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In the days 20^th-22^nd of November 2013, in Veliko Tarnovo, Center for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance "Amalipe" organized a workshop for community moderators from six municipalities in Bulgaria. The initiative is realized within the project “Step Forward - empowering young people and women from the local Roma community”, which is financed by the European Commission under the Daphne program. Participants in the meeting were community moderators from six municipalities: Novi Pazar, Etropole, Byala Slatina, Peshtera, Kameno and Pavlikeni.

The Centers for Community Development has been established during the year 2011 by the Center Amalipe, as a part of the project “Promotion of fieldwork among traditional and marginalized Roma communities”, which is funded by the Daphne Programme of the European Commission. Since the establishment, the Centers for Community Development proved to be the major actors of the social life and the initiators of the positive changes of the image of the Roma community. The main objective of the meeting was a discussion about the National Strategy for Integration of Roma. According to the Strategy municipalities have to prepare, approve and implement the annual Municipal plans. These plans should be the basis for the implementation of the integration policy at the local level. The important fact is that they have to be consistent with the other municipal strategic and program documents - in particular the documents that the municipality will prepare concerning the utilization of European funds in the next period.

During the training, community moderators of the six municipalities shared their experiences and discussed the solving of cases occurred during the daily work in the local Roma community, especially during the trainings with the local activists. During the three-day meeting, moderators shared and discussed their experiences as adult trainers. Between July-September 2013, community moderators passed through the workshop to become trainers and from the month of October they launched the specific training modules among the local Roma activists. During the meeting, the moderators said the adult training requires their active participation in the whole learning process. It is very important to do the same also with the students, but among adults it is needed even more! As moderators shared: \"The participants are representatives of the local community, each with their own social experience!\"The moderators are supposed to pass on the knowledge, but also to summarize and accept the experience of the participants. During the cycle of the training, the participant goes through four different stages of the learning process. The training is transforming the information into usable and applicable form of knowledge. During the adult training, moderators of the Centers for Community Development emphasized the variety of the active learning methods and the involvement in different activities. The application of the group work was stressed as a basis for learning and acquiring knowledge: the exchange of experiences, practical observations, project preparation, case studies and solving of the incidents. During the meeting in the old town, serious topics as the advocacy of the policies related to the integration of Roma in Bulgaria were brought up. Mr Deyan Kolev, Chairman of the Center for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance "Amalipe", reminded the participants of the meeting what are the main priorities set out in the National Strategy for Roma Inclusion 2012-2020.

During the meeting, Mr Kolev called the community moderators from different cities to participate actively in the preparation of local strategies for the integration because they are the ones who know best the local specific problems of Roma communities. The municipal administration and institutions are the closest ones to the citizens. The institutions at the municipal level which are dealing with the Roma integration are considerably diverse. The development of the municipal institutional framework depends mainly on the number of Roma, and the most on the activity of the local Roma community.

Mr Kolev emphasized that the essential thing for the moderators and volunteers from the Centers for Community Development is to know the institutions at the municipal level and maintain partnerships with them. The success of the advocacy efforts for Roma integration at municipal level depend a lot on this fact.

The meeting ended with a summary of the information shared by each Center for Community Development and the presentations of the plans by the end of the year.

For more information:

Sylvia Boyanova

0884858655