Project: “Motivation of Young Roma for Participation in Botevgrad Municipality’s Public Policies”
We present to you the results of one of the small projects under the Active Citizens Fund Bulgaria. A local non-governmental organization, a municipality and a local media are partners in the project and together they are going through the difficulties, including the restrictions during the Covid pandemic in 2021.
Implemented in: Botevgrad municipality
Program: Active Citizens Fund Bulgaria
Implementation period: 01.09.2020 – 31.08.2021
Project Promoter: Community action group – Botevgrad
Partners: Municipality Botevgrad; New Media Info” EOOD
Summary and results:
The project is implemented by the Community Action Group of the Botevgrad Municipality based on an analysis of needs in the municipality for work with young Roma. The goal of the project “Motivation of young Roma to participate in public policies of Botevgrad Municipality” is to motivate at least 15 young people of Roma origin to identify problems and formulate solutions and policies in Botevgrad Municipality. The team managed to include as participants 18 young people aged 16 to 29, who are schoolchildren or students, from the neighborhoods of Botevgrad and the villages of Vrachesh, Litakovo, Trudovets, Skravena and Novachene.
In April 2021, a three-day training was held with the participants in the project on the topic: “Roma culture and traditions”. “After each session, discussions were held with the participants, it was felt how the motivation and self-confidence of the young Roma increased, which is one of our main goals that we strive to achieve,” say the project team. A further three-day training was held in May 2021 on the topic: “Legal aspects of participation in public policies” and “Methods for community needs assessment and advocacy to meet these needs”. The third important aspect in training is the development of skills for advocacy and for inclusion in youth policy-making processes. In the practical activities, the young people had the task of outlining the most pressing problem among young people in the Roma neighbourhoods of the municipality, and as such a problem they outlined the use of narcotic substances. With the assistance of the Municipality of Botevgrad and the chairman of the Commission for Combating Antisocial Behavior of Minors and Underage Citizens, the team has managed to ensure the holding of a two-day external training for young Roma on the topic: “Prevention of drug addiction among young people”.
Under the project, 18 meetings were held with people from the designated Roma neighborhoods on the territory of Botevgrad municipality in six settlements (Botevgrad town, Vrachesh village, Trudovets village, Skravena village, Novachene village, Litakovo village). During these meetings, the young people put the acquired knowledge into practice and, with the help of the mediators and the people from the Roma neighbourhoods, discussed the hot topics related to education, health care, employment, infrastructure and culture. After each meeting, the young Roma made an analysis and assessment of the needs, then prepared proposals for each priority, based on which proposals were formulated to the relevant institution for a solution. An advocacy campaign and meetings with the institutions followed. The young people had the opportunity, in addition to presenting themselves and the main highlights of their proposals, to get acquainted with the main responsibilities and activities of the employees in the individual institutions (Municipal Administration – Botevgrad, Directorate of Social Assistance, Directorate of Labor Bureau, Center for support of children and their families, mayors of town halls in populated areas, etc.).
“From the conducted advocacy campaign, we received good feedback and support for our proposals from the institutions, which gave the green light to the young people to submit the prepared proposal to the Botevgrad municipality office. The proposal directly affects the budget of the municipality of Botevgrad for 2022.”
“One of the most important results we managed to achieve is that, despite everything, we gathered 18 young people who received the necessary knowledge and skills to participate in municipal policies of Botevgrad municipality. It didn’t happen as easily as we expected and the conclusion, we can draw is that working with young people is a complex process that requires quite good communication skills, patience and tolerance.”
“Community action group – Botevgrad and the team responsible for the implementation of the project are satisfied with the implementation of each activity and even more satisfied with the fact that, along with the accompanying problems during the project, we were able to unite even better with common efforts and distribution of responsibilities to carry out all planned activities, albeit with some delays.”
Grant amount: 6 284 EUR
Contact: Ivan Ivanov
email: m.a.g.botevgrad2019@abv.bg
phone: +359 886 856 399
address: Botevgrad 2140, Khan Asparuh 61 str.
Related articles (in Bulgarian language):
МАГ – Ботевград проведе обучение тема: „Превенция на наркоманиите сред младежите“
