The project aimed to encourage personal development and empower young Roma, with the primary goal of presenting examples of successful Roma who inspire and motivate younger generations and the broader community with their stories. The key objectives: to promote the development of personal resources among young Roma through role models from the Roma community and to train Roma to work with young people from their own community; increasing the visibility of successful Roma and promoting positive and successful role models within the Roma community and the wider society, increasing young Roma's access to information, education, and opportunities for personal and professional development, encouraging the inclusion of young Roma in informal education and learning (through the stories we collected, we wanted to encourage young people to engage in informal learning, training, and activities for personal growth) strengthening cooperation between Roma and majority organizations and communities addressing important European values of inclusion of vulnerable groups and promoting the strengthening of active citizenship and participation of young Roma at the local, national, and European levels.
We decided to implement the RomIn project because we recognized a clear need within our partner organizations to promote the personal development and social inclusion of young Roma and to create visible positive role models within the Roma community. Years of experience have shown that young Roma often lack access to positive role models with whom they can identify, as influential figures on social media are mostly members of the majority society. As a result, they lack representative role models, which affects their life aspirations, self-image, and sense of self-worth. With this project, we aimed to fill this gap, providing young Roma with access to inspiring stories and role models from their community, and motivating them to develop their potential and become more actively involved in society. The project thus addressed a multifaceted gap: the lack of positive role models, the invisibility of successful Roma, limited access to motivational content, and the need to strengthen the capacity of organizations working with the Roma community.