Project of the City of Lučenec and partners: Employment Agency BBSK, n.o., Project DOM.ov n.o. and the Norwegian partner CBNRM Networking, within the project (LDI02014) “We connect for more opportunities” (“We connect for more opportunities”) in the call for Norwegian grants 2014-2021 SR – LDI02 Improved social inclusion of marginalized Roma communities, was from the Selection Committee for program “Local development and inclusion” approved, in the total amount of EUR 749,105 for all partners together.
The aim of the project is to improve the position of marginalized Roma communities and support opportunities for their application in society, by implementing cost-effective and sustainable measures integrating four areas: education, employment, housing and prevention of discrimination.
Thanks to the partnership of the involved entities, networks and strategic partnerships will be created in the work with the target marginalized Roma communities between the applicant – the City of Lučenec, project partners and cooperating entities at a multi-level level, together with the creation of a multilateral partnership between the public sector and the non-profit sector. The goal is not to offer ready-made solutions to these population groups, but to offer help for self-help, which will bring results only based on the own activity of the marginalized Roma community.
The main activities of the project are:
- Support for better access of children and their parents from marginalized Roma communities to education through information technology, which is essential especially at a time of possible distance and possible online education in the future as well.
- Expansion of the Community Center at the Rapovská intersection – increase in hygiene standards, or expansion of opportunities for spending free time.
- Increasing employment and supporting integrated services through the BBSK Employment Agency in Lučenec.
- Increasing the basic and working skills of clients and supporting employers to employ them, also thanks to the cooperation of the BBSK Employment Agency, as well as other entities involved in this issue.
- The self-help construction program, under the auspices of the DOM.ov Project, will help active clients with their own housing. Of course, this is a long-term project, the basic condition of which is the ability of the clients to set aside funds and repay the microloan, as well as to participate in the construction of their future housing with their own efforts. The fact that this goal can be achieved is proven by several successful projects, e.g. in the villages of Rankovce and Chanava.
It is by combining the areas – education, employment and housing, which are also the basis for the development of this community towards responsibility and action to achieve goals, and also thanks to the experience of the Norwegian partner, who will be a kind of supervisor of the project, that we will monitor their fulfillment, that is, inclusion, which is the basis non-discrimination. It is the possibility of a new beginning for this minority and thus its coexistence in society and, on the other hand, a change of attitude and its acceptance in it.