 6 roundtables on exchange of good practice.
The next phase of the SERCo project will see the development of the needs analysis and the social economy impact benchmarking within the Roma community with the subsequent drafting of specific policy recommendations at national and EU level.
Subsequently the partnership will develop guidelines to promote social entrepreneurship initiatives in Roma communities as well as a transnational training programme for Roma mediators, with a focus on the cultural aspects.
The next partnership meeting will be held in Badalona in Spain, in November, hosted by the FPC – Fundació Privada Pere Closa.
For further information about the project, please contact Rita Quisillo: rita.quisillo@cesie.org
