"Amaro Foro is offering counselling and support for integration into the society of the Sinty and Roma in Berlin, also running the largest social contact point for Roma in Germany which is funded by Berlin local government. It provides advice on employment, education, health, housing and social security issues and support Roma in their affairs with the administration.After the Corona virus problem appeared and all the services moved online we realized that we have a big problem when it's about offering the usual services to our beneficiary because they can't access them trough internet.We had discussions with our partners from Romania, Hungary, Macedonia where our partners face similar situations and we tried to identify a solution for this.This lead the Roma adults to face a much bigger exclusion, their access to public services being much more restricted booth because of economical situations (they don’t afford devices from where to access internet and they don’t afford to pay the internet bill) and because of educational situation (more than 40% of the Roma adults are illiterate – Fundamental Rights Agency data)Being a group with a high percentage of illiteracy we needed to identify an innovative way of teaching how to use internet with as less as possible written information's.Project objectives:With our project we aim to increase the access of Roma adults to public services by developing a tool which to allow them to learn easier how to use internet for this.The project objectives are:1. To develop 2 innovative artistic tolls which to make easier the learning process of the Roma about internet and how to use the internet for daily life activities during this project.2. To increase the ICT knowledge and skills of 80 Roma adults from 4 partners countries during the project3. To increase the knowledge and skills of 20 social workers, health mediators, NGO people and volunteers about how to support adults to develop their internet skills and knowledge during the project4. To capacitate Roma and pro-Roma civil society organizations in working with Roma using modern technologyThe number of participants are 80 adults from four countries whose ages can be divided into two groups, young Roma adults between 18-35 and middle-aged Roma adults between 36-55. Besides, 20 social workers, health mediators, NGO people and volunteers will be included. The participants’ profile: We will have Roma adults who cant easily access internet and cant get social services provided via internet (social services, shopping, banking, school, health services, information and also a social life), and most of them are illiterate which means they don’t know how to write and read. We will have diverse grup of Roma people from ghettos, segregated communities, rural areas, migrant or very traditional Roma and Roma in middle class standards. We will have also 20 social workers, health mediators, NGO people and volunteers from staff of NGOs who work with Roma in order to help them to increase the knowledge of those people to be able to benefit from internet and offer them online support.Activities:1. We will create 2 intellectual outputs (""Basic Digital Skills"" and ""Digital skills for all"") first aiming to teach basic digital skills about how to use internet devices and online communication channels for illiterate people mainly based on illustrations and second one about safe use of internet to access public services and to do daily life activities like shopping, banking, education and other. This one will also use illustrations but also small movies and small text. In order to do that we will work for each guide in 3 stages (making the tool, testing the tool and gathering recommendations and reshaping the final version). For the evaluation we will involve 20 mentors from Romania Germany, Hungary and Macedonia, 5/ country and 80 adults, 20/ country. The mentors will be trained in a 3 days training. The Roma adults will receive each one tablet and will be supported in the learning process by one mentor. To gather suggestions and recommendations we will have two evaluation meetings during the testing phase.The tools which we produce will be wide disseminated at national level in the 4 countries where we tested but also at European and international level with the help of ERGO network The methodology of the project will involve different approaches from research, experts meetings, practical testing in Roma communities of the tools to international dissemination conferences where we will disseminate this project.We expect that the developed tools, based on principles of digital citizenship will help Roma adults and other disadvantaged groups to quickly mitigate knowledge and skill gaps of utilizing the internet as well as define the appropriate and responsible use of technology among the users.Roma adults as digital citizens will promote and poses the following values:respect, educate, and protection of human rights"

"Given the current COVID-19 crisis and its social impact, we intend to launch this project that will give youth a voice and encourage active participation, especially of youth with fewer opportunities, with the aim of contributing to the construction of citizenship active and committed to the European project. This project aims to alleviate the difficulties for face-to-face and community participation that the current health crisis is causing through the creation of a EUROPEAN YOUTH COMMUNITY RADIO that offers opportunities for youth participation and empowerment. Community radio will be an educational tool that will help young people improve their skills and debate and address some key issues in the ongoing construction of the European project.This Strategic Partnership in the field of youth project entitled - EUROPEAN COMMUNITY YOUTH RADIO - aims to create a European network of organizations from different European countries, from which to promote the development of a more structured cooperation, online and offline , between different youth organizations in order to strengthen associations focusing on solidarity and inclusive democratic participation of all, with the aim of giving a voice to youth, promoting the active participation of youth and their empowerment using community radio as a tool . We will use community radio as a tool for participation and learning. We believe that community radio provides spaces to empower, develop and mainly, empower youth, so that they speak out in community life. In addition, the network and community radio will have the support of the different mobilities that arise in the development of this project.The young people who participate in the project will be involved in all its phases. Once the project begins, a youth base group will be created in each of the organizations made up of young people from the local community, guaranteeing the participation of socially disadvantaged young people who, accompanied by youth workers, will design the lines of the local base of every community radio. This group will try to involve the greatest number of young people in the development of radio, trying to involve young people who are socially disadvantaged due to geographical (rural), cultural (migrant origin, minorities) and / or economic reasons. By participating in this project, youth will have the opportunity to exercise their right to participate as a full actor in social development. Society has the duty to allow access to this full citizenship and the responsibility to count on the youth as an agent of present and future development.We will address the main areas of the youth sector: Involve. Connect. Train. We will involve youth in EU youth decision-making and seek to make their voice heard. At the same time we will connect young people and youth workers through the European community radio and the mobilities that we will carry out. And finally, we will try to empower the youth by encouraging them to take charge of their lives, giving them a voice and fostering youth cooperation.Also, the project plans to:• Hold two transnational meetings• Launch 2 training / learning activities addressing key elements of the project.• Create educational and creative resources (Podcasts) on the topics that the project will address.• Promote service-learning activities as an innovative learning tool linked to the EUROPEAN COMMUNITY YOUTH RADIO.• Promote the exchange of good practices.• Dissemination activities for the Erasmus + Program and the CES.In the implementation of the project we will use an active and participatory methodology linked to non-formal education. We will also use an innovative methodology called ""Service-Learning"". Service-learning is a methodology oriented to education for citizenship, inspired by active pedagogies and compatible with other educational strategies. In this project it is also conceived as a method to unite learning and social commitment: learning to be competent by being useful to others.It is expected that a total of 36 people will participate in the European training actions that appear in this project and that directly or indirectly in the project about 600 people will participate in childhood, adolescence, youth, in addition to volunteers, experts, technicians and managers of the partner entities that will be involved in the different phases of the project.The project will involve 6 entities with extensive experience at the local and European level from France, Portugal, Italy, the Republic of North Macedonia, Germany and Spain and will have a total duration of 26 months, starting on May 31, 2021."

The relevance of education as one of the key factor of success towards the social inclusion of Roma was recognized by the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies up to 2020. While currently many programmes and policies for children and youngsters are in place, the situation of Roma youth has not yet been adequately addressed. Many young Roma struggle and fail in the formal educational systems, do not find access to other existing programs and opportunities and are at risk of further social marginalization.The partnership addresses the problem that young Roma generally do not have the ‘power’ and (organizational) capacity to effectively benefit from existing programs, governmental strategies and action plans. In fact, Roma are often perceived as ‘receivers’ of service providing program. But, solely providing services, without aiming for empowerment, will increase dependency of Roma communities. Therefore, our partnership targeted and exchanged practices to develop Roma youth capacity and stimulate active citizenship, initiative, self-organisation, leadership, and lobby and bargaining power. The basic assumption is that if Roma youth are united in different structure, they are able to make their voice heard, and develop negotiating power to obtain equal citizens rights and opportunities in education, health, labour and housing. In this way, sustainable, long-term effects on the improvement of living conditions of Roma can be achieved. Roma are European citizens, however, they face structural discrimination and marginalization and are not accepted as equal citizens. Prejudices and stereotypes are widely spread and remain often unquestioned in the media, in politics and in society. Many young people have difficulties with their cultural background because of the ongoing experience of discrimination. We observed a strong self-stigmatizing mechanism, where many young Roma who managed to successful move forward, feel forced to deny their identity and not invest their capacity in their community. Young people should have the right and responsibility to shape their own presence and future; however, the majority of Roma youth lacks the space to articulate the Roma youth issues. Striving for a better life for all in one society, we have to stress that not Roma are the problem, but their marginalization, discrimination and bad social situation.Our project decided to strengthen inclusive approaches targeting Roma and non-Roma youngsters together in order to create trust, respect and mutual understanding. Partnership, team-work and common efforts are the basis of social and civic competencies to combat racism and xenophobia. Moreover, this transnational partnership intends to overcome the lack of Roma organizations in the field of youth; therefore, there is a need to position ourselves, to build partnerships and networks on all levels and to disseminate our practices and methods. Last but not least, there was a need to strengthen the capacity of staff, trainers and young Roma to acquire foreign language and communication skills in order to enhance co-operation and exchanges of experience on transnational level. Transnational mobilities and exchanges brought an European dimension into the local communities, as well as brought the needs of the grassroots to the European level. The main objectives of the partnership were (1) to raise the participation of young Roma in non-formal education and lifelong learning programs, (2) to strengthen the active citizenship of young Roma and non-Roma to combat racism and xenophobia, (3) to improve the co-operation and mutual learning process between Roma organizations working in the field of non-formal education and active citizenship and (4) to support the professionalisation of their staff and trainers, who work directly with young people. (5) We wanted to bring a European dimension into the work of our partner organization and (6) to disseminate practices and advocate the needs of young Roma and non-Roma in this field towards other stakeholders, authorities and policymakers on national and European level. Regarding the young Roma we specifically wanted to strengthen their foreign language competencies, their sense for initiative and entrepreneurship and their social and civic skills to work and engage in an intercultural, as well as in a transnational environment. We mainly addressed the issue that young Roma facing difficulties in their educational careers through stigmatization and discrimination, which results in the failure of many young Roma in the formal education system causes also lack of active citizenship. Additionally, lack of empowerment and active citizenship causes lack of access to existing programs and learning opportunities. We concluded that the need to strengthen young Roma as active citizens to be aware of their rights and responsibilities, to engage with non-Roma for issues that concern them as youngsters is urgent and relevant nowadays.