Is it possible to promote social economy as an effective instrument for Roma social inclusion?
Training people with a Roma background was one of the main activities of the SERCo – Social Entrepreneurship for Roma Communities – project, co-funded by the REC Programme of the DG Justice of the European Commission.
In each of the partner countries represented in the project, at least 28 members of the Roma communities were trained about:
- social entrepreneurship,
- setting up a social enterprise,
- the role of a cultural mediator for Roma communities.
We involved policy makers and stakeholders in the field of the social and economic inclusion of Roma people in a series of public roundtables and info days, which provided the chance for all to share experiences and learn from each other, while setting up the priorities for the socio-economic inclusion of Roma people in the partner countries.
A whole set of training modules for Roma mediators is now available through the project website as a learning platform. The four modules focus on:
- the role of social entrepreneurship for the social inclusion of Roma people,
- the Roma cultural mediator,
- the difficulties of setting up a social enterprise,
- the practical steps to set up an enterprise in each of the project countries.
The training material is available in English, Greek, Romanian, Bulgarian, French, Spanish and Italian.
From serco-project.eu, users can also access the SERCo Virtual Community, an online space designed for stakeholders and members of the Roma communities to share experiences and build a community of Roma mediators.
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.
Nine organisations participate in the project:
- 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);
- CESIE (Italy).
You can follow the project FB page and SERCo project website.
For further information, please contact justice@cesie.org.
