Starting 2019 till the end of 2021, Roma Education Fund has been a partner in the European Cooperation for Roma Inclusion / ECRI project. ECRI is a European project aiming to develop the skills of adults that are working to support and include Roma communities. The project was supported by the Erasmus+ Programme.
The ECRI project developed several types of activities for the development of adult competences and qualifications :
- Two learning activities
- One augmented mediation platform on inclusive methodologies for Roma communities
- One induction mentoring training course with certificates for the project’s target audiences (trainers and educators but also mentors within Roma communities)
- One narrative mapping of technological and economic resources so that communities can rethink services and spaces for the inclusion of Roma people
- Three transnational dissemination events (Bulgaria, Germany and France).
During the project’s implementation, REF’s team of specialist have developed a Mentorship Program and a Methodology.
The mentoring program is an opportunity for development and an essential instrument that can change the negative perspective of the society on the Roma community, which is perceived as a problem. The result of this process is a fair exchange between the two cultures, and not a unilateral influence of the majority, as it is the case now in many situations.
Therefore, the goal of this project is, on one hand, to clarify the concept of mentoring with its preliminary steps, methodology and structure, and, on the other hand, to explain how important it is to know the culture and history of the community one works with, in this case the Roma, in order to truly support its members.
In summary, a European mentoring program is needed for the Roma community to:
- support people in their difficult moments;
- help them in finding a better version of themselves;
- support them in coping with different challenges in their lives;
- encourage the mentees to reach their full potential;
Mentoring is a complex process that requires mutual trust and the support of the mentors to develop harmoniously on all levels, discovering their intrinsic motivation to evolve. As mentioned above, mentoring can exist in any area of social life because people need support to achieve their goals and dreams. The following include some examples of good mentoring practices in the field of education, this being the main field of activity of the Roma Education Fund. Roma Education Fund Foundation carries out educational projects with a focus on the Roma minority, which have a strong mentoring component for Roma pupils, students and teachers, but also projects whose main purpose is mentoring to support the community from within.
You can read the Methodology wrote by Maria Luiza Medeleanu and Alexandru Zamfir here:
