Martin Mojžiš Liaison Office of Košice Region in Brussels Experience of Košice Region with SF for Roma inclusion. EU Roma meeting May 2011, Prague

Košice Region Roads Motorways 1 st class roads 2 nd class roads Districts Railways regional capital district town town Surface -14% of Slovakia Population: Administrative centre: Košice Average monthly salary: 716 EUR (2010) Unemployment: 18,3 % (2010) president, council Nuts III, reform 2001 responsible for culture, hospitals, transport, regional development, secondary schools...

Roma living in Košice Region 541 non integrated Roma communities (separated/segregated) 461 local governments (17 cities),195 > 500 inh. 70% under 1000 inh % of SR population Roma – 17% of the population – (2005) largest settlements: 1.Kosice – Lunik IX Trebišov Pavlovce nad Uhom – Smižany

Roma living in Kosice Region

Project proposal Cesta (Road) Purpose: to create an instrument (community centers) for the local government in the area of inclusion of marginalized communities 4 pillars: health, employment, housing and education Outputs: I 20 centers of community work by local governments- community social workers, street workers, health and school assistants I establishment of standards of community work for local governments I impact on education and employment Partners in Kosice Region: 17 cities, 4 villages, 34 Roma NGO and 30 non-Roma NGO, Central Labor, Social Affairs and Family Office, Public Health Office, regional and district police directorates, Office of Plenipotentiary for Roma Communities, Regional Office of Education

Cesta Region: lead partner of the project, training of the social workers, support to municipalities in project implementation, coordination of activities, methodology, information exchange, adaptation of secondary education to needs of Roma... Municipalities: social workers, identification of premises for community work, coordination of assistant services (health, school and street work), involvement of NGOs, connecting assistant services with Roma community, primary schools etc..

Project wanted to address: Lack of technical capacity for the design and implementation of projects at local level Lack of social work skills in Roma communities at local level Vertical integration (municipality-region-central government) Lack of information and best-practice (learning opportunities) Lack of political support

..but the project was not financed, despite all the praise and media attention Reasons: 1.Not adapted to published calls- high costs, broad range of activities... 2.MA declined to make it a National project 3.No financing from other sources (state budget) but....

Thank you for your attention! Martin Mojžiš Liaison Office of Košice Region in Brussels Square de Meeus 1 Brussels 1000