This project aims to promote the social inclusion of young marginalized women based on the perspective of human rights and gender equality contributing to the Objectives of Sustainable Development of the Agenda 2030 of the United Nations and the Europe 2020 Strategy for a Smart, Inclusive and Sustainable growth. Gender equality and equal participation in the public sphere is fundamental to equal access to employment. Socialization based on gender stereotypes and cultural patterns results in barriers for women’s independence and participation in the public sphere and the formal labour market. The main principle of this pilot project is the empowerment of marginalized young women from 3 countries towards their full participation in the public sphere, contributing to their economic independence and integration in the social economy labour market. The partners are going to strenghten their practical and theoretical skills and working methodologies in a peer learning process and disseminate it widely. Young women are the trigger to social transformation towards the inclusion of their communities and their empowerment have a domino effect on matters deeply pointed out by the CEDAW and CoE Istambul Conventions, such as the access to the education system, the prevention of early marriage and the way out of poverty and access to housing and the labour market. The promotion of employment within the Third Sector (social economy) takes into account the current trends of the labour market and also the multiplier effect of the beneficiaries’ entrepreneurial vision and capacities, involving more young women and their families and communities. The sharing of different perspectives of the partner countries will contribute to a better and comprehensive understanding of the situation of young women throughout European countries and how an integrated approach and sharing of good practices can boost the effective integration of ethic and social minorities. The main components of the project are: - Research: Scientific approach on policies and their implementation evaluated with participatory methodologies; best practices, fundaments and successful strategies of empowerment of young marginalized women and identity awareness, each partner in their area - Sharing expertise between partners - transnational workshop(s) on methodologies - peer learning among partners, one capacity building workshop organized by each partner around the topics and methodologies of their expertise: Intercultural mediation - AMUCIP Portugal; Peer work based on feminist methodologies for empowerment - REDE Portugal; competence assessment and coaching and interpersonal methodologies - Artemisszió Hungary and Social entrepreneurship - LEF Italia. - Workshops with a group of 8-13 participants - Direct beneficiaries: workshops with a group of young women aiming empowerment and capacity building with specific products created by the beneficiaries aiming the deconstruction of stereotypes and reinforcing positive identities continuous through the project; close collaboration with local employment centers; the competences’ development of the beneficiaries and a consequent analysis on the matters that most harm the process of empowerment of young marginalized women. - Curricula and publication about the research outcomes, best practices, methodologies and toolkit of non formal education practices compiling the results of each partner organized in a replicable manner. -Disseminating events in each country
The project developped a transferable methodology to young women's empowerment and integration in the public sphere and, subsequently, in the labour market. The methodology that takes into account age, gender, cultural background and socio-economical status as factors that shape the exclusion of Roma young women (and other marginalized communities). The project worked in 3 different countries with Roma young women : Portugal, Italy and Hungary. The coordinator organization was REDE de Jovens para a Igualdade (Portugal) and the partners were: AMUCIP (Portugal), Artemisszió (Hungary) and LEF (Italy) In Hungary, the project was planned to work with young refugee women but due to drastic changes in migration related public policies in Hungary, it was not possible. The participants were young Roma women, most of them married with children, thus multipliers that gurantee a sustainable effect in their communities. 8 youngsters in each country participated in a 64h capacity building training aiming empowerment and social entrepreneurship. The young participants in all three countries lacked full access to quality formal education, thus promoting literacy and fostering the understanding of the sociopolitical system were very relevant, key and basic transversal competences that we had to develop. Working on the empowerment and capacity-building of young marginalized women is to assure that they are able to recognize and seek new competences troughout their life cycle. Due to cultural reasons and to the strict patriarchal organization of the communities, women face strong obstacles in accessing the public sphere. This has a life long effect on their access to the labour market and to public decision making, thus, their needs are not taken into account in the local, national and european policy shaping process. In order to break this vicious cicle, young women need support to their civic and personal empowerment. Affirmative action is essencial in order to foster the access to education and training to promote the social inclusion of marginalized youngsters, particularly women. The project developped a tool that bears in mind the cultural and gender specific disadvantages and difficulties that the young women in question face on an every day basis. The methodology was created in a participative manner, with expert organizations and autorepresentatives and tackles the lack of options designed specifically for young women's empowerment, thus contributing to a more inclusive society and more inclusive education and training and youth. Young Roma women are often perceived only as caregivers by the public administration who are mostly interested in domestic work and are sustained by their husbands. Due to the crisis in employment, this model is not sustainable anymore. This gives young women the opportunity to start to be active in the labour market with the consent of their families, bringing real change in their communities, making them more equal. But so far, as men speak for the families and communities, young women's voices are difficult to be heard. This makes specially difficult for schools, employment cetres and other educational and training facilities to reach out to these women and give them the opportunity to be useful and active members of society. The project aims to developped a methodology that can be of use for these public institutions when working with young Roma women. The project produced a publication with the curricula and a reflexion based on research in the 3 participant countries that is widely disseminated and is going ot be used in the future intergted in the work of the partner organizations. With regards to the results and impact we wish to underline that after the path of the project, in all 3 countries, other Roma girls have expressed their wish to participate to a similar project and also the public institutions responsible for this area expressed interest to start and involve us in similar projects.