Shumen

With the signature of the Letter of Commitment signed by the Mayor on the on the 21 November 2013 Shumen joined ROMACT. The Roma Community Action Group (CAG) was set up with the help of a ROMACT facilitator by February 2014. The CAG gathers approximately 10 Roma from Byalata Prast, Everest and Vitosha neighbourhoods, 4 of group are female.  The group notably also includes members who are health and employment mediators, an NGO representative, a former municipal councillor and civically engaged young people.

After four meetings, the representatives of the municipality and members of the CAG identified and agreed on the priority development needs of the Roma community with concentration on education, health, employment, housing, infrastructure and culture. These needs are addressed in a Joint Action Plan which includes the following measures:

EDUCATION
- Raising the level of education in preschool groups where Roma children are enrolled;

• - Educating for tolerance and the preservation of Romani culture as part of the Bulgarian culture;
• - Preventing early school drop-out and reintegrating drop-outs into the educational system;
• - Encouraging responsible parenthood concerning the education of children;
• - Raising competences of the pedagogical staff to work in an intercultural environment.
• - Providing equal access to education for children from ethnic minorities.

HEALTHCARE
- Decreasing child mortality;
- Improving health care for new-borns and children of preschool age;
- Increasing the use of preventative medicines among Roma;
- Improving access to healthcare for disadvantaged Roma;
- Raising knowledge of health care in Roma communities;
- Increasing the number of people from ethnic minorities with healthcare insurance;

• - Monitoring and evaluating the health status of people from ethnic minorities;

 EMPLOYMENT
- Providing information for Roma with the aim to find employment;

• - Promoting employment of Roma through increasing the qualifications and pre-qualifications of Roma ;
• - Promoting competitiveness of Roma in the employment market through job-seeking skills training;
• - Providing more permanent employment opportunities for working age Roma citizens.

 RULE OF LAW AND NON-DISCRIMINATION
- Improving tolerance between interethnic groups by creating various cultural and education focused activities;

• - Strengthening the representation of Roma at all levels of public administration;
• - Preventing aggressive behaviour in schools and institutions;

 HOUSING
- Improving the housing conditions of Roma and other vulnerable families;

• - Improving the practical community infrastructure and public utilities;

YOUTH ACTIVITIES 
Fostering attitudes in our young people so that they become active citizens and engage in the wider community;

• Preserving, developing and promoting Roma ethnic culture as an integral part of the Bulgarian national culture and also creating conditions for equal access of Roma to wider public cultural life at various levels;

 
The Joint Action Plan was adopted by the Local Council on 28 January 2016. The implementation was, however, delayed due to the negative attitude of the Deputy Mayor responsible for the Programme and her reluctance to address the issue.

In spite of this lack of political will, some of the initiatives have already been approved by the municipality and the implementation of these measures involved members of the CAG on multi-levels, these actions were in addition to what had already been approved by the municipality through the Joint Action Plan.  These additional initiatives were:

• - The removal of an illegal dumpsite located between two of the neighbourhoods;
• - The repair of street lights in Byalata Prast;
• - An inspection held at several school attendance records for Roma children conducted by experts from the Regional Educational Inspectorate.

The CAG was also consulted by the municipality on the draft of the Action Plan of the Shumen municipality on the implementation of the  Regional Strategy for Integration of Bulgarian Roma Citizens and Other Civilians in a Vulnerable Social Situation, Living in the Same Situation as Roma 2015-2020.

Trainings provided by ROMACT experts :

Community Action Groups (CAG):
* Opportunity to register NGOs for public benefit;
* Addressing drug delivery and use in the Roma neighbourhoods;
* Participation in the local budget process;
* Achieving the Community Action Group sustainability through establishing and developing a civil society organisation

Local Authorities (LA):
* Intercultural training;
* Partnership management for planning and implementation of municipal policies for social inclusion;
* Approaches for working with and within Roma community. Working in intercultural environment;
* Including priorities and measures for Roma communities in the Integrated stratedies for territorial development

ROMACT Small Grants Scheme :
 
ROMACT offers small grants scheme to support the efforts of the municipalities and Community Action Groups to respond together to the needs of the most vulnerable and to multiply the good practices across ROMACT municipalities.
 
Under the scheme of small grants, the following project was supported by ROMACT between May - August 2020:
 
Initiative to counter COVID19 pandemic – The Association RO-MAG in Shumen
ROMACT supported the association with 2101 €, reaching 100 families within Roma community. The project mainly focused on providing baby packages for families that are vulnerable and financially disadvantaged and adversely impacted by the pandemic. The baby packages included baby food to support good nutrition and hygiene packages. Local community action group identified the vulnerable families who have young children between 0-3 of age and actively took part in the distribution of support packages.