Minorities and tolerance
In its programs PDCS aims to promote increased participation of citizens in public affairs. We implement such programs particularly in towns and villages with Roma inhabitants and try to increase also their awareness of the need for citizen participation. Naturally, such programs aim to increase understanding and cooperation between Roma and non-Roma inhabitants in the respective towns and villages. We also provide training and facilitation to Roma leaders, representatives of Roma organizations, officials of local governments, state administration, representatives of various institutions as well as journalists covering the issues. We support creation of initiatives, platforms and projects at the local level, aiming to develop opportunities to search for solutions to problems of Roma living in towns and villages.
We implement also comprehensive educational programs such as a training program for over 600 community social workers and their assistants. We adopted the training courses to their specific requirements and sought to make it readily usable in their work with minorities in the field.
Our experience
Working with our partner centers in the Czech Republic and Hungary from 2003 to 2007, we ran the international Roma Integration Program. In Slovakia, the program was implemented in Kežmarok, Rimavská Sobota, and Prešov. In these locations we conducted the process of cooperative planning, followed up by a grant program conducted in cooperation with Ekopolis Foundation. Cooperative planning is a long-term process involving various parties representing the wide spectrum of the community. They are able to see issues from various aspects and understand differences between each other as well as jointly seek solutions going beyond limited individual ideas of what is possible.
We help adress the problem of growing exclusion and segregation of Roma communities by providing training to key persons from Roma and non-Roma communities. The training courses focus on developing tolerance, understanding of minority rights but also of mechanism for transformation of ethnic and value-based conflicts. In the area of conflict transformation, we supported also the creation of conciliation commissions in the towns of Levice, Nové Zámky, Kežmarok, Rimavská Sobota and Prešov. Supporting training courses have focused on prevention of ethnic conflicts and cross-sector cooperation at the local level since as early as 1995. In addition to training courses, we organized a great number of facilitated meetings, focus groups and study trips for representatives of mentioned communities.
At the national level, as part of the Roma Integration Program, we facilitated the work of working groups, which resulted in national roundtables. The working groups and national roundtables dealt with topics of social work in Roma communities, housing issues for the Roma, education of the Roma, and field health care assistants working in Roma communities.
Examples of programs implemented in this program area include:
- Roma Integration Program
- Health and the Roma community, Analysis of the situation in Europe
- Reduction of health inequalities in the Roma community
- Conciliation Commissions
- Young Women Promoting Peace, Equality and Diversity
Publications:
Effective Communication in Field Social Work/ (Efektívna komunikácia v terénnej sociálnej práci), 2007
Process of Field Social Work in socialy exluded community/ (Proces terénnej sociálnej práce v sociálne vylúčenej komunite), 2007
Field Social Work in socialy excluded communities, Case studies/ (Terénna sociálna práca v sociálne vylúčenej kounite, Prípadové štúdie), 2006
Healthcare in socialy excluded communities/ (Zdravotná starostlivosť v sociálne vylúčených rómskych komunitách), 2007
Success Stories from the Roma Integration Programme, 2006