Open Society Foundation's, Early Childhood Programme Roma 'Kopaçi' Initiatives

‘Kopaçi’: the ‘sheltering tree’ The Kopaçi Program consists of three linked initiatives or 'branches' stemming from a strong 'trunk' that engages governments and civil society in ensuring the rights of each young Romani child to develop to his or her full potential in the home and community environments, whilst advocating for implementation of effective ECD models in the formal education sector… The expert consultants and practitioners’ group, the 'trunk' of the Kopaçi programme Advocacy at national and international levels, including the Roma Early Childhood Inclusion studies and reports Romani Parent Support Projects A network for Roma, Gypsy, Traveller early years professionals and paraprofessionals: Romani Early Years Network

Context The approach stems from previous Early Childhood Programme initiatives and projects working with Romani children and their families, in partnership with national Open Society foundations, Step-by-Step associations and local NGO's… The shift in emphasis in the current strategy is from working through intermediaries to directly engaging with Romani people on a community- basis…

The historical deprivation of Romani and Traveller communities and families in Europe and beyond means... Limited access to high-quality, inclusive and developmentally appropriate ECD activities and intercultural and transformative early years education… Clear evidence that Roma, Gypsy, Traveller participation in quality early childhood development and education leads to… the improvement of educational attainment and achievement on the part of Romani and Traveller children and young people… the improvement in life chances for Romani and Traveller people…

A developing model of inclusive Romani citizenship (for example in Turkey, and through the EU’s Social Protection and Social Inclusion initiatives), which addresses the costs of social exclusion, is being forged as a basis for addressing inequalities and injustice in national and international political arena…

The international advocacy context (DH and others vs. Czech Republic 2007; Sampanis and others vs. Greece 2009; Orsus and others vs. Croatia 2010) includes judgements that have strengthened the rights of Romani and Traveller children in accessing inclusive, non-segregated education and ECD services… The international policy and advocacy context is characterised by new regional and national commitments, including the new EU framework for National Roma Integration Strategies to 2020, the Council of Europe’s promotion of Roma rights and desegregation of education, UNESCO’s task force for Roma education, annual World Bank household surveys, and Roma and Sinti Contact Point (OSCE) advocacy, among others… A historical ‘moment’ of opportunity currently exists in which Roma are very much in the focus of governmental, non-governmental and inter-governmental policy and strategy…

The largest actors and agents working in partnership with governments and Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities increasingly recognise the cost of exclusion of Roma, and have identified provision of ECD services for Romani and Traveller children as a viable strategy for improving the economic and social situation of Romani communities in Europe and beyond…

A shift in the debates has occurred which weighs the effectiveness of the exclusive, trans-national ethnic minority rights, cultural and linguistic rights, against a more integrative approach that also addresses the lack of economic and social progress in general...

The ‘Kopaçi’ Experts’ group The ‘trunk’ of the tree is the experts’ group that will be at the heart of the activities and projects. These are a mix of early years and ECD expert practitioners and Romani Studies experts, bringing together two hitherto disparate communities to work on supporting the ECP ‘Kopaçi’ programme…

Supporting Romani parents Roma Parent Support projects (RPSp’s) pilot community-based, culturally and contextually relevant services for caregivers and their young children from the prenatal period through early primary, focusing on improving the context of children’s development in their homes and communities. Based on an approach of consultation, partnership and empowerment, these projects seek innovative solutions in anticipation of substantial regional funding that is likely to flow into Roma early childhood activities in the coming decade. By developing community-led projects with demonstrable and measurable results, this future funding may be targeted to achieve sustainable outcomes, results and impacts...

Roma Parent Support Projects Grants to projects in eight countries in In , the emphasis of the programme will shift from selection and design of projects with grantees to provision of individualized technical support, monitoring and evaluation in each community, using the Kopaçi programme's expert consultant group...

Roma parent support projects will be established to extend medium and long- term outcomes and impacts on Romani and Traveller parents and ECD organisations and associations. Monitoring and evaluation will inform program development and promote the best programs for scale-up using national and European funding...

Advocacy Improving the situation of Roma is a shared responsibility of European institutions, national governments, local and regional authorities, civil society, the media, and Roma communities themselves. The RECI studies offer an important advocacy opportunity to work in partnership with UNICEF, the Roma Education Fund, the International Step-by-Step Association, Save the Children and the World Bank and like-minded agencies to press governments to adopt and implement effective ECD policies that guarantee accessible, high quality services for young Romani, Gypsy and Traveller children in Europe...

The RECI reports, a joint initiative of OSF, UNICEF, ISSA, Save the Children International and the Roma Education Fund, aim to produce and disseminate analyses of current early childhood policies that impact young Roma children in select countries and to provide a series of recommendations and events to improve services and government accountability. The first phase (5 national reports – Hungary, Czech, Romania, Serbia, Macedonia – and a synthesis report) was completed in Four additional reports (Albania, Kosovo, Bulgaria and Slovakia) and a joint conference are will be completed in The programme also cultivates expertise of young Romani, Gypsy and Traveller researchers in their own communities... Roma Early Childhood Inclusion Reports (RECI)

Advocacy The timing of the RECI reports could not be better. They are being launched at the same time that European governments are preparing and discussing their national Roma inclusion strategies for 2020 with the EC. Funding priorities for the next EU budget period beginning in 2014 are being established...

The Romani Early Years Network The Early Childhood Programme launched a major initiative to increase the quality and quantity of expertise of Roma, Gypsy and Traveller early childhood professionals and paraprofessionals across Europe and Eurasia in collaboration with ISSA, the Roma Initiatives Office and the Roma Education Fund (REF)… This work has many dimensions; developing online learning communities, pre- and in-service training, mentoring, standards, certification, qualification, horizontal sharing and innovation, and promotion of monitoring and evaluation of programs... Since the REYN initiative was launched in 2012, three national early years networks for Romani ECD have been established (Kosovo, Slovenia, Irish Republic), with others in Macedonia, Hungary, Croatia, Rumania and Bulgaria, to follow in the near future...

Outputs for Four new national RECI studies and a synthesis report summarising the ECD situation for young Romani, Ashkali and Egyptian children and proposing recommendations to improve policy, provision and practices, will be developed and disseminated across key stakeholders… 24 communities in 9 countries reaching approximately 10,000 children and 2,500 parents and carers will participate in innovative Roma ECD Parent Support Programs addressing the needs of children from birth through eight years (early primary)…

Results An international network of community-led, Roma parent support projects will be established in ten countries in CEE, CIS and SEE, to extend medium and long-term outcomes and impacts on Romani parents and ECD organisations and associations... 2,000 early childhood professionals and paraprofessionals across 20 countries will receive professional development and support through the ECP’s Romani Early Years Network, managed by the International Step-by-Step Association in

Impacts Inclusion of Gypsy, Roma, Traveller ECD into national policies and strategies, building on the momentum of the EU’s Roma Integration Framework for 2020, and promotion of socially inclusive education (desegregated) and quality educational outcomes... A European ECD workshop in June 2014, focusing on ‘lessons learned’ from the UK, in terms of raising attainment, to apply in the CEE/CIS countries…

Projects RECI$60,000$79,000 Roma Parent Support $702,000$1,050,000 Roma ECD$132,000 Expert support$150,000 Advocacy$90,000$80,000 Total$1,207,000$1,491,000