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In total the local project involved about 200 young Roma. Most of them attended the project activities regularly for the whole duration, a little number of young Roma attended the activities only for a short period of time and than stopped, or did not attend regularly, for a number of reason related to the family, the culture, the rigidity of the school system.

Education and training confirmed to be the most suitable mean to fight against the segregation of Roma people. Good results in school performance were obtained in two years, all actors (field workers, teachers, parents) agreed that the project had a strong impact on the target group. On the other hand all partners pointed out that a longer term is needed in order to show wider and steadier results in social integration of Roma youngster.

The two main aims of the project were:

1. to prevent early school leaving by encouraging different approaches to education
2. to support social integration through professional training, the approach to work, and through a better knowledge of the resources of the territory.

1 To prevent school leaving / encourage school attendance
Teachers and project coordinators highlighted a strong link between the regular attendance of school and students’ performance on one side and the participation to the project activities on the other. The Bulgarian partner reports that pupils involved in the project (20 youngsters) finished their school year successfully, their performance really improved thanks to the project, their marks ranging from very good to average. The Romanian partners report that most activities organised in and outside the school had 100 % participation and the students’ interest for further education raised (54 attend the last school year) the same as for vocational training. In total 84 youngsters participated in the project (1/4 are Romanian youngsters, they were also included in the project in order to prevent any form of segregation). The French partner worked in 4 different Departments in France with very individually targeted projects involving 19 youngsters. They worked with families which were in very precarious and difficult conditions and with young Roma who in general had not completed compulsory education. Results were very hard but were obtained: in some cases young Roma improved basic learning, in others they were helped to be reintegrated into school or chose alternative paths such as professional training. The Italian partner involved 34 young Roma. Field workers played an important role of mediation between families and the school, supporting young Roma in their delicate position between the parents’ traditional culture and their non Roma peers’ way of living. Teachers report that the performance of the young Roma has improved. The Dutch partner involved a group of about 35 young Roma. Besides organising activities with the youngsters, the partner worked a lot with mothers, in order to create a cultural basis for the acceptance of education, mothers were often involved in activities together with their children (language courses, excursions..). The partner points out a significant change in the traditional negative cultural attitude amongst Roma with regard to education. The project in Slovakia focused on prevention of school leaving for young Roma at risk. Through music, young Roma were approached and than other activities were offered to them, such as school support, in order to persuade them about the value of education and motivate them to lead a responsible life style.

2. to support social integration through professional training, the approach to work, and through a better knowledge of the resources of the territory.
This aim was pursued through a set of activities such as vocational guidance, work apprenticeship, visit to local facilities. Not all partners carried out activities connected with this aim, as it depended on the target group. Vocational guidance included individual counselling, group counselling, visits to various secondary and vocational schools and working places, meetings with several professionals. The French partner has succeeded in involving a young Roma into taking a Brevet d’aptitude pour Animateur, the youngster passed the final exam at the end of 2006. The Romanian partner Caritas Bucharest worked with a class of young girls who were trained on tailoring, they organised excursions to different companies, during which two girls were promised a job. They also organised meeting with people, who, like them, had attended a vocational school and than had a brilliant career, this in order to encourage the girls and be more confident of their future. All girls have continued the studying because when we started the project activities, they were in first year of vocational school.
Also Aproapele organised meetings with different professionals, opening new perspectives to the young Roma, showing them there are different chances for them (in the Romanian village of Cojasca most Roma people are brick-builders and many young Roma continue the parents work). In June 2006, 30 children have passed the national capacity exam, 3 of them have been accepted in secondary schools from Bucharest and others in secondary schools from Buftea, Baleni, Targoviste. Compared with others years, the most part of students from our project who desired to continue education have succeeded to pass the exam (even if they were scared about this exam) and to get in school where they wanted.
In the Italian project 3 young Roma participated in a training and then started an apprenticeship for six months. All of them completed the apprenticeship to the end.
This was a very good result as from one side Roma normally tend to prefer less regulated jobs (no rigid working time, no employment relationship..), and on the other side companies do not employ Roma. Quite good results were obtained in supporting social integration of the target group, although results can only be evaluated properly in the long term.
Education and training confirmed to be the most suitable mean to fight against the segregation of Roma people. Good results in school performance were obtained in two years, all actors (field workers, teachers, parents) agreed that the project had a strong impact on the target group. On the other hand all partners pointed out that a longer term is needed in order to show wider and steadier results in social integration of Roma youngster.


Local projects were planned on the basis of the EDUCATIONAL PACKAGE. This is the tool produced jointly by partners which served as a model to plan educational and integration activities for young Roma. It foresees the integration of formal education, with non formal and informal education activities

The tool is structured in 2 aims:
- prevent school abandonment and encourage different approaches of education
- support social integration through professional trainings and work

Each aim is targeted to an age group and is developed through a set of activities. For example the first aim is targeted to 13 -16 year-old young Roma. The activities foreseen are:
Didactic support respectful of the specific culture
a. Sport and play
b. Artistic/creative laboratories
c. Street animation
d. Work with families
e. Food support
Each activity has different aims (relational, didactic or educational).
The educational package was produced jointly by all partners during the first transnational meeting and it was than experimented concretely at local level in 6 different countries: Bulgaria, France, Italy, Slovakia, Romania and The Netherlands. Each partner worked with a group of young Roma and adapted the educational package to the local contest, choosing the activities according to the needs of the target group, the network activated and the actual situation.
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The main results of the project were gathered in a final publication “Roma: a possible integration, a sort of guideline. It contains the educational package, which is the tool developed jointly by partner to support the planning of educational projects for the integration of young Roma
“Roma: a possible integration” Pathways for the social and educational integration of young Roma is the title of the final publication
The book contains the educational package and its evaluation done by all partners jointly after experimenting the educational package at local level, highlighting the activities and approaches that were most useful and effective, and the description of local projects including weak and strong points, and in the end partners share the lessons learnt by presenting some recommendations and suggestions that are very useful for people who want to work with young Roma and their education.
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Roma in Europe: integration through education
At the end on the project we held a final conference in Brussels in the European Parliament.
It gave us the possibility to develop themes such as of the importance of education as a tool for integration, the situation of marginalisation and discrimination in which most Roma people live all over Europe, different experiences of integration in Western and Eastern Europe (limits and strengths).
See the programme and the speeches

The conference ended with the recommendations that all partners produced jointly during the project and that are published in the final publication ‘Roma: a possible integration’, and with some recommendations outlined during the conference to the European Commission.
See the recommendations


Some information on the project and on the situation of Roma in Europe can also be found in:
- A future for young Roma
A short booklet containing information on Roma people in Europe, on the Step in project, and some impressions from our journeys through Europe
Download the booklet (language en and it)


Video reportage “Roma: a possible integration”
This video develops on 3 interweaving themes

- The first is the main plot, it has the feature of a documentary, describing briefly the objectives, the implementation and the results of the project. A ‘voice’ tells the different stages of the project, while the images show different situations: a gipsy ‘terrain’, the pilgrimage of Saites Maries de la Mer, images from the different local contexts.

- The second, or first sub-plot, is the experience of an operator (or better a female operator, and the young Roma will probably be a male), told directly by the operator in the form of an interview, alternating with images of her work with Roma.

- The third plot, or second sub-plot, is the story of a young Roma: this part is meant not just as the shooting of something really happening. This is a sort of fiction, an invented story, though of course linked to some real story / very realistic.

The three plots are separate in some way but interweave each other, in order to show the work done from three different point of view, making the public understand it very clearly but also feel involved with the stories he is being told.

The video is free and can be requested at europa.ambrosiana@caritas.it