To fight against the social exclusion of the Roma community is to claim their role as a historical subject, capable of claiming their human rights to nutrition, health, housing and quality education, as well as their participation in the decision-making processes where their lifestyles and coexistence are defined. In this sense, formal education is an essential tool to achieve the social inclusion of the Roma people, especially women, because it contributes decisively to the development of basic skills that help avoiding marginalization, to promote their socialization, and to provide essential knowledge to transform their social environment according to their needs. Promoting the social inclusion of the Roma community means to reintegrate adult Roma women into the education system and to enhance their options to access better jobs, to create links with society in general, to become a political subject working towards changing the system, and to put an end to racism and inequalities. To achieve this objective, a Strategic Association has been set up between 6 entities of Spain, France, Portugal and Romania, which aims to build a European network sustainable over time to promote the SCHOOLS FOR INCLUSION INTO DIVERSITY. These will be training spaces where adult Roma women with no studies or who suffered school failure can have access to the tools, knowledge and skills to achieve their reintegration into the educational environment with guarantees of success, along with a greater social inclusion. All of this will be carried out through an innovative mixed (on-site and on-line) training system. These schools will be spaces for the beneficiaries to learn and develop formal and non-formal skills through dynamic learning processes adapted to the specific needs of the target population. The main objectives of these Schools for inclusion are: - To establish links with the regulated educational centers to which the beneficiaries will be reincorporated, so that Roma women can acquire the necessary habits and skills to access them, as well as a full educational and social inclusion once they have accessed. - To promote the development of basic skills, literacy and educational habits among users, as well as to awaken their interest in learning as a mechanism to fight school failure, and to enhance their empowerment and future labor and social possibilities, through specific educational processes. - To provide educational guidance, counseling and training services for adult Roma women who suffered school failure in order to make them actively aspire to and want their reintegration into the educational system. - To design and develop the materials specifically created to promote the inclusion, empowerment and future employability capabilities of Roma women. The project will create a KIT FOR THE CREATION OF SCHOOLS FOR INCLUSION, consisting of several materials including among others a specific intellectual output O1: TRAINING COURSE TO ACCESS ADULT EDUCATION FOR ROMA WOMEN , to develop the necessary skills for their reincorporation into formal education, while at the same time allowing them to develop their empowerment, self-confidence, and the strength to overcome the imposed social, cultural and economic barriers that exist nowadays. This training course will be coupled with the METHODOLOGICAL GUIDE TO WORK WITH ADULT ROMA WOMEN, training mechanisms and strategies based on the formal and non-formal work done with Roma women, along with various educational materials, free to access, with educational content necessary for the “reengagement” of the user to the educational itinerary. This will also add a series of non-formal contents to develop other skills of the beneficiaries, aimed at their full social inclusion and empowerment, along with a support and skill certification service. This project will create results not only to improve the network of the entities, but also to encourage the creation of SCHOOLS FOR INCLUSION throughout Europe that will have a significant impact on inclusion, empowerment and the fight against school dropout among Roma women. All of this will be done through 4 transnational meetings (in Spain, France, Romania and Portugal), several national activities, a continuous virtual communication, and a large multiplier event at the end of the project’s lifespan.
Fighting against the social exclusion of the roma community is reclaiming the role of the roma community as a historical subject, capable of fully exercising their human rights of nutrition, health, housing, and quality education, as well as their participation in the processes that define their ways of life and coexistence that limit their personal and social development. In this sense, formal education is a key tool to achieve the social inclusion of the roma people, and especially of their women, since it contributes decisively to developing basic skills that avoid marginalization, promoting their socialization and providing essential knowledge to transform their social environment according to their needs. Promoting the social inclusion of the roma community involves ensuring that adult roma women are re-integrated into the educational system, enhance their options to access better jobs, create bonds with society in general, and become a political subject that aspires to change the system, ending racism and inequalities. This was the ultimate goal of the project “ADULT SCHOOLS FOR INCLUSION IN THE DIVERSITY OF ROMA WOMEN”, which began in September 2018 and which, due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, ended in August 2021. Looking back, after 3 long years of work and a wide variety of problems, we can say that we have made significant progress on this path. Since 2018, a network of 6 entities from Spain, France, Portugal, and Romania (along with other roma women’s entities from countries like Germany, Hungary, or Bulgaria that also joined) has created an innovative virtual space to learn about the roma women: “SKOLA ROMANI: SCHOOLS OF INCLUSION” (https://skolaromani.org/), a virtual site where roma women are able to empower themselves, assume the social and political importance they have, and develop skills that allow their personal, social, and educational inclusion. Thanks to the project “ADULT SCHOOLS FOR INCLUSION IN THE DIVERSITY OF ROMA WOMEN”, an ambitious Intellectual Output (the TRAINING COURSE FOR ROMA WOMEN TO ACCESS ADULT EDUCATION) was successfully developed, constituting one of the main materials of SKOLA ROMANI, and consisting of: - A full DIDACTIC PROGRAM with more than 230 pages of contents, which will allow teachers in lifelong learning centers or social entities related to adult education to offer a course adapted directly to roma women with full capabilities for success in academic results, and consistent with the official adult education curricula of the participating countries. - A specific TRAINING COURSE so that roma adults, especially women, develop the necessary skills for their re-incorporation to regulated education, while at the same time allowing them to develop their empowerment, self-confidence, and the strength to overcome their imposed social, cultural, and economic barriers. This course is comprised of the 7 DUs that form the Didactic Program, but it can be directly and digitally accessed by the users themselves. Along with these two materials, a METHODOLOGICAL GUIDE FOR THE WORK WITH ADULT ROMA WOMEN has been also developed, among many others, establishing training mechanisms and strategies based on formal and non-formal work with roma adults, and various other free educational materials which not only include the educational contents necessary for the re-incorporation of the user to their educational itinerary, but will also include a series of non-formal contents that will allow the development of other competences among the beneficiaries, aimed at their full social inclusion and empowerment. In carrying out this project, we have faced multiple obstacles, among which the emergence of the pandemic stands out strikingly, which made it very difficult for the partner entities (not-so-large entities with limited operational capabilities) to hold the Transnational Meetings, the pilot tests of the materials (educational centers were closed and roma women were confined…), and the dissemination stage, as it was not possible to carry out on-site activities. However, we found solutions to everything by finding ways to hold the Transnational Meetings (3 in-person and 1 online), providing the results directly to the beneficiaries so they could validate them, and carrying out multiple virtual dissemination activities and various small size Multiplier Events that complied with the COVID-19 safety measures. Thanks to all of this, we managed to successfully develop a highly impactful project that is already being used in the participating entities, in many collaborating entities, and several educational centers.