A big obstacle for the access of adult Roma to education and employment is the missing proof of their formally, non-formally and informally acquired competences. In the previous project “ROMINKO”, we were able to utilise the French Model of Competence Balance – that has been available for other target groups in many European countries for years – for adult Roma. “ROMINKO II” aimed at anchoring the instrument at the national level in Greece, Hungary and Romania. Based on the National Strategies, a Model Strategy was elaborated for the European transfer. Roma in Germany were informed about the opportunities of the validation of their competences and motivated to use them. In Slovakia, where the French Model of Competence Balance is already offered all over the country, tailor-made offers can be provided for the target group of Roma now. Through the French Model of Competence Balance, Roma gain a clear image of their own personality by self-evaluation and can plan a realistic future and build-up motivations in order to face professional requirements due to existing formally, informally and non-formally acquired competences. This way, education and labour market actors, particularly employers, receive a transparent overview on the actual qualifications and competences of Roma so that they can fully participate in the education and labour market. For exploiting the instrument, Competence Counsellors are necessary. Thus, 15 labour market actors as well as adult educators and psychologists – partly Roma themselves – were trained in the project who again educated multipliers in their country. The developed Handbook is on one hand designed as accompanying reference book for labour market actors and Competence Counsellors presenting the most important connections and information about the French Model of Competence Balance for Roma that they should know. On the other hand, it contains relevant information on the implementation of Competence Balance for Roma, particularly selected methods and procedures. Besides, a guide was developed in the project with active involvement of the target group and experts that contains proven or newly developed motivation strategies and instruments with special consideration of the specific needs of Roma and requirements of adult education measures. Experienced adult education actors of the partner countries dealt with the guide in the frame of a training and use the gained knowledge in their countries. A concept for mobility projects makes the offer of the course “Motivation of Roma in adult education measures” (ERASMUS+, KA1) possible that is open for adult education staff and learners of all eligible countries. This way, the contents of the guide will be transferred in other countries. The three years project was realised by partners from Germany, Slovakia, Greece, Hungary and Romania. Relevant stakeholders of the national levels of those countries were members of the consortium or associated partners.

<< Background >>While regulations against discrimination have conventionally been vindicated and conveyed in terms of various principles of equality, tensions between these notions of equality erode their cohesion. Discrimination is still a major problem in today's world. According to a report, exclusionary and discriminatory norms and attitudes are still predominant and cause social exclusion. A report found that discriminatory norms and behaviors remain widespread and continue to drive social exclusion. Ethnicity, color, sex or gender, and other characteristics are still used to make the distinction that should have no bearing on people's achievements or well-being. The purpose of social inclusion is considered as an alternative rationalization for anti-discrimination legislative measures. The discrimination norms still exist and are in the forefront not only in the community aspect, but also at all levels of everyday life and in the creative sector. Roma is one of the most vulnerable groups who face discrimination in everyday life, in each part of it and in all sectors, by not having access in services, rights, and are constantly devalued. More specifically, Roma artists and travelers face discrimination too in the creative sector. According to roundtables and workshops between artists and through communication all around Europe, an article was published which refers to the under-representation of youth Romani artists and travelers. Moreover, it is of high importance to be highlighted that never seen a prominent show, performance or film that has a Roma lead and a cast with Roma travelers. It has become obvious that the industry should take proactive actions to integrate youth Roma into the creative sector, both as growers and as lead characters Besides this, youth Roma artists should be immersed in productions that reflect their history, culture, and traditions. It is critical to provide them with the opportunity to represent their race and beliefs, their habits and culture, their traditions and history, and to tell their own stories in a more creative, friendly, and positive way. Promoting the positive narration of their stories, the phenomenon of discrimination against youth Romani artists and Travellers will be eliminated and more people will be aware of such a phenomenon. Additionally, the post Covid situation has already shown that Roma people in general are in a worse situation than the other population, as no social, health and education sustainable measures have been taken. Rushed by this situation, “OUR STAGE project: Theatrical Partnership as Enablers of Social and Behavioral Skills for Romani people and Travelers” is aiming to equip youth Roma artists and travelers, giving them the opportunity to be in the forefront of the performances and to gain the ground in labor integration through the creative sector, to promote the positive narration through their stories and roles. This Theatrical Partnership aims through the implementation of OUR STAGE project to address and face the following aims for youth Roma artists and travelers: 1) to promote the active role and participation in the creative sector of youth Romani artists and travelers 2) give the opportunity to youth Romani people be integrated into labor market of creative sector 3) to train the youth Romani artists and travelers on how to implement in a right way the performances 4) to raise awareness and fight discrimination against Roma people and specifically to youth Romani artists and travelers 5) to boost the collaboration between Roma and non-Roma targeting to the promotion of social inclusion. In this project, the methodology that will be used for the implementation of OUR STAGE will focus also to present the topics of prejudice, human rights empowerment, equality among people and equality in all sectors of everyday life, empathy, support of inter-cultural dialogues and cooperation and Romani positive narrative as a creative form to educate people to be more open .<< Objectives >>Nowadays the phenomenon of discrimination is still remained, while it affects people’s opportunities, their well-being, and their personal development as they face barriers in their integration. The exposure to the discrimination phenomenon leads the individuals to face racism, exclusion from the society and from labor market chances, fear, stress and prevent their personal development. CCS is one of the best tools for tackling that kind of behavior, eliminating discrimination by the conduction of its activities, and constructing more inclusive societies. CCS have promoted the inclusion through its different actors and mostly through theatre. Theatre is a tool that can present a story or a situation, in a friendly and closer way to society, giving them the opportunity to understand problems and behaviors. People working with social inclusion groups, such as NGO staff, teachers, experts, institutions from cultural and creative sector etc., are the ones that have to possibility to connect society and social inclusion groups, promoting equality among people. The aim of this project is to provide a more inclusive society and working environment to youth Romani artists and travelers, giving them the opportunity to develop their skills, to co-create and co-operate with non-Roma artists from different countries, cultures, traditions, beliefs, and behaviors, on a common play which will promote the Romani life, history, journey, customs, and traditions. This will be accomplished by the methodology of the OUR STAGE project and through its structured activities, and specifically by the preparation of OUR STAGE Script. OUR STAGE Script will be the main tool of this project as will be the plot of the performances which will be conducted in three different countries and be separated into three acts. The Script will be structured and consist of an innovative tool and guide of the execution of the following procedures as it will contains the plot, the dialogues and innovative improvisation techniques that will help the artists to co-operate and be part of the team easier. The Script will be a positive narration of Romani history, covering all its aspects, having as an ultimate aim to promote a more positive and advantageous narration of Romani behavior through the centuries, highlighting the pros of them and their influence on our societies. This first part will be elaborated in PR1 and will be the foundation of the play. Moreover, the three acts, will foster the collaboration and co-creation of the acts content through youth Roma artists and travelers and non-Roma, bring together a variety of people, exchanging experiences and knowledge, trying to promote the equality by eliminating the discrimination phenomenon through the story. The specific objectives of this project are: The specific objectives of this project are: 1) to promote the active role and participation in the creative sector of youth Romani artists and travelers 2) give the opportunity to youth Romani people be integrated into labor market of creative sector 3) to train the youth Romani artists and travellers on how to implement in a right way the performances 4) to raise awareness and fight discrimination against Roma people and specifically to youth Romani artists and travellers 5) to boost the collaboration between Roma and non-Roma targeting the promotion of social inclusion. In this project, the methodology that will be used for the implementation of OUR STAGE will focus also to present the topics of prejudice, human rights empowerment, equality among people and equality in all sectors of everyday life, empathy, support of inter-cultural dialogues and cooperation and Romani positive narrative as a creative form to educate people to be more open and to accept the diversity, supporting and promoting the inclusivity<< Implementation >>During the implementation of the project will be developed the following project results that are targeting the improving of inclusion and employability conditions of youth Roma artists and travelers in CCs sector, and promoting the positive narration of the history, culture, customs, and traditions of them: (PR1) OUR STAGE: Script Preparation is the creation of common play which will be separated in three acts. The script will be prepared by experts with the contribution of the partners, and it will aim to promote a positive narration for the history, behaviors, culture, customs, and behaviors of Romani people. In PR1 20 participants from each partner country locally and representatives of each of the partners online (140 in total) will meet together for one year to collaborate and co-create the script and techniques for the play. A script will be developed in PR1 and will be finalized, and quality checked to be ready for use to the following activities. The script with the proposed techniques will be developed in English language. PR1 will run for one year and will be coordinated by JAIT Theatre. (PR2) will be coordinated by ZID Theatre and will be linked to C Activities (C1, C2, C3). PR2 will set the guidelines for the organization and conduction of the performances and training (C activities). Dress, props, rehearsals, light and sound check will be designed and checked through this PR. For the development and design part for the three acts each of the partners need to find 5 experts (35 in total, youth Roma artists and travelers and non-Roma to give fruitful proposals and feedback) that will design and decide about the appearance of the artists for the acts, the scene props etc., This PR will run at the same time with C activities. The PR3 will run also parallel with PR2 and C activities as it refers to capitalization and digitalization of the acts. This PR will be coordinated by OECON BG who has extensive experience to create digital content. In this part the recording, editing and the creation of Theatre Roadshow Talkzine will be created as a visual content of the backstage, opinion, exchange of experiences procedures which will be accompanied by photos and interviews from the participants. Each partner will be responsible for interviewing 3 of the participants (21 in total) for the creation of Talkzine. Moreover, each one of them will create a 5-minute video in their national language for the promotion of the play and one in English will be created by OECON BG. (8 5-minutes video in 8 national languages and one in English).The content of the deliverables will be in English language to be transferable to other countries. Moreover, parallel with PR2 and PR3 the C activities will be implemented in three different countries by the three theatres as follows: Portugal, Netherlands, Austria. The C activities refer to the conduction of the play in three acts. Each of the aforementioned countries will be responsible to organize and implement one act. For each of the acts 7 people from each partner organization will travel to these tree countries (42 in total in each travel) for the training and performance rehearsals activities which will last for five days. Various findings will also be generated by the project partners during the project execution to support: -Process of elaboration of the project results partners’ country; templates, guidelines and reports summarizing the activities and giving recommendations for the project results. -Promotion and dissemination activities/ promotion and dissemination plan, project website, leaflet and brochure, newsletter, and Facebook page; a final conference, promotion and dissemination reports of the project partners/after every 12 months -Exploitation of the project results/exploitation strategy at the partnership level at national level -Evaluation and quality control of the project activities and results/ quality and evaluation plan quality reports<< Results >>The OUR STAGE project aims to produce several outcomes. The general intent is to equip and help youth Romani artists and travelers to be integrated into community, and to give them an opportunity to open the way in CCS market, to create inclusive society, to fight discrimination, to engage people with different backgrounds, history, cultures, and traditions through a common play that will be produced for the positive narration of the Romani history. Expected results are: Development of a methodology for the implementation and preparation of the script and its implementation techniques -schedule and design the content of the performance in real time -organizing and conducting the three acts of the play in three different countries (Portugal, Netherlands, Austria) -capitalization and digitalization of the acts in order to be available for all -creation of 8 5 minutes explaining video of the project which will be uploaded in social media channels and project’s website (7 in all partners national languages and 1 extra in English) – creation of the Theatre Roadshow Talkzine which will be an audiovisual e-magazine which will be consisted of interviews, photos from the procedures, expressing the opinions and experiences of the participants – a final premier which will be conducted at the last transnational project meeting in Bulgaria with the partners and with local participants that will be invited. – Creation of an international network between the partners and the associated about the Romani people in CCs and the importance of their integration.

"""Whe nyo ur eadt hi ste xty ouk no whow itfe elsi fyo uc ann otr eadp rop er ly."" (source of the German text: ""Grundbildung in Europa: Projekte und Perspektiven"", NA BIBB). According to UNESCO, an estimated number of 73 million adult Europeans are considered as functional illiterates. This is equal to 1/5 of the employable population aged 18 to 64 years. In the partner countries of the project this concerns 7.5 million adults in Germany; 2 million in Greece; 1.2 million in Hungary and 3.8 million in Romania. Unfortunately, there are no valid figures concerning the literacy rate of Roma. Experts say that the share of functional illiterates among adult Roma in the partner countries is 40 to 60 per cent. For this reason, Curricula for alphabetisation courses for Roma were developed in the Strategic Partnership „RomABC goes Europe!“ that consider their special needs. However, the envisaged improvements in reading and writing competences fell too short because functional illiteracy is also reflected in calculating, in dealing with ICT and in the capacity to act in every-day-life. Therefore, the further development of the Curriculum for raising the literacy rate of adult Roma with the emphasis numeracy and IT basics were the centre of our follow-up project. Besides, the development of a Handbook for trainers, a basic vocabulary and subject-relating vocabularies, the education of trainers in the frame of a Pilot Training and the elaboration of the concept for according Mobility Projects (KA1) were other parts of the project. „RomABC - the next dimension!“ was implemented by partner organisations from Germany, Greece, Hungary and Romania and aimed particularly at the reduction of functional illiterates among adult Roma, at increasing of their employability and at raising their share in adult education measures. With that, the project contributes concretely to the implementation of the EU Framework for national strategies for the Roma integration until 2020 and the national strategies of the partner countries as part of the Europe 2020 strategy including the European Agenda Adult Education, particularly the raising of the employment rate and the reduction of the part of Roma that is threatened by poverty and social exclusion."

„…They steel like ravens, are afraid of hard work and peoples of restless nomads…“ – if it comes to „gypsies“, we are quick with prejudices. Even more problematic is the fact that they can be mobilised any time what is proven by regular riots and their actual living conditions in a very sad way.Without a doubt – and that was not only confirmed by the last EU Roma Summit – „… the integration of Roma is in progress all over Europe. More Roma children attend a primary school; there are more supporting programmes for Roma who need a job, a flat or access to health care.” Despite of the achieved progress, that are in a major part due to the “EU Framework for National Strategies for the Integration of Roma until 2020”, they are still the poorest, the most concerned by unemployment, the least educated, the shortest living and the most arrested Europeans. A relevant reason for the permanent discrimination of Roma is their low education level. A participation of Roma in education is clearly reducing after the compulsory education. Their unemployment rate is in average 70 per cent. The rate of women is even higher.Another big obstacle for the Roma’s access to education and employment is that they are not aware of their own talents, skills and competences. Furthermore, the majority of them is not really involved in professional orientation and career planning.On the other hand, we know that education and employment is the key to social integration. For the economic development of a country, the Roma are indispensable as employees in general and particularly as skilled workers. The first aim of “pROceed” is to identify European best practise for professional orientation, career guidance and job preparation which can be adapted both for concrete requirements of vocational education and the labour market and the specific needs of the target group in the partner countries. Secondly, the partners will initiate a dialogue with relevant stakeholders from the according fields who will – as the third step – develop concepts for follow-up projects together. The 18 months project will be realised by partner organisations from Slovakia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania and Serbia.

In its resolution from 12 February 2019, the European Parliament showed the deficits in the implementation of the National Strategies for the integration of Roma and demanded therefore a stronger post 2020 EU-Framework. Without a doubt, there is progress in the four central fields of Roma integration – education, housing, employment and health. However, the unlimited health care of Roma is still not ensured.In the frame of the strategic partnership „Roma HEALTH Care“ (2017-1-DE02-KA204-004216), the health situation of Roma in different European countries was complexly researched for the first time. In a dialogue with relevant stakeholders at the local/regional level, the results of this analysis were discussed and the needs were selected that can be covered with support of European projects and the available resources on the spot.The strategic partnership „Roma HEALTH Care II“ is one of those follow-up projects. Basically, it aims at the improvement of the health situation of Roma in the partner countries. Among others, it shall particularly lead to:- raising the share of Roma obtaining a health insurance- increasing the number of Roma making use of available cancer prevention measures- decreasing the number of addicted Roma respectively of Roma who are threatened by addictions- improving the vaccination status - reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies and the risk of venereal diseases- improving the dental hygiene- raising the number of Roma who regularly go in for sports and who eat healthier.In order to achieve the objectives, health education centres shall be established in the involved Roma communities in which accordingly trained health mediators – Roma themselves – implement target group specific measures of adult education for raising the health literacy. The training of health mediators is based on a newly developed Curriculum. An especially developed Handbook serves them as accompanying reference book. Local Action Plans Health for Roma are the legal framework for their work. The project will be realised by partners from Germany, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Greece, Hungary and Romania.In the project, Roma are not only beneficiaries but actors. On one hand they will be involved in the elaboration of the Intellectual Outputs, trained as health mediators and multipliers, implement and assess the Test Phases and disseminate information on the project and its results. On the other hand, they will participate in the adult education measures for raising their health literacy and contribute themselves to the improvement of their health situation this way.Thus, the project will concretely help to accomplish the demands formulated in the resolution of the European Parliament. This is particularly valid for:- the unlimited medical/health care and- the active involvement of Roma and Roma communities in the development, implementation and evaluation of measures andprojects for this target group.