- Project POSDRU/96/6.2/S/63444 - "Together for a safe start!", Priority axis 6: "Promoting social inclusion", Major Area of intervention 6.2 "Improving access and participation of vulnerable groups on the labor market" - implemented between April 2011 and March 2014.
The project aimed at:
- The development of an integrated model of social and professional inclusion of Roma people and people with disabilities from the North-West Development Region and the West Development Region, through its specific objectives:
- Ensuring access to information, mediation and professional counseling services for a number of 3415 people of Roma ethnicity and 1585 people with disabilities, in a period of 36 months, from the North-West Development Region and the West Development Region;
- Facilitating access to professional training programs (qualification/retraining) for a number of 900 people of Roma ethnicity and people with disabilities (for 500 people professional qualification and for 400 people certification of non-formally acquired skills), in a period of 36 Monday, from the North West and West region;
- Informing and sensitizing a number of 72 people from among public and private managers, representatives of NGOs, employees of local public administrations (LPA) regarding the issue of people of Roma ethnicity and people with disabilities, in a period of 36 from Monday, in the North-West Development Region and the West Development Region.
At the end of the project implementation (March 2014), the following results were recorded:
- 3653 people of Roma ethnicity benefited from information and counseling;
- 2513 people of Roma ethnicity benefited from professional counseling and professional mediation
- 970 people with disabilities benefited from information and counseling,
- 459 people with disabilities benefited from professional counseling and professional mediation
- 524 people who participated in integrated programs found a job
- 471 subsidies were granted to employers who hired people of Roma ethnicity or people with disabilities enrolled in the project
- was established information and counseling center for promoting employment opportunities for vulnerable groups by Decision of the Local Council of Cluj-Napoca and the building in which the center carries out its activities was purchased
- vocational training opportunities were identified for a number of 510 people advised by counselors
- 510 people were included in vocational training courses, of which 301 were Roma and 209 people with disabilities
- a number of 400 people were included in the competence certification programs, of which 240 people of Roma ethnicity and 160 people with disabilities
- 9 seminars were organized, of which 3 in Cluj-Napoca and 6 in Arad
- 418 people from among public and private managers, NGO representatives, employees of public authorities benefited from information on the problems that people from vulnerable groups have regarding their access to the labor market;
- 3 conferences were organized in Cluj-Napoca
- 3 experience exchanges were organized in Great Britain
At the level of the municipality of Cluj-Napoca, at the end of the implementation of the project (March 2014), the following notable achievements were recorded:
- 90 people of Roma ethnicity benefited from professional training courses (housekeeper, trade worker, carer for the elderly, subassembly fitter, landscaper-florist);
- 20 people with disabilities benefited from professional training courses (landscaper and florist);
- 120 people of Roma ethnicity have benefited from the certification of skills acquired non-formally in the following occupations: chambermaid, trade worker, database operator, subassembly assembler, construction worker, textile fabricator;
- 51 people with disabilities benefited from the certification of skills in the trades: trade worker, database operator, subassembly assembler;
- 113 people were employed in the municipality of Cluj-Napoca, among them 96 people of Roma ethnicity and 17 people with disabilities;
- was established Center for Social Inclusion, headquartered in the municipality of Cluj-Napoca, Plevnei Street no. 158, an information and counseling center for promoting employment opportunities, dedicated primarily to Roma people and people with disabilities, but also to other categories of vulnerable people.
As part of the project, the Intercultural Institute of Timișoara carried out two impact studies on measures for the inclusion on the labor market of persons with disabilities and persons of Roma ethnicity (authors: Călin Rus and Oana Neștian Sandu, Intercultural Institute of Timișoara, March 2014):
– Access of people with disabilities to the labor market in the North-West and West regions.
– Measures for the inclusion of Roma in the labor market: from organized hypocrisy to real effectiveness.
The studies were carried out based on the analysis of the documents developed following the information and counseling process regarding access to the labor market carried out with the beneficiaries of the project, on the basis of impact questionnaires that focused on the effect of the support measures offered within the project, as well as on the basis of interviews , focus groups and workshops with different categories of beneficiaries, with employers, with specialists in the field and with representatives of relevant public institutions and lays the foundations for a specific methodology for the integration into work of these categories of beneficiaries.
The total value of the project was 7,308,571.87 lei.