Entrepreneurship Programme for Young Roma

Roma face a number of challenges in gaining employment in the form of paid work. To begin with, lagging educational levels and the lack of qualifications and vocational skills lead to high unemployment rates and high inactivity levels among the Roma population. Moreover, Roma have faced significant changes in their employment patterns, as the demand for traditional crafts, products and services progressively diminished. Furthermore, the economic crisis seems to have had profound negative effects for those at the bottom end of income distribution, Roma included. Persons with low qualifications, in low-wage sectors and in precarious employment were among the first to lose their jobs. Also, extreme residential segregation, both in urban and in rural settings, and poor housing conditions experienced by Roma population throughout Europe, exert a detrimental impact on their employment opportunities. Finally, the pathway of Roma to employment is hindered, also, by a number of structural barriers. Roma in Europe face prejudice, intolerance, discrimination and social exclusion. The problems faced by Roma are complex and therefore require an integrated approach. The vulnerability of Roma households is rooted in multiple and interlinked deprivations. Within this context, and in view of the present economic downturn and increasingly competitive labor markets, Roma need more than ever to gain skills and competences to enhance their employability. Since any attempt to increase Roma employment by others faces such high hurdles, the alternative of fostering entrepreneurship and self-employment for Roma becomes an important consideration. The main focus of the ROMA STARTUP project is dealing with the issue of young Roma entrepreneurship. The ROMA STARTUP project rests on the assumption that as long as the social and economic conditions of the Roma preclude a significant proportion of its population from being assimilated into the workforce, entrepreneurship can emerge as a viable alternative to traditional employment; much more so, if we take into consideration the fact that Roma – especially in the countries under consideration –have a long tradition of selfemployment and entrepreneurship and still many carry out crafts, trading and artistic activities. According to FRA “in southern and western EU Member States, such as Spain and Greece, a long tradition in trading, crafts and seasonal work is still visible in the high proportion of self-employment”, contrary to the cases of central and eastern Europe in which the communist patterns of full employment in many large-scale state owned or collective enterprises, led to the oblivion of this tradition. RESULTS The main primary result is that young Roma may find an alternative viable way to social and economic integration, that of entrepreneurship. Also: • promotion of entrepreneurship education in Europe, especially for vulnerable social groups. • promotion of an inter-agency and inter-discipline approach to address specific challenges for socially marginalized groups. • creation and development of innovative approaches to support a specific target group which is normally recipient of negative stereotypes and behaviors. • development of specific methodologies and tools to enhance social inclusion and cohesion, by combating existing inequalities among European citizens. Apart from these long term expected results, there is a series of subsequent results which are expected to occur in terms of project outputs and deliverables. These expected results are: 1. Entrepreneurship Vocational Training Curriculum 2. Trainers ´Resource Pack 3. Mentoring Protocol 4. A Book with collaborative work methodologies. These results, expected to occur during the project implementation phase and after its completion, promote the innovative aspects of the project as well as its broad European dimension, hoping to bring a permanent change in the lives of all the people who will be directly or indirectly involved in it