News

Teamwork and shared experience

In three consecutive days community moderators from the municipalities of Kameno, Pavlikeni, Byala Slatina, Peshtera, Novi Pazar, Veliko Tarnovo and Etropole shared their experiences and good practices in their work to the local community. The days from 12 to 14^th of November 2012 passed in the spirit of understanding, solidarity and cooperation. Daphne moderators, as all Amalipe colleagues called them, once again showed that good teamwork and unity is the essence of effective work in terms of working with the community, and with representatives of various institutions, and also between members of the various projects of the big Amalipe family.

Participants in the meeting were Community moderators who are representatives of the Centers for Community Development, created within the project: Promotion of Fieldwork in Traditional and Marginalized Groups of the Roma Community.Almost two years have passed since Amalipe began introducing and testing an innovative approach to work in the local community - fieldwork at the grass-root level by mobilizing the resources of the community itself. The first Centers for Community Development have been established - an innovative service based in general to enhance fieldwork at grass-root level. This new service in the community has already brought good results. During the three-day meeting, moderators analyzed the work done and brought the strengths and impact in their work, which are:

Teamwork;

Multidisciplinary and inter-institutional approach used in the work of the centers;

Comprehensive assessment of the needs of the local community;

Individual approach to planning activities for specific communities;

Comprehensive approach in dealing with cases;

Enhancing motivation for education in the local community

Community Mobilization

Fieldwork among the community

Organizing community campaigns

Prevention of early marriages

Recognition of the community centers and local institutions

Community moderators also analyzed the weaknesses and the moments, which are not so effective in their work. They discovered areas that have not yet been targeted to work with local institutions, and moderators said "sustainability would not be achieved without these areas."

Which are the weaknesses in the work of the centers, according to their own community moderators:

Advocacy activities in the areas of: housing, employment, material and financial independence of the population in rural areas, infrastructure in neighborhoods with compact Roma population;

Working with institutions in terms of advocacy in social, health and civil rights of the local population;

Not so effective interaction between the centers and mobile teams

Improving interaction activities with other centers of projects and areas of Amalipe.

Analyzing the activity of the centers is important to optimize the operation. Showing the moderators strengths and weaknesses does not mean that they haven’t worked well, but as Ganka Hristova - moderator in the Centre in Etropole said: "The fact that we know and identify the weak parts in our work, only proves that we have worked hard and we have the desire to become better at what we do."

In the evenings moderators showed that they can also party and proved that teamwork is important both at work, and in party.