<< Objectives >>The project partners from Germany, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Serbia and Spain aim in the long run at keeping Roma music for coming generations and to preserve it as part of the cultural heritage of Europe. For that, “ROMusicA” shall provide the pre-conditions.<< Implementation >>Project activities are:1. Situation and need analysis with involvement of Roma musicians and experts.2. Workshop of ideas with involvement of Roma, Roma women and Roma musicians as well as relevant stakeholders.3. Designing of follow-up projects with which the identified needs shall be covered.<< Results >>Apart from comprehensive concepts for follow-up projects, a brochure for the distribution of information and a collection of recordings of Roma songs and melodies for which no notations exist will be developed during the project.

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 highunemployment rates and high inactivity levels among the Roma population. Moreover, Roma have faced significant changes in their employment patterns, as the demand for traditionalcrafts, 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 inrural 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. Theproblems 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.RESULTSThe 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 areexpected to occur in terms of project outputs and deliverables. These expected results are:1. Entrepreneurship Vocational Training Curriculum2. Trainers ´Resource Pack3. Mentoring Protocol4. A Book with collaborative work methodologies.These results, expected to occur during the project implementation phase and after itscompletion, promote the innovative aspects of the project as well as its broad Europeandimension, hoping to bring a permanent change in the lives of all the people who will bedirectly or indirectly involved in it

"<< Background >>„…They steal like ravens, are not willing to work and a people of restless nomads…“ – if it comes to Roma we are quick with prejudices. However, much heavier is the fact that they can be mobilised at any time what is not only reflected in regular riots but also in their actual living conditions in a sad way. They are still the poorest, the most unemployed, the least educated and the shortest living Europeans.With estimated 10 – 12 million members, Roma are the biggest ethnic minority in Europe. Almost 5 million live in the partner countries of the project. A relevant reason for the permanent discrimination of Roma is their low education level. Therefore, the disadvantages in the education sector that is a central field for the social integration and rise particularly of such a young population are the most obvious. A real segregation exists. In the new strategic frameworks of the EU for the integration of Roma, a row of objectives is fixed. Until 2030, the actual equality, the socio-economic inclusion and the reasonable participation of the Roma shall be achieved (Factsheet of the European Commission, October 2020).<< Objectives >>RESUME would like to contribute to those ambitions objectives in the partner countries concretely by achieving - an improvement of the access of Roma to education and lifelong learning; - an avoidance of drop-outs from education measures;- a promotion of the equal quality of education offers for all learners; - an improvement of the learning success of Roma; - the visualisation of the damages done by discrimination and segregation in education.<< Implementation >>Activities of the project are:- the joint elaboration of the project results by the project partners in the frame of transnational thematic work groups- Workshops ""RESUME"" for stakeholders from all fields of education- Intercultural trainings for education staff belonging to the majority- Education of 48 Roma Inclusion Mediators- Implementation of a 12 months Test Phase in the partner countries with a scientifically attended evaluation- European Conference for experts and stakeholders from other European countries.<< Results >>Results of the project are:1. Curriculum and training material for the education of Roma Inclusion Mediators.2. Online-Toolkit for Roma Inclusion Mediators supporting their practical work.3. Illustrated Romanes primer for children and adults.4. Training material for the training of trainers who will educate the Roma Inclusion Mediators.5. Training material for the intercultural training of education staff belonging to the majority.6. Training of 16 staff members of the partner organisations (partly Roma themselves) as trainers for the education of Roma Inclusion Mediators.7. Education of 48 Roma Inclusion Mediators in the partner countries. 8. Intercultural trainings for 80 kindergarten and school teachers, adult educators and vocational trainers.9. Use of the newly acquired knowledge and skills by the Roma Inclusion Mediators in the frame of need-based and appropriate mediation activities.10. Dissemination and exploitation of the project results."

<< Objectives >>Since Romanes is no written language, Roma rarely have fairy tales. The low number that still exists, are preserved by storytellers and mediated orally. It is only a matter of time until they are gone as well.For this reason, our project aims at giving Roma their own fairy tales back and at preserving them for coming generations and to make those fairy tales accessible as part of the European cultural heritage also to the majority population.<< Implementation >>Apart from the activities for the elaboration and distribution of the project products, the partners from Germany, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Turkey will implement six project meetings, a pilot training for the education of 24 storytellers, the training of 64 multipliers, 80 storytelling events in their countries and one European Storyteling Event and ensure the transfer if the project results into other European countries.<< Results >>The most important project results are:• Publication of a European Roma Fairy Tale Book with fairy tales that were illustrated by Roma artists and translated into the mostly spoken Romanes dialect and into the national languate of the partner countries• Monography about Roma fairy tales• Education of Roma as storytellers based on a newly developed Curriculum• Trained multipliers• Storytelling events with involvement of famous Roma

"""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. Taking reliable figures on the extension of functional illiteracy into consideration (e.g. leo – Level One Study in Germany), this concerns 6.2 Mio. adults in Germany, 2 Mio. in Greece, 1.2 Mio. in Hungary, 0.2 Mio. in North Macedonia, 3.8 Mio. in Romania, 0.8 Mio. in Serbia and 0.5 Mio. in Slovakia. Unfortunately, there are no valid figures concerning the literacy rate of Roma. Experts say that the share of functional illiterates among adult in urban regions of the partner countries is about 60 per cent, in rural areas partly up to 80 per cent. Women are particularly concerned. Unfortunately, the low education level is still a relevant reason for the permanent discrimination of Roma. Disadvantages in the education sector which is a central field for the social integration and raising of such a young generation, are particularly visible. A real segregation exists. Many times, functional illiteracy is the reason for the difficult access of Roma to education and employment as basis for their social integration. For this reason, a Curriculum for alphabetisation courses for the improvement of the literacy of Roma in the fields reading, writing, numeracy and IT that is in line with their specific needs was developed in the Strategic Partnerships „RomABC goes Europe!“ and „RomABC – the next dimension“. During the testing of this Curriculum in the frame of according courses, it got obvious that an insufficient health literacy and a lack of basic civic knowledge is also limiting the every-day-life of Roma relevantly. Therefore, the further development of the Curriculum for raising the literacy grade of adult Roma by those emphasis is the centre of our follow-up project.The comparable high share of functional illiterates among Roma does not only require a possibly nation-wide offer of tailored alphabetisation courses, accordingly trained adult educators but also innovative training offers and adequate training material. Those needs shall be covered in the project by:- the further development of the Handbook for trainers including the vocabularies- the education of trainers in a Pilot Training- the utilisation of the training material for webinars and - the development of a blended learning course for the alphabetisation of Roma from level 3.In the frame of a study the partners will implement in their countries, additional disadvantaged target groups shall be identified for which tailor-made alphabetisation courses would also be necessary. The resulting needs for the modification of the Curriculum and the Handbook shall be found out as well. „RomABC moves forward“ will be implemented by partner organisations from Germany, Greece, Hungary, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia and aims particularly on a reduction of the number of functional illiterates among adult Roma, the raising of their employability and the increasing of their share in adult education measures. Thus, the project contributes concretely to the implementation of the post-2020-EU-Framework for national Roma integration strategies and the according national strategies of the partner countries."