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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


15

• 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.


16

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.)?


17

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


18

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.


19

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


20

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


21

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.


22

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.


23

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.


24

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:


25

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.


26

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.


27

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


28

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.


29

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


30

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.


31

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.


34

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


35

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.


36

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


37

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.


38

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.


39

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


40

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


41

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.


42

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.


43

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.


44

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.

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