Roma Women transforming the educational systems around Europe through their social and political mobilizations (RTRANSFORM)

Funders

Erasmus+
Key Action 3

Value

£380k

Project team

C-DaRE, Coventry University (PI) - Rosa Cisneros

Partners

LEAD-Romani Women’s Association Drom Kotar Mestipen (SP)
Coventry University- Centre for Dance Research (UK)
Alternative Innovative Development (GR)
Amrita Pályaorientációs Baráti Kör Egyesület (HU)
Amalipe Center for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance (BU)
Care for young people’s future CIC (UK)
Catalan Government-Roma and Social Innovation Programme - Directorate- General for Civic and Community Action (SP)
Municipality of Ampelokipi – Menemeni (GR)
Dr. Ámbédkar Gimnázium, Szakközépiskola, Szakiskola, Általános Iskola és Martin Luther King Középiskolai Kollégium

Duration of project

2020-2023

Project overview

The project addresses a main challenge which is social inclusion with the potentiality of promoting education among Roma women and girls. The European Union has taken action to implement Roma integration strategies and sets of policy measures aimed at improving the situation of Roma and at closing the existing gaps between Roma and the general population.

The purpose of the project is to influence policies using a bottom up approach by disseminating and scaling up an evidence-based practice which has shown to contribute to Roma women and girls’ educational and social inclusion through the promotion of high and quality education and the creation of a space for debate for this socially disadvantaged group. This evidence-based practice is the “Roma Women Students’ Gathering” (RWSG), an initiative that has been organized, with the active involvement of Grassroots Roma women for eighteen years. The Project will transfer the RWSG to diverse environments and measure its impact and use the information gathered to generate a toolkit, guide, film, policy recommendations and academic articles.

Project objectives

The project focuses on promoting the equal access to quality and inclusive education, training and life-long learning for Roma women. The project contributes to empowering and giving support to Roma community, focusing on the education system, which is a key area to achieve their social inclusion and to improve their access to rights.

Coventry University (COVUNI) will be leading the Quality Assurance Plan and evaluation of the project. COVUNI will also monitor the inclusive methodology as well as the scientific work related to Roma women and the student meetings, combined with social and cultural aspects via defining the conceptual framework leading on the writing of the desk-based research. In addition, COVUNI has experience collaborating with grassroot organizations and will collaborate with the consortium and support each partner to build a bridge and develop the policy-making process. COVUNI will also support the consortium to engage grassroots Roma communities and will contribute in methodological and technical aspects of the project.

Impact statement

The social potentiality of the initiative is the promotion of a more inclusive education, encouraging Roma women to aim for high expectations with their careers and giving them strength to follow with their studies and to embrace new educational projects, breaking the stereotypes that link Roma Women and educational failure. The fact that the Gatherings are celebrated in educational centres means a symbolic occupation of a space which is not commonly perceived as a space that belongs to Roma Women.

Besides the promotion of inclusive education, a second key impact area is the political agenda. In the Catalan context, the Gatherings have also become a loudspeaker for the Roma women voices to reach the political spheres. In this sense, the conclusions resulted from the Gatherings inform and guide Drom Kotar Mestipen advocacy agenda to work with other allies (other NGOS, public institutions or political representatives). In this way, the voices of Roma women have been included in the political decision-making processes in the local context, following a fruitful bottom-up approach.

In each country, we have one partner with a profile of a grassroots organization and one partner with a more political/institutional role. This cooperation is key for the success of the social and political impact expected from the project.

Outputs

Key outputs include:

Guide: “Strategies to build effective relationships to organise the Roma Women’s Student Gatherings: How we, Roma women, can do it?”
Resource on desk-based research carried out during the life of the project.
Toolkit for educational Centres
National Gatherings reports
European Gatherings reports
Video book:RWSG in Europe
Policy Recommendations
Final Conference report
Scientific articles