LOOK AT MY SKILLS, NOT AT MY SKIN
ERASMUS+ YOUTH PARTICIPATION PROJECT
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Surveys show that youth from the Roma community living in rural areas has access to even a smaller number of opportunities and lower quality. The goal we set for this project was to help change that. We plan on doing so by helping those young people engage, connect and empower themselves.
The objectives of the "Look at my skills, not at my skin" project are:
1
We believe that these aspects will contribute to them being heard by state institutions and will amplify their voice in the discourse for youth participants of the Roma community. The main idea of the project was to gather youngsters from the Roma community and to work with them through non-formal learning practices. We believe many of those disadvantaged and looked down upon youth only need a certain push to realize just how much potential they hold.
2
Everybody has dreams but it is certainly hard to fulfill them when a large number of people don’t look past one’s ethnicity and culture. Our methods strived to make our participants feel together with everyone else while not forcing them to neglect their heritage and communities. We encouraged them to spread the word about what they’ve learned with them and thus positively impact an even greater number of members of their community.
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We believe any one of them can achieve their dreams and aspirations and not only become their best self but for their capabilities to become evident for everyone around them. Our participants deserve to have a say in how things are and we believe they would bring a fresh perspective to the discourse. Precisely a Roma youngster likely holds the key to bridging this divide.
THE PROJECT AIMS:
support
-To support the participants in being able to adress and articulate the challenges they face and to start a change
discrimation
To fight agains prejudice and discrimination and at the same time aims at equal treatment, education, employability and opportunities for the Roma youngsters
Fullfill needs
To fulfill the needs of our target group, introducing the participants on a deeper level in youth participation and showing them how to follow their passions are amongs the biggest objectives of the project
impact
To have a possitive impacat on the participation and inclusion of Roma young people in Bulgaria and in Europe.
According to a report by the European Commission, three-fifths of the Roma people above 15 are economically inactive. That is 61.2% of the whole community. This is a staggering number and we cannot help but believe in the possibilities that their future engagement holds. As it is, young people of the Roma community tend to halt their education early on, thus making them less qualified and less employable in the long term. It has been a long-lasting cycle that we wish to help break. We want the young people of this community to seize opportunities and make an impact. For that, we also need to help them make opportunities for themselves by communicating with decision-makers and voicing their ideas for change. The needs we have identified and decided to target are: firstly to help young people from the Roma community voices be heard. To increase their employability, and also to connect young people with the decision-makers of the town to establish a youth dialogue. We will also work to familiarise them with the methods of informal education and Erasmus+ itself.