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ROM UP!The inclusion of Roma through quality successful educational experiences 35768-LLP-1-2011-1-ES-KA1-KA1NWR FIRST INTERNATIONAL MEETING MINUTES
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FIRST INTERNATIONAL MEETING
Barcelona, 1st
and 2nd
June 2012
MINUTES
Atendees
Ana Contreras - Romani Association of Women Drom Kotar Mestipen (Spain)
Natalia Fernandez - Romani Association of Women Drom Kotar Mestipen (Spain)
Teresa Sorde - Romani Association of Women Drom Kotar Mestipen (Spain)
Rosa Valls - Romani Association of Women Drom Kotar Mestipen (Spain)
Clara Orti - Romani Association of Women Drom Kotar Mestipen (Spain)
Iñaki Santacruz - Romani Association of Women Drom Kotar Mestipen (Spain)
Teodora Krumova - Amalipe Center for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance (Bulgaria)
Gabriela Danailova - Amalipe Center for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance (Bulgaria)
Ioulia Triantafyllou - Utilities for Social Protection and Solidarity - Municipal Training Institute of
Volos (K.E.K.P.A-D.I.E.K.) (Greece)
Eirini Fragkouli - Utilities for Social Protection and Solidarity - Municipal Training Institute of Volos
(K.E.K.P.A-D.I.E.K.) (Greece)
Nicoleta Simona Barbu - Romani CRISS – Roma Center for Social Intervention and Studies
(Romania)
Catalina Ionela Vasile - Romani CRISS – Roma Center for Social Intervention and Studies
(Romania)
Adriana Aubert - CREA – University of Barcelona (Spain)
Laura Ruiz - CREA - University of Barcelona (Spain)
Fernando Macias - CREA - University of Barcelona (Spain)
Manuel Heredia - Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain)
Marc Vinyas - Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain)
Tania Garcia Espinel - Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain)
Frances (Theresa) Keyes - Pavee Point Travellers Centre (Ireland)
Monika Makulova - Pavee Point Travellers Centre (Ireland)
Marta Pinto - European Roma Information Office (ERIO) (Belgium)
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Agenda topics, Friday June 1st
1.- WELCOME FROM THE HOST ORGANIZATION
Violant Cervera – general director of the General Directorate of Civic and Community Action of
Generalitat de Catalunya
Violant Cervera welcomes everyone to Catalonia and to the head office of the Dpt. Of Social
Welfare and Family of the Generalitat de Catalunya. As responsible of the public policies aimed at
Roma she wants to share two very important aspects: the need to work on the basis of evidence,
and the importance of involving Roma in all actions undertaken. She explains how Generalitat de
Catalunya works taking into account these two aspects, involving an adviser and advisory board of
20 Roma associations in the decision of policies. She expresses her happiness for participating in
ROM-UP!, and encourages everyone with the Project, hoping the educational experiences in all
schools with Roma children that need so.
Teresa Sordé
Teresa Sordé also welcomes everyone. She explains how ROM-UP! is the 2nd
European project
coordinated by Drom Kotar Mestipen, the 1st
one was EducaROM, aimed at producing educational
material for Roma adults. EducaRom received the Grundtvig Golden Award in 2010. She expresses
that Drom Kotar Mestipen hopes this project to have as much success, not only in terms of
awards, but especially in terms of political and social change for Roma children. She is very excited
to be working hand by hand with the best organizations working on Roma issues, and she hopes
that through the project and everyone’s network and contacts at political and grassroots level, we
all have the opportunity to extend the successful educational actions to many schools; reminding
that we are doing this also with the support of the Generalitat.
Ana Contreras – president of the Romani Association of Women Drom Kotar Mestipen
Ana Contreras welcomes everyone, and she explains how excited she is about the Project, because
it is the 2nd
project coordinated by Drom Kotar Mestipen, but she is specially excited as a Roma
woman, when she thinks about everything that may be achieved through the project with the
effort of all of us. Today is important because we are finally face to face with all the consortium,
and may clarify content issues. She asks everyone to profit from these two days, exchanging and
advancing in the Project, and making any suggestions or asking any doubts that may come up. She
thanks Violant to be able to use the facilities for these two days, and wishes us a very nice working
two days.
Violant thanks everyone again and wishes us good working sessions.
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2.- BRIEF PRESENTATION OF PARTNERS ORGANIZATIONS
All partners make a brief presentation of their organization.
Ioulia presents K.E.K.P.A-D.I.E.K. They are a municipal organization in Volos, Greece. They have 2
Roma offices in their town, they provide counseling, advocacy, etc. Their main target are kids, so
that they stay a school, and women, so that they find occupation. She is coordinator of the office,
and Eirini is the mediator.
Adriana Aubert presents CREA – University of Barcelona. CREA is a Center of Research in Theories
and Practices that Oversome Inequalities. People working there come from different disciplines
and universities, they work together, their main objective is to study current society and social
processes and structures that create and reproduce social inequalities; they also study the social
processes that overcome these inequalities. They are multidisciplinary and multicultural, they train
many different professionals of excellence. They are very opened, come from different ideologies,
religions, lifestyles, sexual orientations, etc. Laura and Fernando present themselves, they also
come from CREA. Fernando also works at CEG.
Ana, president of Romani Association of Women Drom Kotar Mestipen, presents the association. It
was created in 1999, by a group of Roma and non-Roma women, in order to improve the situation
of Roma women and girls. From the beginning they focused on educational projects to improve
this situation, and the intention to make visible the voices of the Roma women in society. She
summarizes Drom Kotar’s main activities: Gatherings of Romani Women Students of Catalonia:
gatherings of women from several ages (from 0 to 99) that meet to discuss about education, they
are the only protagonists of these meetings. Official instructor training course of leisure time with
the specialty on school canteens, for Romani women, addressed to grassroots Roma women
without academic degrees, to increase the presence of Roma women in schools, and to help them
enter the labour market. She also talks about EducaRom and the First International Congress of
Roma Women, plus their present fight to establish October the 8th
as International Day of Roma
women. Natalia, Tere and Clara also present themselves.
Eirini presents herlself, she’s a field worker in Amalipe Center for Interethnic Dialogue and
Tolerance. Teodora presents Amalipe. One of their main focus is Romani women. They have been
working for more than 10 years, they have 10 development centers in all country, each center has
2 moderators. The moderators are people of the community, one man and one woman. They work
a lot in education, one example is their Roma culture program (Roma culture classes for Roma and
non Roma in several schools), now in more than 200 schools.
Catalina presents herself, she works as a Kindergarten teacher in a Romani CRISS project. Simona
presents Romani Criss. Romani CRISS was founded in 1993. They implement activities at national
level in Romania. They mostly defend Roma rights in the country: they have monitoring activities,
they instrument discrimination cases and report cases at national court and further if necessary.
They have programs related to health, education, human rights, researches and other areas. They
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help people without papers regulate their situation. They work a lot with Roma women, with
children and young people from 0 years to University. They work at a policy level, through
advocacy activities.
Marta Pinto presents ERIO, she’s the policy officer. ERIO was created in 2003, with two main
focus: providing advocacy to EU institutions and national governments in and outside the EU, local
NGOs and European NGOs, and as an information office for countries in and outside the EU
(weekly news, bulletins, newsletters, etc.). They are involved in different projects, mainly
European and also national. Now there are extending national activities in Belgium, a part from
working at a European level.
Monika and Fran both work at Pavee Point Travellers Centre. Pavee Point is a national
organization working for the human rights of Travellers and Roma, for social justice and solidarity.
They have a health program, education program, youth program, drug program, violence against
women and a specific Roma project. Travellers, Roma and the majority community work in
partnership for Travellers and Roma to access human rights.
Manuel Heredia and Tania present themselves. Manuel Heredia does a brief presentation of the
Pla Integral of Generalitat de Catalunya. He is adviser of the Pla Integral of the Generalitat de
Catalunya. He talks about the situation of Roma in Catalonia and Spain, and the Pla Integral and
how the Roma people in the country have fought for it. He lists the objectives of the Pla Integral:
establishing policies of transversal action in favor of the Roma people, putting Roma people at the
same sociocultural level of the rest of society, making society aware and tolerant of Roma culture,
and integrating the genre perspectives in the plan. He describes the organs that form the Pla
Integral, and invites everyone to dinner at night.
3.- ROM-UP! PROJECT PRESENTATION: AIM, OBJECTIVES AND BACKGROUND OF THE
PROJECT
Natalia presents ROM-UP! Project. She highlits the following points:
ROM-UP! will create an International Romani network aimed at raising awareness of the
successful educational experiences that have already been scientifically proven to be effective in
the promotion of the social integration of Roma children and all the students in general, in terms
of pursuing educational success
ROM-UP is based on the European strategy and the contributions of previous research studies,
such as Workaló, Brudilla Callí and Includ-ed. Includ-ed identified successful educational actions
which, based on scientific evidences, contribute to overcome social exclusion and to achieve
educative success of Roma from the most disadvantaged areas
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In this context, three key elements have to be considered
1.- To promote the access of Roma to a high quality education considering those successful
experiences proved by evidence
2.- To include the voices of those non-academics Roma who have fewer opportunities to make
their voices, demands and proposals visible
3.- To cooperate closer among all the agents involved in the educational success of Roma children:
authorities, teachers and other educational agents, associations, Roma families and Roma children
ROM-UP! responds to these needs, creating an International Romani network aimed at raising
awareness of the successful educational experiences that have already been scientifically proven
to be effective in the promotion of the social integration of Roma children and all the students in
general, in terms of pursuing educational success
The innovative character of ROM-UP! project:
- Romani network. All the actors involved in the Roma educational success will be included in it
- Its approach. By changing from best to successful experiences, to overcome the limitation of
previous compilations and to focus on those educational experiences that have scientifically
evidenced their success. Successful experiences are also based on the international scientific
community recommendations. Their implementation will be done through the dialogue and
agreement with Roma community members
- Roma direct participation in all the relevant phases of the project
The Successful educational experiences in this project are defined as those actions that have
already been proved to contribute to school success and social inclusion at level compulsory
education (pre-primary, primary and secondary education, including vocational and special
education programmes within regular schools) in disadvantaged communities. (INCLUD-ED
Consortium. Actions for success in schools in Europe. Brussels: European Commission, 2009). All
the experiences collected have to respond to the definition mentioned above and have to include
4 criteria:
a) To have been developed in low income and disadvantaged communities
b) To have relevant quantitative evidence in the improving of the Roma educational situation (e.g.
official tests scores, graduation rates, transfer to high school, etc.) in comparison to other
communities that shared similar characteristics
c) To have relevant qualitative evidence (e.g. satisfaction, recognition of the transformation
undergone etc.) about how it reaches improvement
d) To have been developed with a strong community participation
The aims and the objectives of the project are:
1. To identify, analyse and select the most successful educational experiences in Roma
inclusion taking into account the evidences provided by the international scientific
community recommendations
2. To develop shared strategies to implement and transfer the successful educational
experiences selected in five countries (Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Ireland).
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3. To establish working groups among relevant actors for the integration of Roma in and
through education raising awareness and stronger commitment from all of them.
4. To include the active involvement of non-academic Roma participants, and specifically,
non-academic Romani women, in the network constitution and in all the activities
conducted.
5. To disseminate the most successful educational experiences on the integration of Roma in
society and specifically in education.
And the target groups we expect to have an impact on are:
1. The Romani grass roots community
2. The Roma organizations and activists
3. Teachers and other educative actors (cultural/school mediators, etc)
4. National, regional and local municipalities
5. Media
The main outcomes of the project are:
- European Report Successful educational experiences promoting the integration of Roma in and
through education
- European Report The voices of the community. Actors involved in successful educational
experiences promoting the integration of Roma in and through education
- Electronic guide: ROM-UP! The inclusion of Roma through successful educational experiences
- Website of the project (internal and external part)
- 6 newsletters with information and updates on the project
- 4 National seminars (Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Ireland)
- ROM-UP! Final Conference in Barcelona
- International Romani Network
The outcomes related to the Successful and quality management project are:
- A Quality Assurance Plan and three follow up reports from each partner
- Summary documents of the three international meetings
- Summary documents of two meetings of each national working group
- Two reports with recommendations from the European Advisory Council
- 6 minutes from the Quality Evaluation Group
- A European Dissemination Plan
- A National Dissemination Plan
And the outcomes related to the sustainability of the project are: the International Romani
Network; promoting the transference of the selected successful educational experiences to other
regions; the creation of a Permanent Observatory on successful experiences in Roma inclusion;
and the maintenance of the website of the project as reference website for successful educational
experiences.
We will carry out all this work through the following six workpackages:
WP1. Management and coordination of the project (Drom Kotar Mestipen)
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WP2. Collecting and disseminating successful educational experiences (KEPKPA-DIEM)
WP3. Promoting the application of successful educational experiences with Roma to national
realities (Romani Criss)
WP4. Quality Process and results (CREA)
WP5. Dissemination Strategy (ERIO)
WP6. Promoting the successful educational experiences with Roma (Generalitat de Catalunya)
4.- QUALITY EVALUATION GROUP AND SUCCESFUL EDUCATIONAL ACTIONS.
BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT
Fernando Macías, Adriana Aubert and Laura Ruiz from CREA, present the background of the
project, the contributions from Includ-ed project, the Quality Evaluation Group and the criteria to
choose the successful educational experiences.
Fernando, from CREA, presents the CEG (Center of Roma Studies of the University of Barcelona)
and the political and sociological impact of its research, explaining the importance of
communicative critical methodology in Roma people studies. CREA was founded in 1994 and CEG
was founded in 1997 and, since its foundation, Roma issues have been very important in this
researching center. Furthermore, since its foudation, CEG has been composed of Roma and non
Roma people that work together and in solidarity in order to overcome the inequalities faced by
Roma community. In 1997 CREA carried out several European and national projects to overcome
the exclusion suffered by Roma people.
He also talks about the impact of projects conducted by CREA, both at national and European
level, such as Workaló. One of the contributions is the methodology used: the Communicative
Critical Methology, which will also be used in the ROM-UP! project. According to this
methodology, Roma people are included in the research teams and the advisory councils; there is
a commitment to create knowledge that contributes to improve the situation of the Roma people
and the dialogue with roma people and roma organizations from the very beginning of each
research project.
Related to the political and social impact of CEG’s research Fernando highlighted:
- the recognition of Roma peole in Catalonia that promoted the study on Roma people and the
comprehensive plan
- Ramon Flecha, FAGIC 2010 award for good practices
- Teresa Sordé. OSCE, expert in Roma Immigration in Spain
- Ramon Flecha, education affairs. Expert in the State board of Roma People
In addition, some members of CEG have been advisors in the ACCESS SOCIAL INCLUSION clusters
of the European Commision.
Adriana, from CREA, talks about Includ-ed and its contributions and impact in policies. Includ-ed is
an integrated project dedicated to social inclusion and cohesion, of the highest scientific range of
the framework program of the EC, as well as the only research on school education in this
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program. She remarks the difference between “good practices” (those practices that are good),
“best practices” (those practices with best results) and “successful practices” (those practices
transferable to other countries and realities, that are successful everywhere they are implemented
and have scientific evidences about it). The ROM-UP! project takes into account this classification
and the contributions from the Includ-ed project.
She remarks three successful educational actions identified in the Include-ed project and the
academic results and impact in children:
1.- Heterogeneous groups with reallocation of resources. It is the interactive groups with several
adults in the classroom.
2.- Dialogic Reading
3.- Extending learning time.
In this way, she remarks that with the same resources we can achive more results if we implement
successful educational actions.
Adriana explains other Includ-ed project results: the importance of the commitment and
involvement of families in the education of their kids. This participation could be informative,
decisive, evaluative, and educative. The decisive, evaluative and educative are those that have an
impact in the academic results of the children. In the end, she also remarks the impact in policies
of Includ-ed.
Laura introduces the selection criteria for the successful educational experiences and the Quality
Evaluation Group, the Quality process and results.
She explains the composition of the Quality Evaluation Group, which is:
4 non academic Roma people
Mariana Torres, Roma Women Association in Badia, Barcelona.
Verónica Vargas, collaborator in the Consorcio Badalona Sud
José Santiago, Pastor in San Cosme, Prat de Llobregat
Constantin Craciun, SABORE Association
2 teachers
Sara Ortega, Primary Education Teacher
Belinda Siles, Primary Education Teacher
2 researchers
Fernando Macías, CEG researcher
Teresa Sordé, CEG researcher
The Quality Evaluation Group will ellaborate a proposal of selection, which will be included in the
final decision. Until now, we have already collected more than 6 successful educational
experiences, but we will focus on the 6 best experiences to work on throughout the project. To
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choose them we will use the criteria mentioned above, selecting those that contain the most
relevant evidences, more possibilities of transferability and more evidences of their
successfulness. (p.49 Application Form).
The selection criteria will be:
• Based on Scientific Evidence of the improvement of children and community learning, and
the improvement of the Roma education situation.
• Transferability to other contexts.
• Inclusion of Roma families and community in the decision-making processes (activities,
priorities, schedule…)
• Inclusive experiences that overcome any kind of segregation.
In the end, Laura explains that the first meeting of the Quality Evaluation Group has not been
carried out yet. They have received the experiences late, so it has not been possible to meet
before the meeting.
Simona wants to know in more detail the functions of the Quality Evaluation Group (QEG). Laura
responds that the QEG will meet every two months and its aim is to validate all the results and
products developed throughout the project, to evaluate if the educational experiences that are
uploaded in the website follow the criteria. In addition they will give feedback on the results of the
working groups and other spaces for debate that will be created throughout the project.
Teodora asks about the procedure to select the successful experiences. Some experiences may
take years to be transferable, and it is difficult to have an impact in policies and other realities with
an experience of some months.
Teresa Sordé remarks the importance of the composition of the QEG. Except for Fernando and
her, the majority of the group is formed by non academic Roma and there are also teachers that
succesfully work with Roma children. There is no budget for travel expenses, that’s why members
are local, from Catalonia and Spain, but the group is open to feedback. Regarding experiences, the
information submitted about experiences is disperse in some cases, that is, they don’t have the
same concrete information on different experiences. This issue will be further addressed after
lunch but she proposed to send more evidences and information in next weeks.
Natalia clarifies that the QEG makes recommendations, argumented recommendations, but the
final selection of the successful practices are made by the partners.
Teresa remarks the importance of talking about successful experiences, and not best experiences.
We have to focus on experiences that are working, good experiences are not sufficient, they have
to be successful, they have to be making a difference in Roma people’s life at the compulsory
education level.
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5.- SUCCESFUL EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCES COLLECTED UNTIL NOW. SUMMARY
AND CRITERIA.
CREA goes over the selection criteria for the selection of the successful experiences (scientific
evidence, transferability, inclusion, etc.) and the successful educational experiences that have
been uploaded until today in the OPMS, analyzing the positive points of the uploaded experiences.
Laura Ruiz explains that up to 19 experiences have been updated in the OPMS and the day before
to the meeting, Romani Criss updated it with 3 more, so, until now we have already collected 22
experiences among all the partnership.
She briefly presents the experiences collected:
EXPERIENCES EDUCATION LEVEL
1 Decisive family/community participation Pre-primary, primary and
secondary education
2 Roma students meetings Primary and secondary
education
3 Family and Community Education Adult education
4 Decreasing the drop-out rate among Roma children Primary Education
5 Roma culture classes in state school curriculum in Bulgaria Primary Education
6 The Inclusion of Roma Children in Education, EPEAEK Ι, ΙΙ, ΙΙΙ
(1997-today)
Primary and Secundary
Education, Vocational
training; Special Education
Programs
7 Socio-Medical Centers for Romas (Women’s Place in Aliveri – Nea
Ionia, Volos, Greece)
Adult Education
Vocational training
8 School Allowance for low income families Primary and secondary
education
9 school cards for roma children who move around greece Primary and secondary
education
10 Interactive Groups: Heterogeneous ability classrooms with
reorganization of resources
Pre-primary, primary and
secondary education
11 Dialogic Literary Gatherings Pre-primary, primary and
secondary education, adult
eduction
12 The abecedarian projec Pre-primary. Early chilhood
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13 The Reading Edge Primary Education
14 Schooling promotion for Roma students primary and secondary
education
15 Roma Families Learning RoFaL Comenius Regio Project. The
importance of parental involvement in children’s education
Adult education
16 INSETROM: Teacher In-Service Training for Roma Inclusion (2007-
2009
Primary and Secondary
Education
17 On the Road to Maturity (2000) Primary and Secondary
Education
18 Teacher’s Assistants of Roma Background (2007-2010) Pre-primary and Primary
Education
19 Improvement of the Situation of the Roma in the Slovak Republic
(Phare 2000)
Pre-primary education
Laura explains that all of them have been developed in the low income and disadvantaged
communities, most of them involve the community in the decision making processes. In most, final
users are the most vulnerable groups within the Roma people, such as children, youth, non-
academic women and travelers. And that a lot of the experiences proposed are based on scientific
evidences of the improvement of children and community learning and the improvement of Roma
education situation
In addition, there are a variety of areas and topics:
• Basic competences: Language (use, reading, writing), English, Mathematics.
• Family and community engagement in the school.
• Family and community education.
• Teachers training.
• Training of Teacher’s Assistants of Roma Background.
• Inclusion of referent Roma people in the school.
• Dialogue among Roma girls and Roma women who have attended University.
• Health of women and children.
• Self-employment.
The Quality Evaluation Group (QEG) will meet mid June, and afterwards a proposal will be sent for
the selection of the experiences, so that partners can give feedback. Partners are welcome to
make questions and suggestions.
Teodora is worried that the info given on the successful experiences is not enough. She suggests
using photos, presentations, to make experiences more comprehensible. She says that she wrote a
lot, because she wanted to make the experiences very comprehensive to anyone not familiarized
with them.
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Teresa says once again that the info we have on difference experiences is a little unbalanced, and
that Teodora is right, that it would be good to have more info or resources (whatever shows its
success) on some of them to be able to do the final selection.
Natalia specifies that the QEG will meet in the middle of June, and that we may send more info on
the uploaded successful experiences till one week before this meeting. One week is necessary to
translate the experiences, as most of the members in the QEG don’t speak English.
Teresa and Ana Contreras propose the meeting attendants to explain some of the successful
experiences that have been uploaded.
Some assistants submitted the experiences one or two weeks ago and they don’t remember with
enough detail the experiences to be able to present them, or were not involved in their
development and that’s why it would be difficult for them to explain. At the end, Eirini, from
Greece (and translated by Ioulia) explains an uploaded experience that she was involved in, and
Teodora and Simona also talk about uploaded experiences that they have participated in.
Eirini talks about a meeting space for Roma women in their community in Volos. First of all they
met to talk about and discuss about issues that interest or worry them. Afterwards they started
implementing Greek courses, and now they want to develop a space in order to help them find a
job. She feels that the success of the experience relies in the fact that the women have understood
the educational impact in their life, and therefore it is easier for them to transfer this value to their
kids, and their kids go to school, and do extracurricular activities.
Teodora explains us two experiences:
1. Roma culture classes, as elective classes in the schools’ curriculum, in classes where 50% of
children are Roma and 50% are not Roma.
2. A broader model that includes the entire school environment, addreses all factors that are
important for change in the school: teachers, parents, students:
• Turning the school into a multicultural environment
• Training from teachers to other teachers
• Parents’ club constituted by parents of different backgrounds, that engage in community
discussions (called parent lectures)
• School board of trusties, also including parents and students (through the student council)
in communication with the school board
• Student mentors for children at risk
• Personal approach: motivating children by making them aware of what they are good at,
and then developing this skill by applying it to different subjects
Simona presents 3 experiences, two in Kindergarden education and the other one in High School:
1. A good start in school: pilot experience in a disadvantaged community in Romania where
children don’t go to school until Primary school, one month of intensive courses in Kindergarden
as preparation for Primary school
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2. Day center for the community, where educational activities with children + mentoring program
for teachers can be carried out
3. Involving High school students in writing and implementing projects for the community they
come from
Natalia notes that Drom Kotar Mestipen’s uploaded successful experiences have already been
explained before, when the organization was presented: the Gatherings of Romani Women
Students of Catalonia, Official instructor training course of leisure time with the specialty on
school canteens for Romani women, etc.
Laura, from CREA, says that the deadline to send experiences may be extended, and that more
experiences may be uploaded until one week before the meeting of the QEG (which is next week
aprox.). Till next week, it will be still possible to upload videos, photos, interviews, reports, etc. of
new experiences or experiences already uploaded. All info that helps to demonstrate the
successful results of the experiences will be welcome. Laura thanks everyone for the info that is
being submitted and that they will pass on to the QEG.
Ana thanks everyone for the work done.
Teresa remarks the info given is very useful, and she was glad to hear that they had evidence of
success: this will really facilitate the work of the QEG. Teodora and Simona have talked about
experiences related to what was demonstrated through Includ-ed; at the end we all reach similar
conclusions.
Teodora asks if we could combine strong characteristics of different experiences, instead of
choosing 6 separate experiences.
Laura responds that one issue to be analysed by CREA will be this exactly, to see if we may analyse
the strong common points and slight differences that may also be strong, to take them and
transfer them to other realities.
To finish, Ioulia notes that it would be positive for people to include tips on how to motivate
people to get involved in these experiences, apart from describing them, because this is
sometimes very difficult.
Final conclusions & agreements of “Selection of the successful educational experiences to
develop and disseminate throughout the Project”
- Partners are encouraged to send as much detailed info and in different formats as
possible on each successful experience, this will really help the QEG with the final
selection. This may be done till one week before the meeting of the QEG. The group will
meet mid June
- CREA will send an e-mail to the entire consortium to inform about the date of the
meeting of the QEG. The deadline to upload new experiences or new info to better
illustrate the experiences already uploaded will be one week before this meeting. It is
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important that anyone wanting to remark a strong point of any of the experiences does it
through this procedure, so it will directly reach the QEG.
6.- WP2. Collecting and disseminating successful educational experiences. (KEPKA
DIEM and QPM). Goals, activities, tasks and deadlines.
Ioulia presents the task and deadlines to carry out under WP2 and concretely next:
1.- European Report: Successful educational experiences promoting the integration of Roma in
and through education
CONTENTS/TASKS PARTNE
R
TASKS DEADLINE
• European decisions and policies toward the
integration of Roma in Public education
(3- 5 pages)
P1 and
P8 Tuesday
12/06/2012
• National policy for each partners’ country,
focusing on Roma Inclusion through
Education (Policy-Theory). (3-5 pages by
partner)
P1, P2,
P3, P4,
P7
Tuesday
12/06/2012
• How we have chosen the successful
educational experiences to promote the
integration of Roma in and through education.
Criteria for the selection and work
methodology
P5
Friday
15/06/2012
Conten
ts
For this
report
• Description of the successful educational
experiences selected in ROM-UP! Project
o Name
o Methodology
o Description of the targeted area and
people
o Educational Issues that the project
focused on, education level
o Results achieved. Quantitative
evidences
o Results achieved. Qualitative
evidences
o References
o Contact details
Each
experien
ce
selected
will be
written
and
explaine
d by the
partner
who has
propose
d it
In English to
WP2
coordinator
and on the
ZOHO base
Wednesday
20/06/2012
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• Index P3 Wednesday
20/06/2012
• Cover P1, P3 Wednesday
20/06/2012
• WP2 Coordinator sending the whole package
to Quality Project Manager (QPM) in order to
receive feedback and agree on the final
version
P3 Thursday
21/06/2012
• QPM feedback and sending contributions to
P3 in order to reach the final version
P1 Monday
25/06/2012
• P3 as leader of the workpackage sends the
whole package to all partners for translation
P3 Tuesday
26/06/2012
• Partners sending the translated version to
Project Coordinator
P2, P3,
P4, P7
Friday
29/06/2012
Ioulia ask the issue of the translation to Romanes. At what Romanes dialect will the ROM-UP
project products be translated?
Francis says that regarding policies, they would like to include policies regarding travellers too;
they work with travellers, and most travellers are Roma too. Everyone agrees with it.
Teodora proposed to explain not only educational issues that the project focused on but also
description of the experiences. Everybody agrees on it.
The extension for each selected experience is also discussed. At the end, the agreement is to
write about 5-10 pages per experience.
Simona has a doubt regarding the report that has to be done by June 12th
. Natalia clarifies that the
report about the European policies is the job of the Drom Kotar, with the support of ERIO, and that
the rest of partners only have to work on national policies.
Teodora wants to know when the QEG will meet, to know until when everyone may send new
contributions. Laura states that next week they will send the exact date of the QEG meeting.
During next week new info may be sent. Once the QEG makes a proposal of selection, some days
will be given so that partners can agree on the final selection, give feedback, and the deadline to
send the final selection will be detailed. The most important is for all of the selected experiences
to follow the criteria.
The possibility to move the deadlines of this report is given. Teresa says that the deadlines also
depend on the date of the meeting of the QEG, and the number of days needed by CREA to write
their part. If the meeting ends up being at the end of June, maybe we can move forward the
deadlines related to this report according to the QEG meeting.
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Regarding the Romanes translation, Simona says that from Romani Criss they propose to translate
to the standard Romanes. Ana Contreras agrees on the translation to standard Romani language.
Teodora notes that somewhere in the report we should explain why we have chosen the standard
for the translation, so that we don’t receive attacks from certain Roma movements. Everyone
agrees on using the standard for the Romani translation because it is the language that the
European Commision uses to translate the document and at the same time it is the Romanes used
by the main organization when it’s necessary to translate any document to Romani language.
Natalia states that, taking into consideration the week that is needed before the QEG meets to
send more information about the experiences proposed, maybe we should change the deadline of
June 30th
to finalize the report. Everybody agrees that Drom Kotar Mestipen will send new
deadline proposals for the European Report 1 taking in account the QEG first meeting and all the
tasks that we carry out under the project.
Ioulia presents European Report 2. The voices of the community. Actors involved in successful
educational experiences promoting the integration of Roma in and through education
The aims of the report are:
- To collect the feelings, impressions and points of view of the actors involved in the selected
successful experiences
- To encourage the actors from the selected successful experiences involved in it to send
their own experiences through several formats (letters, videos).
- This report and the collections of the voices from the community will make it easier for the
experiences to be transferred and will encourage their implementation in other countries
The main content is the collection of the voices of the community involved in successful educational
experiences. The report has to include the voices of three groups:
- Roma non-academic families
- Roma boys and girls
- Teachers and other educative actors (cultural / Mediator school ...)
This report is complementary to report 1, so we don’t have to repeat what has already been
included in this report. The information should be the following:
1. - Identification of the experience (name, location and contact details)
2. - The voices of Roma families
3. - The voices of Roma boys and girls
4. - The voice of teachers and other educational actors
** The grouping of information will depend on the info gathered in each practice and on the final
format that will be decided.
Given the objective of the report (which is to encourage other people to carry out the experience in
their country thanks to the experience and testimony of those who have participated in the project
selected successful experiences) what format do we want it to have (audiovisual, paper, etc.)?
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Depending on whether the final format is mostly audiovisual or mostly paper, one type or another
of techniques of data gathering will be used. Ioulia says that it’s necessary to keep in mind that
perhaps in some of the selected practices that we already have evidence in, part of the
information has already been collected on paper.
In order to evaluate what can be done by each partner, Ioulia proposes the following techniques
for data gathering:
- Video of the experience that combines images of the experience being carried out and short
interviews to several representatives of the three target groups mentioned above.
- Photos from the implementation of the action, photos of the time of this interview
- Kids drawings
- Communicative discussion groups
- Interviews
KEPKA DIEM has elaborated a list of questions – questionnaire in order to collect the information
from the three target groups based on the techniques agreed on among the partnership.
Regarding the pictures and videos, from KEPKA DIEM and with the support of the Drom Kotar
Mestipen, an image rights document will be elaborated for all people appearing in the video to
sign, and in the case of minors their parents or guardians will sign it. Each partner will translate the
document for the authorization of the image rights cession to the national language or the
language that is comprehensible to the person who has to sign it. No person can appear in
photographs or videos without having signed the authorization.
Finally, Ioulia says that regarding technical aspects it woul be better if:
- Each picture collected was to be .png or Jpeg max 1440X900, 300dpi.
- For videos, KEPKA DIEM will create a VIMEO channel for the project, to upload all the videos
generated and that they may be embedded easily in Rom-Ups! Website (min. 720p).
- All the material will be sent to KEPKA DIEM through the OPMS
The deadlines and tasks for this report are the following:
TASK RESP DEADLINE
Send the image rights document to all partners P3 30/06/2012
Collecting information according to the
agreements of the first international meeting ALL
04/06/2012 -
07/09/2012
First phase for sending the materials obtained by
P3 in order to do an evaluation of the materials
obtained to date and identify potential difficulties
in data gathering ALL 20/07/2012
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Feedback from P3 and the Quality Project Manager
on the documents received in the first phase P1 i P3 27/07/2012
Second and last phase for sending all the materials
collected of the selected successful educational
experiences ALL 07/09/2012
Sending the report to the Quality Project Manager P3 14/09/2012
Feedback from the Quality Project Manager P1 19/09/2012
Sending final report to all partners for its
translation into the national language and Romano P3 21/09/2012
Sending translations to P3 ALL 26/09/2012
Publishing in the website the European report in all
languages P8 28/09/2012
Ioulia states that we have to collect the info according to the agreements made at the meeting,
and we have to make an evaluation of the content to identify problems in the data collection. We
should have feedback from the QPM to close the first version, and that we will have to send it to
everyone to do the translation.
Natalia notes that it is important to discuss about the format for data collection, as it will depend
on the resources and possibilities of each partner, because in the budget there is no money for
making videos, editing, etc. Each organization needs to say if they can have access to a camera,
video editing, etc. We need to be realistic with each one’s situation. We encourage for material to
be audiovisual, but only if it is possible.
Laura adds that we should also add in the chart the meeting of the QEG in September, because the
group needs time to give feedback on this material.
The issue regarding audiovisual material and image rights is discussed as well. Ioulia feels that it is
not that hard to have photos or videos, because some projects (experiences) have already made
material of this kind.
Responding to this contribution, Teodora says that they have a lot of audiovisual material, for
example of a festival that they organized with 100 kids, but that she thinks the problem is the
image rights document: how will they find all these kids to sign the document? And the language is
the other problem: we need subtitles.
Marta feels confused on what is expected in terms of audiovisual material. Do we have to find
photos and videos uploaded in the Internet? Or do we have to do field work: contact these people
and record them? For her organization this is not realistic, many of the experiences are not
Belgian, and they would have to travel. The other issue that worries her involves technical aspects.
She is not sure if the OPMS accepts photos or only documents, and videos will have to be
uploaded somewhere else.
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Teresa responds in regard to the language issue that Teodora introduced. She remarks the
importance of dissemination and reaching as much people as possible, therefore translating to as
many languages as possible. She also responds to Marta: some of us have discussed about
selecting close experiences, if not we will have to find a way to get in contact with them, to see if
they already have material. There is no budget for travel.
Simona remarks that she sees no budget for DVDs, printing, etc. According to this, everybody
agrees that, as stated in the application form, this roper will be only published in the website.
Natalia notes the importance of the image rights’ document in photos and videos, this issue is
becoming of a greatest importance every year. She says that if we have a video from 2 years ago, it
may be hard to talk to everyone who appears, but someone will have the author rights of the
video, and a document stating that all images have been done with the permission of everyone
who appears.
Teodora proposes to make a list of material that may be provided on each experience once they
have been selected. She says that she already has as an image rights document, and that she can
send it to the partnership if they’d like to.
Rosa Valls proposes that, in order to overcome the image right problem in those cases where it is
not possible to achive them, we could just put the link or the website address where the video is
upload in report and webpage. In this way everybody could consult the information directly from
the organization that has uploaded the video and pictures online and in this way, it will not be
necessary to have the image right form. Everybody agrees with this idea.
Regarding the open questionarie proposed by KEPKA – DIEM, Natalia adds that we may use IT as a
guide to show experiences, but it doesn’t need to have a closed questionnaire. The videos and all
the material collected for the European Report should be answering the questions exposed in the
open questionnaire.
Everyone agrees on the deadlines.
Final agreements and conclusions of WP2 “Collecting and disseminating successful educational
experiences (KEPKA DIEM and QPM) Goals, activities, tasks and deadlines
European Report 1
- Partners may write 5-10 pages per successful experience in European Report 1.
- The reports will be translated to standard Romani language.
- Pavee Point Travellers Centre will include policies regarding travellers in their part of
national policies of European Report 1.
- New deadlines will be proposed by Drom Kotar Mestipen regarding this report after the
meeting
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European Report 2
- There is no budget for recording, video editing, or traveling to do field work.
- Marta from ERIO will ask if it is possible to upload photos in the OPMS. Videos will have
to be uploaded somewhere else.
- The date for the QEG meeting will be sent next week (June 4th
– June 8th
). Once the QEG
makes a proposal of selection, some days will be given so that partners can agree on the
final selection, give feedback, and the deadline to send the final selection will be
detailed. The most important is for all of the selected experiences to follow the criteria.
- The format for data collection (photos, video, etc.) will depend on the resources and
possibilities of each partner, because in the budget there is no money for making videos,
editing, etc. Each organization needs to state if they can have access to a camera, video
editing, etc. We need to be realistic with each one’s situation. We encourage for material
to be audiovisual, but only if it is possible.
- It is important to disseminate the experiences and reach as many people as possible,
therefore it is important to translate all outputs as many languages as possible
- Reports, photos, videos, etc. will only be published on the website. They will not be
distributed on paper or DVD, etc.
- The image rights document is very important when talking about photos and videos. If
we have a video from some years ago, it may be hard to talk to everyone who appears,
but someone will have the author rights of the video, and a document stating that all
images have been taken with the permission of everyone who appears. Another solution
is not to include direcly the pictures and the videos in our website, we only put the link
or address website in order to consult them.
7.- WP3. Promoting the implementation of successful educational experiences with
Roma to national realities (ROMANI CRISS and QPM), Goals, activities, tasks and
deadlines.
Simona presents WP3 that includes the following activities:
- The national working groups
- The electronic guide
- The International Romani language
She starts presenting the nacional working groups.
Its objectives are: To define the viability to transfer the successful experiences to the national
contexts; To assure that the successful educational experiences are transferred; and to create a
space for debates among Roma community, teachers and educative actors and
local/regional/national municipalities
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The national working groups will be organized by P1, P2, P3, P4 and P7 in their countries. P6 will
take an active role in the working group of P1.
Three member profiles have to be assured in the groups:
• Non-academic and Roma grassroots people (members of the Roma community, parents,
local leaders)
• Representatives of local, regional or national authorities with competences in education,
Roma integration and social policies (Ministry of Education, city halls...)
• Teachers representatives and other community educational agents (school mediators,
health mediators, school headmasters, )
Each group will have around 15 members and will ensure an equal representation of the
collectives described above. Also, the gender aspect will be taken into consideration and each
partner will assure an equal representation between men and women at the meetings. Each
partner of the consortium will decide if its working group is at the national or regional level
depending on their resources and their action-level. The duration of the meetings will be of
minimum 4 hours of discussions regarding the transfer of the successful educational experiences.
Throughout the project 2 working group meetings will be held.
Deadlines
� creation of the working group – June 2012 and July 2012
� Deadline to publish on the OPMS the list with the members’ names and a short description
of them – 20/07/2012.
� 1st
meeting group – August 2012
� 2nd
meeting group – October 2012
** Based on the dates established in the application form, the first meeting of the working group
should be taking place during the summer period, which could make it difficult for members to
participate. Taking into account that the holiday period is a bit different in each country, we
propose the first meeting of the national working group to be held between 15 July 2012 and 15
September 2012 to ensure the success of the attendance and work of this first meeting which will
be of a great importance.
The agenda proposed for the first meeting is the one that follows:
1) Presentation of the project and of the objectives
2) Introduction of the successful educational experiences selected in the project.
3) Discussion and selection of the experiences which are viable to be transferred to the national
contexts. The level in which the experience will be implemented will also be decided. Each working
group will select a minimum of 1 successful experience that will be transferred to its context.
4) Development of a first draft on how these experiences can be transferred to the
national/regional context and its viability.
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Minutes of the 1st
meeting of each working group will be updated by each partner in the OPMS.
ROMANI CRISS will assure that all the information is correctly collected and that all the partners
upload it in the OPMS. Then, CREA (P5) will send all the minutes to the European Advisory Council
so that they can provide feedback.
The agenda proposed for the secong meeting is:
1) To discuss, define and agree a National Viability Strategy for the implementation of the
successful educational experiences at the national/regional country
2) To discuss about the commitments that each partner assumes in order to achieve the
mentioned implementation
- Minutes to be held
Simona presents an outline for reporting the nacional meeting and minutes:
1. General background: date, venue, context.
2. Participants: participants and organizations involved; how they were recruited/invited.
Participants information can be summarized in such a type of table:
Name Organization Type of organization Position
3. Short description of the participants´ profile: context they work in, characteristic of their
target group, etc.
4. Quantitative information gathered
5. Qualitative information gathered concerning the successful educational experiences
discussed
6. Main conclusions reached during the working group: including information on which are
the best practices to be implemented in each country, how should they be adapted to the
local context and what are the most important local aspects to be looked at when
exchanging good practices
7. Evaluation questionnaires results: conclusions of the evaluation questionnaires filled in by
the attendants. (Questionnaire to be provided)
8. Annexes
a) Attendance list (including signature of all participants)
b) Photos
c) Evaluation questionnaire
The date for the first meeting of the national working groups is discussed. Natalia states that the
first meeting should be held between July 15th
and September 15th
, but during this period each
country may use the date that works better for them, taking into consideration the periods of
summer holidays.
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Francis expresses that she doesn’t know if she will be able to achieve the expected balance in
gender in each group of the national working group, and that she is afraid that they will have more
women. Teodora has the same concern: non-academic Roma are mainly women.
Natalia says that maybe we have to try achieving gender balance at least in the national group as a
whole, not per each member profile. If not, the most important is to ensure representatives of the
three groups. The balance in gender is one of the objectives, and we will do what we can.
Final agreements and conclusions about the national working groups (WP3) - First meeting of the national working groups should be held between July 15
th and
September 15th
- Partners need to try to achieve gender balance, if possible, in all member profiles of the
national working groups. If not, gender balance will be sought at least in the national
group as a whole as much as possible.
All the partners agree to continue the next day with the rest of the activies for WP3 because is the
time to finalise the first day of the meeting.
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Agenda topics, Saturday June 2nd
7.- WP3. Promoting the implementation of successful educational experiences with
Roma to national realities (ROMANI CRISS and QPM), Goals, activities, tasks and
deadlines. (continuation from the previous day)
As agreed on the previous day, Simona continues with the presentation of the tasks to be carried
out under workpackge 3.
First of all, she asks about if there is any question regarding the national working groups presented
the previous day. Everybody is clear about it, so she continues with the presentation of the
electronic guide that has to be elaborated under this workpackage.
The electronic guide ROM-UP! will collect the successful educational experiences analysed in the
WP2 and the National Viability Strategy for their implementation in other national realities. It will
provide detailed and concrete action lines to achieve the integration of Roma in and through
education.
The guide is based on the results of WP2 and WP3 and is addressed to Roma organizations,
national/regional/local authorities, NGO and civil organisations. The guide’s main aim is to
disseminate the best successful educational experiences with Roma and to encourage their
transference to other contexts. It will have two sections.
The 1st
section will collect the selected successful experiences and a detailed description of them,
their results, premises to be successfully implemented and other relevant information. The guide
will also include the experiences of Roma and other actors involved in the project. The 2nd section
will collect each of the National Viability Strategies for the implementation of the successful
educational experiences at the national/regional level. The guide will be translated into the
national languages and into the Romani language. It will be edited in an electronic format, which
will make it easier to download and to print by anyone interested.
The index and contents of the guide proponed by Romani Criss are as follow:
1) Introduction – a short presentation of the project
2) Description of the successful practices selected
3) A short description of the national group meetings – conclusions and recommendations for
the transfer of good practices
4) National viability strategies
And the tasks and deadlines are the following:
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TASK WHO DEADLINE
Send a brief document to P4 with information about the
development of the two meetings and the “national viability
strategy” agreed in the second meeting.
P1, P2, P3, P4,
and P7 05/11/2012
First draft of the guide to be sent to the Quality Project Manager P4 12/11/2012
Feedback from the quality project manager P1 15/11/2012
Send to all the partners the last version of the guide in English P4 19/11/2012
Partners send the translations in national languages to P3
P1, P2, P3, P4,
and P7 26/11/2012
Final versions and design of all the guides in the different
languages P4 30/11/2012
The guide is uploaded to the website P8 30/11/2012
Everybody agrees with the information and proposals presented to the electronic guide and we
decide to continue with the next activity of this worpakcage: the International Romani Network.
Simona states that according to the application form, the Romani network will be constituted and
created by the consortium members, the people involved in the National working groups and the
members of the Quality Evaluation Groups and the European Advisory Council. This network will
be constantly updated and more people will join it along the project. The methods to be used for
more new people to join the network will be the National Seminars, the European and
Dissemination plan and the Final Conference.
The Romani network will have a direct impact on the results of the project. It will involve all the
relevant actors in the education system and that work with Roma: roma activists, non-academic
and grassroots Roma, researchers, educative actors, teachers, professionals, school/cultural
mediators, civil and Roma organizations, European/national and regional authorities, politicians
and all the relevant actors in the integration of Roma community. A public space will be created
for debates and exchange of information, online, in order to keep the network connected.
The Romani network can be formed by Roma activists, non-academic and Romani grassroots
people, researchers, educative actors, teachers, professionals, school/cultural mediators, civil and
Roma NGOs, European, national and local authorities, politicians and all relevant agents who are
working to achieve the Roma integration in mainstream society.
A list of proposals will be created by each partner in order to identify members for the network.
Romani CRISS will create a database with all the information and the application forms to join the
network.
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The application form will be available in the website and it could be sent by e-mail to the common
e-mail of the project.
Simona presents the next tasks and deadlines:
TASK WHO DEADLINE
P4 sends the "application form" to join the network to the
consortium P4 11/06/2012
Contributions to the application form by consortium ALL 15/06/2012
Final version of the application form P1 20/06/2012
P4 sends a document on how to manage the International
Romani Network and all the details related to it based on the
agreements and the idea of the first international meeting to
the Quality Project Manager P4 09/07/2012
Feedback from the Quality Project Manager P1 20/07/2012
P4 presents during the second international meeting the
detailed tasks, deadlines and information regarding the
international romani network P4
September
2012
Finally, there are some details regarding the International Romani Network that are not detailed in
the application form. In order to draft a proposal, Romani Criss asks the following questions to all
the consortium in order to disscus them and to give ideas and contributions:
1.- What kind of information do we want to send to the members of the network?
2.- What kind of communication will exist between the members of the network?
3.- How do we imagine the network at the general level, keeping in mind what has been
established in the project? How would we like it to be and what kind of impact could it have?
4.- Do we think that there are other questions regarding the network that should be defined?
Laura and Adriana from CREA propose that it would be useful to know where/how they work,
which is their experience, etc., in order to be able to know how to develop successful educational
actions where they are more needed. Everyone agrees.
Marta has a concern on the language of communication between the network members. She asks
if all the members will speak English, as a common language, or if we will be translating all the
time. She remarks that the translation can not be assured after the project period, so if we want to
maintain the network it’s necessary to think about this matter.
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Teodora says that she’s seen networks die after projects end due to the lack of a common
language, as it is very time consuming to translate all the time. Simona thinks that, during the
project, there is no problem to translate to the national languages.
Final agreement is that during the project, all info regarding the network will be in national
languages and English. After the life of the project, common language will be English, and each
organization will have to think about how to overcome difficulties regarding translation, with
volunteer work, by using Google Translator individually, etc.
Another concern implies the info that will be sent to the network after the project. Adriana states
that the whole project has the aim of transferring the successful educational actions, so this will
be the objective of dissemination of the network.
Natalia proposes to take into account the contributions done until the moment, to better
accomplish this objective, members of the network should all have participated in the project in
some way (through the experiences, national working groups, etc.); this way, it would be easier to
maintain, more useful and more clear, if everyone is familiarized with the activities, etc. She
proposes that it should be restricted, but restricted to a large number of people. Everyone agrees.
Adriana adds that, from the experience of other projects that have networks in them, what Natalia
said is very important, because the network has to maintain the nature of the project after the
end of the project. This will avoid the network to become just a database of info; the network has
to communicate why and how the experiences are useful, and it has to be a guarantee that the
collected experiences will be useful. In this way, Adriana says that the network could be a
reference network to advise and consult about the implementation and information of successful
educational experiences with roma children.
Ioulia is worried about the needed “permission” for the implementation of activities. In Greece,
they need the permission of the Ministry of Education to do anything in schools. We have to take
into consideration that we can have these burocracy problems, it has happened to them before.
Adriana says that something else to take into consideration is to ensure that schools that we say
that implement successful educational experiences are implementing the right action. From the
experience in other projects, it is only after schools have implemented activities that you can know
if they really are implementing or not the successful action. To ensure this, each experience has to
be very clearfully explained in the network. This will guarantee the transferability.
Ana Contreras responds to Iouli’s concern: the reason of having authorities and municipalities in
the national working groups is to get close to them, attract and engage them, and therefore
achieve impact and change.
In addition, Manuel Heredia and Tania Garcia respond to Ioulia’s concern too. They remark that
we have a favourable political situation at this moment. We have the European strategy for Roma
inclusion, the national strategies developed in the most of the European countries, and the
concern regarding school failure as one of the education priorities both at European and National
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level. Tania adds that sometimes in negotiations people are not motivated to improve the
situation of Roma, but they are motivated by these strategies. Our experiences will have evidence.
Our legal framework is not only good, it also is very favorable.
The Internationl Romani Network will set up on November 2012, so everybody agrees that Simona
will collect all the suggestions and proposals regarding the network done by all the partners and
from Romani Criss will present a concrete proposal on how to manage and organize the
International Romani Netwrok in the second international meeting that will take place in
September.
8.- WP4. QUALITY PROCESS AND RESULTS (CREA AND QPM). GOALS, ACTIVITIES,
TASKS AND DEADLINES
Laura presents WP4 and the main activities and tasks to carry out under this workpackage.
Firstly, she points out that some deadlines of the document that we have in the meeting folder
have changed. The correct ones are the ones appearing in the slides, which she is going to
introduce now.
She explains that the aim of the WP is to ensure the quality of the process & results. In the project
there are is an internal evaluation lead by Drom Kotar Mestipen and an external evaluation
constituted mainly by the European Advisory Council and the Quality Evaluation Group.
Regarding the internal evaluation, Natalia states that everyone received the Quality Assurance
Plan. She confirms that Drom Kotar Mestipen received contributions from some of the partners,
and that they all have been included in the final version. Drom Kotar Mestipen will upload the
document to the OPMS next week. In addition, she explains that the follow-up reports will be
uploaded as soon as possible to the OPMS. The deadlines for the follow-up reports will be
included in the general workplan that Drom Kotar Mestipen will send to all the partners after the
meeting.
Laura continues her presentation with the external evaluation. The European Advisory group will
be formed by 5 experts that will be constantly in contact with the Quality Evaluation Group to
share comments and evaluation. They will only make recommendations; they won’t validate any
results, as the role to validate the results corresponds to QEG. In the council there will be well
known people in Roma issues, Education issues or political impact issues, all of them linked to well
known NGOs or educational networks. At the moment there are three people that have already
confirmed their partictipation in it: Barbarce Cernuskova from Amnesty International, Raluca Popa
from UN Women and Melanie Ranz, Roma teacher and member of roma ssociation Yakha of
France. CREA is waiting for the confirmation of two more people, and when they have it they will
send the information to all partners.
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Related to the tasks and calendar, she explains that the European Advisory Council will be
constituted during June. Their first task will be the elaboration of the document with
recommendations regarding report 1. This will imply that Greece has to send, in the beginning of
July, the results of report 1. They will have a month to do recommendations regarding report 1, so
that report 2 makes a greater impact. They will give recommendations on the impact of
experiences in report 2. Once CREA recieves these recommendations on July 30th
, CREA is
committed to send recommendations to all partners on July 31st
, so that all of the partners can
take them into consideration in the second round of data collection, so to include them in report 2
by September.
The second task of the European Advisory Council refers to the results of the first meeting of the
national working groups, this implies that Romani Criss sends CREA, approximately on Sept 20th
,
the minutes of the meeting, so that CREA sends these to the council on Sept. 21st
. If the minutes
are collected fulfilling the presented template we have talked about before, collecting the info will
be very easy. Then the European Advisory Council will give recommendations related to the
second meeting of the national working groups.
The European Advisory Council will participate in two other activities: the creation of the
International Romani network and the final conference, as members of the network and as
participants of the conference, they won’t be speaking there.
Last of all, CREA reminds partners that the QEG will meet on four occasions. CREA will need to
receive, each day 7 of the months of the meeting, the info from the workpackage leaders so that it
can be evaluated and advice can be given by the QEG.
Laura presents the next QEG calendar:
1 Constitution the Quality Evaluation Group May – June 2012
2 1st Quality Evaluation Group meeting June 2012
3 Selecting most successful experiences June 2012
4 2nd Quality Evaluation Group meeting September 2012
5 Creation of the International Romani Network – European
Network (all partners, working groups, Quality Evaluation
Group and European Advisory Council)
November 2012
6 3rd Quality Evaluation Group meeting and Creation of the
Permanent Observatory
January 2013
7 Presentation of the Permanent Observatory in the 3rd
Meeting of the project and the Final Conference
February 2013
8 4rt Quality Evaluation Group meeting March 2013
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Final agreements & conclusions of WP4. “Quality process and results (CREA and QPM). Goals,
activities, tasks and deadlines”
- The European Advisory Council will be constituted during June. It first task will consist of
creating a document with recommendations regarding report 1. This will imply that
Greece has to send, in the beginning of July, the results of report 1. They will have a
month to do recommendations regarding report 1, so that report 2 makes a greater
impact.
- Once CREA has these recommendations on July 30th
, CREA is committed to send
recommendations to all partners on July 31st
all, so that all of the partners can take them
into consideration in the second round of data collection, so that they are included in
report 2 by September.
- The second task of the European Advisory Council refers to the results of the first
meeting of the national working groups. This implies that Romani Criss sends CREA,
approximately on Sept 20th
, the minutes of the meeting, so that CREA sends these to the
council on Sept. 21st
. If the minutes are collected fulfilling the presented template we
have talked about before, collecting the info will be very easy.
- CREA will need to receive each day 7 of the months of the meeting, all the info from the
workpackage leaders
- All these dates will be included in the detailed workplan.
9.- WP5. Dissemination Strategy (ERIO and QPM). Goals, activities, tasks and
deadlines
Marta presents the WP5 regarding the dissemination strategy that is mainly composed of the
European Dissemination Plan, the National Dissemination Plan, the website, the OPMS and the
National Seminars.
Before introducing the tools for dissemination, she asks if there have been any difficulties with the
OPMS, and that she is open to contributions for improvement. She reminds that there is also the
option to make suggestions through the same OPMS.
Teodora proposes not to show the activities in progress in the OPMS, but only deadlines, because
there are a lot of activities in progress at the same time. Marta will consult the possibility to
change it because now it’s necessary to introduce a starting date and a finishing date whenever
you upload an activity to the OPMS. Everybody agrees with Teodora’s proposal.
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Marta continues with the WP5 presentation. She states that the goals of this workpackage are:
• To disseminate the project at European level
• To disseminate the project at national level in every country partner
• To ensure a European and national impact
• To give visibility of the project
• To ensure sustainability of the project
The main activities and tasks are:
• Online Project Management Software (OMPS)
• Project logo
• Project website
• European dissemination plan
• National dissemination plan
• Newsletter template and dissemination
• Guidelines for national seminars
• National seminars and reports
Marta explains that at the moment the OMPS and the project logo are completed and next tasks
are ongoing: project website, European dissemination plan, national dissemination plan, national
dissemination seminars and newsletters
Regarding the website, she explains that among the meeting documents there is a website
content proposal. She proposes everyone to carefully check it and send the contribution to ERIO
after the meeting. Ana Contreras proposes a section for the International Romani Network. Marta
says that she will consult it.
In addition, she explains that she has done a draft version of the website with a 14 day trial. The
address is: http://rom-up.snappages.com/home.htm. In this way, she requests all the partners to
check the trial version within these 14 days and to send to ERIO contributions to it after the
meeting. She will then introduce all the contributions and changes proposed by the partnership
and the website will be available. The website will be available by the end of June, and ERIO will
update it throughout the life of the project.
Concretely, the tasks and deadlines regarding the website presented by Marta in the meeting are:
TASK WHO DEADLINE
Send final contributions to P8 about website content P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6 and
P7
06/06/2012
Send final version of document with all website information
to partners
P8 08/06/2012
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Send to P8 website contents translated in national
languages and Romanes (P4)
P1, P2, P3, P4 18/06/2012
Upload website with all languages P8 29/06/2012
Update website throughout project with all information
produced
P8 Ongoing
Send final versions of documents produced under the work
package to upload on website to P8
Work package leaders
(P1, P3, P4, P5, P6 and
P8)
Ongoing
Marta then explains the European and National dissemination plan. She has elaborated two
documents: one regarding the European Dissemination Plan, and the other one referring the
National Dissemination Plans that each partner should implement at national level. The two
documents are inside the meeting folders and will be available in the OPMS after the meeting in
order to consult them. Regarding European contacts, the objective is to achieve a minimum of 200
contacts. National dissemination is very similar to European dissemination, each partner will be in
charge of the national dissemination and ERIO will supervise.
ERIO, as responsible partner for the dissemination activities within the ROM-UP! project, will
develop this European dissemination plan to ensure an European impact. The European
dissemination plan will also be implemented by ERIO and a common e-mail of the project will be
used.
During the project implementation, intermediate results will be achieved and will need to be
disseminated within the consortium, as well as key stakeholders in Europe. The outcome of all
Work Packages (WP) will be distributed through the project website and the newsletters in order
to inform about all steps and to work towards a general overview of all elements of the project.
The concrete outcomes that were defined for certain WPs as well as the dissemination tool that
will be used to spread this information are:
a) Summary documents of international meetings with the consortium
The summary documents of the first, second and third international meetings will be published in
the project website so thateverybody can consult them. This contributes to the transparency of
the ROM-UP! project. The documents will be in English
b) Report “Successful educational experiences promoting the integration of Roma in and
through education”
A European report collecting the selected successful educational experiences that promote the
integration of Roma in and through education will be translated into all partners’ languages and
into Romanes. It will be available on the project website and a summary will be included in
newsletter 2.
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c) Report “The voices of the community. Actors involved in successful educational experiences
promoting the integration of Roma in and through education”
A European report collecting the feelings, impressions and points of view of the actors involved in
the selected successful experiences will be translated into all partners’ languages and into
Romanes. It will be available on the project website and a summary will be included in newsletter
3.
d) Electronic guide “ROM-UP! The inclusion of Roma through successful educational
experiences”
The guide is addressed to Roma organisations, national/regional/local authorities, NGOs and civil
organisations. It will be translated into all partners’ languages and into Romanes. The guide will be
available on the project website and a summary will be included in newsletter 4.
e) Summary document of minutes of the Quality Evaluation Group
This document will collect agreements of meetings of the Quality Evaluation Group and will be
published on the project website. In this way those interested in the project can consult how and
why these actions have been selected by the Quality Evaluation Group.
f) Reports of National Seminars
The reports will be a mixture of text and image. Every partner involved has to ensure that the
report is written both in their own language and in English. This is important to make visible our
European and national impact. The reports will be published on the project website, to make
visible the impact of national seminars and a summary will be included in newsletter 5.
g) Members of the permanent observatory
The composition of the permanent observatory will be published on the project website in order
to increase the transparency of the project.
h) Report of “ROM-UP Final conference”
This report will collect the main contributions and results of the final conference. This will be
published on the project website along with small videos of some contributions and photos. The
report will be translated into all partners’ languages and into Romanes to ensure a greater
dissemination impact of the project results. A summary of the report will also be included in
newsletter 6.
i) International Romani Network
The International Romani Network aims to raise awareness of the successful educational
experiences that have already been scientifically proven to be effective in the promotion of the
social integration of Roma children and all the students in general, in terms of pursuing
educational success. The network is formed by Roma activists, non-academic and Roma grassroots
people, researchers, educative actors, teachers, professionals, school/cultural mediators, civil and
Roma NGOs, European, national and local authorities, politicians and all relevant agents who are
working to achieve Roma integration in mainstream society.
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j) Summary documents of first national working group
P1, P2, P3, P4 and P7 will elaborate a Summary Document of their first (month 5) national working
groups’ meetings. This document will contain the following topics: a) Discussion and selection of
which experiences are viable to transfer to their country and in which level they will work: local,
regional or national and b) First draft about how the successful experience can be transferred to
the national/regional context and its viability. These five summary documents will be published on
the project’s website and on the Online Project Management Software (OPMS).
k) Summary documents of second national working group
P1, P2, P3, P4 and P7 will elaborate a Summary Document of their second (month 7) national
working groups’ meetings. This document will contain the following topics: a) a National Viability
Strategy for the implementation of the successful educational experiences at the national/regional
country and b) the commitments that each partner assumes in order to achieve such
implementation. These five summary documents will be published on the project’s website and on
the Online Project Management Software (OPMS).
Certain dissemination products are not intended for the wider network, and target only the
partners. Under this category, we can include the following documents: Successful educational
experiences proposals, the Quality Assurance Plan, the “Follow up Quality Assurance Plan”
reports, the Recommendations of European Advisory Council and the European and National
Dissemination Plans.
The main communication tools in both dissemination plans (europan and national) will be: Project
website with external and internal contents (OPMS), Newsletters, Strategic mailing list of
European stakeholders.
The production of the six newsletters accompanying this project will be issued every two months.
They will be available in six languages: English, Spanish, Bulgarian, Greek, Romanian and Romanes.
ERIO is responsible for designing the newsletter template which will include news and updates of
the project and Consortium. Contents of the newsletters will be proposed by Drom Kotar
Mestipen with the consent of consortium. Marta and Quality Project Manager present the
following topics for the newsletters:
Newsletter 1: General presentation of the project and the partners
Newsletter 2: Report “Successful educational experiences promoting the integration of Roma in
and through education”
Newsletter 3: Report “The voices of the community. Actors involved in successful educational
experiences promoting the integration of Roma in and through education”; Brief explanation of
the constitution and first meeting of the National Working Groups
Newsletter 4: - Electronic guide “ROM-UP! The inclusion of Roma through successful educational
experiences”; Creation of the International Romani Network; Results and proposals from the
National Working Groups; Announcement of the final conference and national seminars
registrations
Newsletter 5: Reports of National Seminars
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Newsletter 6: Report of “ROM-UP Final conference”; Creation of the permanent observatory;
Results and conclusions of the project
***In each newsletter we will explain the foreseen activities for the following two months in order
to increase their impact and dissemination.
The calendar regarding newsletters is presented by Marta:
TASK WHO DEADLINE
Send final contributions to P8 about
newsletter template
P1, P2, P3, P4,
P5, P6 and P7
22/06/2012
Send final version of newsletters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
& 6 to all partners
P8 15/06/2012, 17/07/2012,
14/09/2012, 16/11/2012,
17/01/2013, 15/03/2013
Send translation of newsletters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 &
6 into national languages and Romanes (P4)
to P8
P1, P2, P3, P4 22/06/2012, 24/07/2012,
21/09/2012, 21/11/2012,
24/01/2013, 22/03/2013
Dissemination of newsletters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 P8 29/06/2012, 31/07/2012,
28/09/2012, 30/11/2012,
31/01/2013, 29/03/2013
The target groups of the European dissemination plan are:
1. European NGOs working on Roma, education and inclusion issues
2. European media communication interested in Roma, education and inclusion issues
3. Contacts of European Commission interested in Roma, education and inclusion issues
4. International organisations interested in Roma, education and inclusion issues
The target groups of the National dissemination plan are:
1. National NGOs working on Roma, education and inclusion issues
2. Religious communities
3. Teachers and education associations
4. Public administration
5. National media communication interested in Roma, education and inclusion issues
After Newsletter 1 is sent to partners, all of them can compose their local contact network with
the people who reacted in a positive and receptive manner to this information. The first drafted,
wider contact list can still be used at a later stage in the project, to invite people to the national
dissemination seminars. The targets set in the application form are to create a list of at least 150
contacts in every partner country.
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The European and National dissemination plans include a calendar on when to disseminate the
information and the tools that will be used. These deadlines will be introduced in the general
workpaln of the project.
In addition, Marta proposed all the partnership to carefully check the European and national
dissemination plan in their organizations and send contributions to ERIO according to these
deadlines:
TASK WHO DEADLINE
Send final contributions and European contacts to P8 to be
addded to European dissemination plan
P1, P2, P3, P4,
P5, P6 and P7
18/06/2012
Send final contributions to P8 about national dissemination plan P1, P2, P3, P4,
P5, P6 and P7
11/06/2012
Marta asks who will be in charge of answering and checking the common e-mail of the project that
will be used for the European Dissemination Plan. Natalia states that ERIO will be responsible of
creating it and using for the European Dissemination but they will share the username and
passwords with Drom Kotar Mestipen, who will be in charge of answering all the information and
demands that we receive as the project team leader.
Marta then explains the last activity of the dissemination strategy: the national seminars. The
objective of these seminars is to disseminate the main results of the project in every country
involved. The seminar contents will be mainly: Presentation of selected successful educational
experiences; Presentation of electronic guidebook; Presentation of project website; Conclusions of
working groups; Other relevant aspects related to the project
Seminars will be organised by P2, P3, P4 and P7, in their own countries. P1 will not organise them
because the Final Conference will include the national seminar goals.
Target groups of these seminars are: Roma grass roots community, Roma organisations and
activists, teachers and other education actors (e.g. cultural/school mediators), national, regional
and local municipalities and the media. We expect 50 people per country. We will reach 200
people through this activity. The seminar will be in the own language of each country involved.
Marta reminds that in order to organise the national seminars P2, P3, P4 and P7 have
expenditures allocated on Items 12-15 under the category of “other costs”. These expenses are
for: room rentals, printing necessary material for seminars, seminar dissemination and all costs
related to its organisation.
Each organising partner will have the responsibility to elaborate a report of their own seminar
explaining how it was developed and the impact it has achieved. The report will be a mixture of
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text and image, so do not forget to take pictures too! The report will be published on the website,
to increase the project’s European and national impact. This report will be done both in English
and the partner’s own country language. The deadline for both reports is end of December 2012.
Marta presents the next common agenda for all the national seminars:
08:45 – 09:15 Registration
09:15 – 09:30 Opening and Welcome
09:30 – 10:30 ROM-UP! Project overview
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 – 12:30 Presentation of selected successful educational experiences and the electronic
guidebook
12:30 – 13:00 Presentation of the conclusions of the working groups
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch break
14:00 – 15:30 Working groups on:
1.- How can we increase the dissemination of the successful educational experiences at national
level among several target groups?
2.- How can we increase the transfer of the successful experiences?
3. - How can we disseminate the International Romani Network at national level so more people
can join it?
15:30 – 16:00 Bringing together conclusions of the working groups
16:00 – 16:30 ROM-UP! Future steps and open discussion
16:30 – 16:45 Closing remarks
16:45 – 17:15 Coffee break and networking
Apart from talking about the web, the newsletter, the national seminars, etc., Marta presents the
different documents related to WP5 & deadlines. Questions may be asked via mail.
Ana thanks ERIO for all the good work, plus the effort to summarize everything due to the lack of
time.
Final conclusions and agreements of “WP5. Dissemination Strategy (ERIO and QPM). Goals,
activities, tasks and deadlines”
- Regarding the website, it is important that everyone checks that the info on their
organizations is updated. ERIO still lacks CREA’s info.
- Marta will consult her colleagues on the suggestions made during the meeting: Teodora’s
proposal not to show the activities in progress in the OPMS, but only deadlines; and
Ana’s proposal of a section in the web for the International Romani Network.
- A common e-mail will be created for the project team, for the European dissemination.
ERIO will be responsible for creating it but Drom Kotar Mestipen, as project coordinator,
will check the mail to answer demands.
- Some contacts in the website need to be changed: Romani Criss (the secretary e-mail
address is the one to publish) and CREA’s (Adriana’s e-mail is the one to publish).
- All deadlines regarding dissemination will be included in the project plan.
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10.- WP1. Financial and administrative issues (DROM KOTAR MESTIPEN)
Natalia presents Iñaki. He is the financial assessor of Drom Kotar Mestipen, he is economist and
Economy professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He collaborates with Drom Kotar
as a volunteer in the financial issues.
He says that for his presentation he will use a PowerPoint made by the EC which is very clear, even
for those not familiarized with financial issues, that was presented in Bruxelles at the coordinators
kick-off meeting.
Iñaki explains the structure of the overall budget for the project, what each costs category means,
what rules apply to them and what % is financed by the EC in the project.
He then explains the audits and controls that the EC can ask for (for a period of 5 years). This is
usually requested to the coordinator organization, but it may be requested to partners too. The
coordinator needs to keep all copies of invoices, etc. for 5 years, and each partner must keep all
originals during the same period.
Regarding payments made to partners, they are well specified in the partner agreements. He
explains that Drom Kotar Mestipen has received a 70% of the grant as pre financing and that the
coordinator can decide how to do the transfer of the prefinancing to the partners. As stablished in
the partner agreement, Drom Kotar Mestipen has decided to do a first pre financing of about the
35% of the grant to each partner. As soon as each partner reports and declares the first payment
to the coordination, the second remaining prefinancing of about the 35% of the grant will be done.
In this way, there will be more accordance between the expenses and the taks that each partner
undertakes during the project. Some of the partners have more expenses in the start of the
project according to their tasks and other in the last months of the project.
Iñaki reminds that the last 30% payment of the grant will be done after the submission of the final
report. When Drom Kotar Mestipen receives the payment from the EC we will do the transfer to
all partners. In this last payment, if the EC considers that the quality of the project or of its
activities has not been implemented as it was foreseen, the EC can reduce the amount of this last
payment. Iñaki explains that if the reduction is connected with any concrete activity or partner,
the reduction of the last payment will be focused on the partner affected. If the reduction is in
connection with the overall of the project, the reduction will be done among all the partners
proportionally to their grant.
Simona asks if deadlines may be established for reporting costs. Iñaki answers that if anyone
wants a reference, an estimated calculation is to report every 4 months, but every partner has a
different distribution of work throughout the months of the project, and that’s why there are no
deadlines. For example, Generalitat has more costs at the end of the project, ERIO at the
beginning, etc.
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Ioulia is worried about the budget for the travel and accommodation expenses of the final
conference because it is the same amount of money that for the first international meeting.
Natalia states that the final conference lasts 2 days just as the first meeting.
In addition, Iñaki explains that there is the possibility to transfer 10% between expenses headings
without having to justify to the EC.
Rosa Valls asks if it could be possible to have the PowerPoint of the EC as a reference. Iñaki says
that he thinks he will be able to send it to all partners. Everybody agrees.
Iñaki talks now about the justification of costs, which is very important. Both the EC PowerPoint
and the handbook specify how to do this. It is important to know how to fill in the timesheet staff,
which is also explained in the PowerPoint and the handbook. If partners already have a model of
timesheet that they use in their organizations, they may use it; if not, Drom Kotar Mestipen will
provide them with an example.
Following, he informs that for those countries without euro, the currency change to be used is the
same all project long, taking as a reference the first month when the project began. In our case,
the currency change to use throughout all the life of the project is April 2012 and the currency
change established by the EC can be consulted in this website:
http://ec.europa.eu/budget/inforeuro/.
Iñaki recommends everyone to read carefully the handbook and send Drom Kotar Mestipen any
questions that may come up. If Drom Kotar doesn’t know the answer, they will ask the EC.
Tania is worried about the elegible period of the project regarding the payments of the expenses,
because Generalitat de Catalunya, as a public administration, usually pays the invoices and
receipts late and it’s possible that some of them will be after the elegible period. Iñaki informs that
he will consult the EC financial assessor about this specific issue. Tania says that she will talk to the
financial assessor, so that he knows that it is very important to pay as rapidly as possible in this
last period of the project.
Final conclusions and agreements “WP1. Financial and administrative issues (DROM KOTAR
MESTIPEN)”
- All documents used by Iñaki in the meeting will be uploaded in the OPMS.
- There are no deadlines for reporting costs, aside from doing it when the money from the
last payment has been spent. This is due to each partner having a different distribution
of work and expenses throughout the months of the project.
- Attention: justification of costs is very important. The staff timesheet needs to be
correctly filled in. Organizations may use their own timesheet, Drom Kotar Mestipen will
also provide an example
- Attention: currency change rate to use throughout the project is that of April 2012
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11.- WP6. PROMOTING THE SUCCESSFUL EDUCATION EXPERIENCIES WITH ROMA
(GENERALITAT DE CATALUNYA AND QPM). GOALS, ACTIVITIES, TASKS AND
DEADLINES.
Tania Garcia and Marc Vinyas present the conference program. The DGACC of the Government of
Catalonia is the leader of the organization of the Final Conference, which will be held on February
2013 in Barcelona. The conference will take place in a well-known building of the city, to be
confirmed yet.
About the date of the conference, the agendas of people with institutional charges (ministries,
members of the European Commission) have to be taken into account. They propose about the
last 10 days of February and everybody agrees.
They explain that the main objective of the conference is the dissemination of the results of ROM-
UP! Project; To promote an egalitarian dialogue among all the participants about how to sustain
the network after the end of the project in order that the results achieved can increase their
impact and to encourage the implementation of the successful educational experiences.
The main criteria are the free entrance, to guarantee the dialogue between policy makers,
researchers and Roma community members and to ensure the participation and inclusion of the
voices of Roma people with non academic skills, especially Roma women.
The target groups of the conference are: Teachers, Families and Roma community members,
Policy makers (local and regional authorities) and Romani NGOs. In addition, the partnership, the
quality evaluation group members, the European advisory council and representatives from the
successful educational experiences selected in the project will attend the conference. About 50
participants are expected.
Tania presents a first draft of the programme for the conference:
11.0 Opening session
- Josep Lluís Cleries. Ministry of Social Welfare and Family of the Government of Catalonia
(to be confirmed)
- Member of the Ministry of Education of the Government of Catalonia
- László Andor. Member of the European Commission responsible for employment, social
affairs and inclusion.
11.45 Presentation of ROM UP project
12.00 Presentation of the Successful Educational Actions and the electronic guide
Coordinator: Manuel Heredia. Advisory on Roma Issues of the Department of Social Welfare and
Family
- We will ensure the participation of two representatives from each selected successful experiences
(minimum one of them from the grass roots Roma community)
13.30 Lunch
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15.00 Conclusions of national seminars
15.45 Future steps and sustainability the SEAs in our country
Presentation of the Permanent Observatory about successful educational experiences in Roma
inclusion
Dissemination of the international romani network at a national level
- We will ensure the participation of local authorities with competences in Roma issues, and
members of the department of education, etc..
Discussion
17.00 Closing session
- Violant Cervera. DG of Civic and Communitarian Action of Government of Catalonia
- Ana Contreras. President of the Romani Association of Women Drom Kotar Mestipen
- Jan Truszczyński. DG for Education, Training, Culture and Youth. European Comission.
The conference will be interpreted into Catalan, English and Spanish
The tools to disseminate the conference will be: a leaflet, the website, mailing contacts and the
newsletters. They explain that as a Department of a Regional Government they have a lot of
important contacts within local, regional and national authorities with competences in Roma
issues. At the same time they count on the contacts of the Department press office and the
documentation centre. In total, they have more than 2000 valid contacts.
Finally, they state that after the conference, they will edit a video of the conference and they will
send it to all our contacts that have the power to make decisions in this area. They will elaborate
the minutes of the Conference and each partner will have to translate the report into their
national languages.
Tania states that the conference is the last activity of the project and, therefore, it depends on the
rest of the project. The conference will be held in February 2013; Generalitat de Catalunya prefers
it to be at the end of the month, because they have to coordinate very full agendas of ministries,
EC representatives, etc. The major representatives of Roma policies in Catalonia will be invited to
the conference.
Simona proposes to invite religious communities to the conference. The rest of the assistants think
it may be a good idea.
Tania clarifies that they propose the conference to start at 11 AM to reduce the cost of
accommodation of the European attendants, as some of them may then be able to travel the
same morning.
Ioulia asks if there will be people from the working groups attending the conference. Tania anwers
that budget is contemplated for the people involved in the experience, but not for those involved
in the working groups. Apart from the budget issue, they will be welcome if they decide to attend.
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Ana suggests including a representative of Roma community in the opening session. All partners
agree with the proposal. Marc Vinyes, from Generalitat de Catalunya, says that maybe we could
have an “institutional” opening and then give voice, in a 2nd
part, to this Roma representative. Ana
Contreras clarifies that this person should be a referent for the Roma people, that could represent
the majority of European Roma, and that it is important that this person shares table with the
ministry and the 2nd
person that will be present the event. Marc says that they will try to achieve
this.
Regarding the national seminars’ results presentation, Rosa suggests that it should be the non-
academic Roma people who made the presentations, even if they need translation, because it is
always the academic people who present conclusions and our project aims to change it, and give a
voice directly to the roma people. Everyone agrees on the idea, although some are concerned
about the language issue.
Rosa then suggests that they could speak in their own language, as they understand each other
among themselves, and if not they could speak in their national language, with a person beside
them that can translate simultaneously into English, as we are already doing it during the meeting.
Along the same lines, Ana states that the non-academic Roma who present the experiences may
speak in the language that they feel most comfortable with, and that their companion may
translate them to English and the other way round. This doesn’t suppose an extra cost. Everyone
agrees.
Francis really likes the idea, it will be a much more potent conference if the non-academic Roma
themselves talk about their own experiences. Monika agrees. Simona agrees too. She adds that if
we could provide the translation from Romani to English, it would be great too, and that it is
possible to find a Roma who speaks Romani from each country.
Tania clarifies that the conference will be in English with translation to Spanish and Catalan, and
Rosa adds that, although it would be ideal to mostly count with people speaking Romano, it
probably won’t be the case. If there is no official translation to Romano, we can work in small
groups that will translate from Romano to English.
Natalia asks if everyone agrees on Ana Contreras doing the presentation of the project in the
conference. Everyone agrees.
We agree that more suggestions and contribution to the final conference may be sent via e-mail to
Generalitat de Catalunya.
Rosa makes one last suggestion: 50 people seem few people. Maybe we can book a bigger room
just in case we are more. We can dream! Monika likes the idea, but she says that sometimes you
invite a lot of people and lots of them don’t show up.
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Marc feels that Generalitat de Catalunya can invite people who have an interest in coming, but
maybe it is important to know some months before who is coming or not, and from there we may
know how many extra people we can invite to the conference.
Natalia reminds partners, to close WP6, that there is not a big budget for the conference,
regarding travel, accommodation, and subsistence costs, to pay for more people apart from
partners and Roma grassroots involved in experiences. Despite, we may promote the participation
of more people if they can pay for these expenses themselves, or they can obtain a grant from
their National Agency or the Grundtvig Agency. Generalitat de Catalunya doesn’t have enough
money to pay for travel and subsistence costs. Rosa adds that we can promote a big participation
from the people of Catalonia and it will not impact in the budget.
Final conclusions and recommendations “WP6. Promoting the successful educational
experiences with Roma (Generalitat de Catalunya and QPM). Goals, activities, tasks and
deadlines”
- Religious communities may be invited to the conference.
- There is only budget to pay for travel, accommodation and subsistence costs of partners
and Roma grassroots involved in the experiences. Apart from the budget issue, other
people such as members of the national working groups, etc. are welcome if they wish to
attend the conference. We may promote the participation of more people through
National Agencies and Grundtvig Agency grant.
- All partners agree that we should include a Roma representative in the opening session,
along with the Minsitry and the 2nd
representative.
- Regarding the national seminars, all partners agree that it should be the non-academic
Roma to do the presentations. The translation will be done simultaneously by a support
person without further costs.
- All partners agree that Ana Contreras should be the one to present the ROM-UP! Project
in the conference.
- It would be good to have more than 50 attendants if possible. Generalitat de Catalunya
will try to know the number of attendants that are coming, of those invited, some
months before the conference, in order to know how many extra invitations are possible.
- Further suggestions may be sent via e-mail to Generalitat de Catalunya.
12.- LAST CONTRIBUTIONS AND END OF THE MEETING
Simona still has doubts on what Romani dialect to use for the translations of the reports. At the
end, everyone agrees to use the standard. The standard is not the original, but most Roma
understand, and everyone senses that the effort has been made so that all Roma may understand.
Ana adds that in previous projects Drom Kotar Mestipen has used the standard.
Ana thanks everyone for the work done, the contribution made in the meeting, and encourages
everyone for the months ahead.
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Partners evaluate the first meeting as a whole. Everyone feels that the visit to “la Mina” really
enriched the meeting and is thankful for it. Most partners feel that the hotel was too expensive
and they didn’t know the price till they got to Barcelona. Drom Kotar Mestipen says that they will
take this point in consideration for the following meeting in order to inform about the price
before. Regarding the price, it is not an expensive hotel in Barcelona taking into account the
average prices.
Marc thanks everyone for their attendance; he hopes they enjoyed this experience, from the
meeting to the food, etc. He apologizes for not being able to attend the whole meeting; he was in
Denmark attending another European project on Friday. He looks forward to seeing everyone else
in the conference next year, the Catalan government is really interested in supporting Roma
policies, and they feel this will be a great opportunity.
Ana closes the meeting. She thanks and encourages everyone, and specially thanks Generalitat de
Catalunya for hosting the meeting in their facilities.