Past events – Page 9 – ERGO Network

Annual Members Meeting 2019

Annual Members Meeting 2019

From 20-22 October 2019, ERGO Network’s members came together in Skopje, North Macedonia, to share updates from the past year, set future priorities and learn from each other.

On day 1, the participants attended working groups to define the future priorities of the organisation on the topics of employment, data collection and governance of the network. The governance working group discussed for example the legal status of ERGO, the criteria for membership and rights and responsibilities of members and the board.

Day 2 started with an introduction to different working areas of ERGO Network: The ERGO team and some of the members explained our work on Community-Led Local Development (CLLD), the Most Roma friendly Mayor campaign, our work towards the Post 2020 EU Roma Strategy and support for national advocacy and mobilisation.

In the afternoon, participants had the opportunity to gain new skills for their work back home: Monika Mihaličková led the group through a process of creating fundraising campaigns for the projects of their organisations. Another workshop focused on how to use graphic cues when facilitating meetings, held by Alejandro Gil Carasso.

Day 3 started with exchanging views on the priorities for advocating on the EU’s Post 2020 EU Roma Framework. The participants agreed that the most important topics that we should ask for are an increase of participation of Roma in all areas of designing and monitoring policies and continued EU support for the Western Balkans. National governments should commit to include support for Roma culture, language, history and actions to combat antigypsyism in the National Roma Integration Strategies.

In the afternoon, a group of participants had the opportunity to visit the Municipality Šuto Orizari (Šutka), where Roma are the majority with more than 13,000 inhabitants, and which is governed by a Roma mayor – Kurto Duduš.

Mr. Duduš took the time to meet the group and to explain important developments for the Romani population in the town. In his term, a new pre-school was built, the municipality invested in repairing main roads and the local high school doubled the number of its students. 25 of them were accepted to university this year! The municipality also has an outpatient clinic, where most inhabitants of Šuto Orizari and from nearby villages are treated.

The Annual Members Meeting 2019 closed with a party for all attending ERGO Network members.

We thank our member organization RROMA for welcoming us in Skopje and hosting us in these days!

ERGO conference on education, 19 November

Roma access to mainstream education: ERGO Network annual conference

Time: 19 November 2019, 10:00-12:30

Place: Representation of the State of Baden-Württemberg to the European Union, Rue Belliard 60-62 (Brussels)

We kindly invite you to attend ERGO Network’s conference on Roma access to mainstream education.

Education is an increasingly important topic in the European public and political discourse, with objectives on education in the Europe 2020 Strategy, the European Pillar of Social Rights, the Sustainable Development Goals and the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies. However, the Roma are still too often left behind when it comes to accessing educational opportunities on equal footing with majority groups. Existing legal and policy tools, including targeted actions on Roma education, as well as infringement procedures, are not as effective as they could be in challenging ingrained patterns of Roma exclusion and discrimination.

The conference will be kindly hosted by the Members of the European Parliament Romeo Franz (Greens/EFA) and Peter Pollák (EPP). It will bring together ERGO Network members from the grassroots level, European civil society organisations and other Brussels stakeholders, and EU policy-makers across the institutional spectrum, to discuss how to achieve real policy change for Roma in the area of education.

Have a look at the agenda of the conference.

Please don’t forget to register for the conference by following this link.

Venue: Representation of the State of Baden-Württemberg to the European Union, Rue Belliard 60-62 (Brussels)

For questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch: info@staging.ergonetwork.org, +32 2 893 10 49.

This conference is kindly supported by a grant from the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany.

ERGO Network receives financial support from the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation EaSI (2014-2020). For further information please consult: http://ec.europa.eu/social/easi

Grassroots Advocacy Academy for multipliers

ERGO Network Grassroots Advocacy Academy for multipliers

23-28 August 2019, Rehlovice (Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic)

Traditional ways of advocacy seem less and less effective, particularly when working in countries with far right governments and a high level of populism in politics. If grassroots activists want to advocate for combatting antigypsyism, empowering Roma and promoting social inclusion, they have to find new partnerships and new approaches to be effective.

In our Grassroots Advocacy Academy for multipliers, we want to share experiences with advocacy in difficult environments, build capacity for effective advocacy in our membership and support multipliers in organising national or local advocacy trainings for Roma activists.

We invite you to an interactive 5-day programme in a nice environment in Czech Republic to share experiences, learn from each other and together build more capacity to advocate effectively for Roma empowerment.

Objectives:

Explore and analyze different methods, ways and approaches of grassroots advocacy and community organizing
Share knowledge and experiences between ERGO Network members
Equip multipliers with knowledge of EU-driven Roma related policies that can support local advocacy
Equip multipliers with competencies and guiding principles to implement national or local advocacy trainings for Roma activists

Profile of participants:

Staff members or volunteers of (pro-)Roma civil society organisations OR
Staff members or volunteers of human rights organisations or training institutes
Experience in advocacy (and ideally also in capacity-building for advocacy)
Knowledge of Roma issues
Able to communicate in English

Conditions

The participation in the Academy is free thanks to a grant of the International Visegrad Fund and the European Commission’s EaSI programme. ERGO Network will cover the travel and accommodation costs.

We have 20 places. In case more people would like to participate, we will select based on motivation and geographical balance.

The Academy will take place from 23-28 August 2019 (including arrival and departure date)

in Rehlovice close to Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic at: https://penzion-u-svate-barbory.hotel.cz/

Transfer from Prague will be organized.

If you are interested to participate, please register here by 13 June 2019.

Download the call for the ERGO Network Grassroots Academy.

EU Roma Week 2019

From 18-21 March 2019, the fourth EU Roma Week in the European Parliament will take place, with the active involvement of ERGO Network, its members and civil society partners. The Roma Week consists of a series of events discussing the current and future EU Roma rights agenda, hosted by Members of the European Parliament.

It will be preceeded by a Roma Youth Advocacy Training, bringing together over 30 young people to prepare their inputs to the week and learn more about EU advocacy. This five days lasting seminar is organized by ternYpe International Roma Youth Network, ERGO Network, Phiren Amenca and the Documentation and Cultural Centre & Central Council of German Sinti and Roma.

Additionally, civil society representatives will attend a meeting of the Alliance against Antigypsyism.

ERGO Network will be actively participating in the events in the European Parliament. Besides co-organising the panel debate ‘Roma Included: Can the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals contribute to combatting antigypsyism’, ERGO and its members will participate in discussions on the current and future EU Roma Framework and on creating truth and reconciliation commissions.

For more information, please contact info@staging.ergonetwork.org

Annual Members Meeting Tirana, December 8 –12 2018

The ERGO Network 2018 Annual Members Meeting took place on 10-11 December in Tirana to consult members on the update of programmes and initiatives and to enable exchange of experiences and information. In addition the participants discussed the future of ERGO Network and a possible formalization as an association.

During the 1^st day we updated the members about current and future projects and initiatives of ERGO Network and discussed advocacy priorities of ERGO members.

The 2^nd day opened with a breakfast with Marta Garcia Fidalgo,adviser for the coordination of Roma policy at DG NEAR. The breakfast was followed by a video meeting with Soraya Post MEP, the new co-chair of ERGO Network.

Furthermore ERGO member Andras Nun from Autonomia Foundation introduced one of the highlights that we developed in 2018: the transparency and accountability criteria and a board game that supports civil society organisations to implement them.

Then, after reminding ourselves of the 10-years history of ERGO Network and reflecting on the challenges and successes of the organisation, ERGO members discussed the future of the network and a possible formalization as an association under Belgian law.

Moreover they had the opportunity to join working groups that will support ERGO’s work in 2019.

The 2018 Annual Member Meeting ended with a birthday party. The staff of Roma Active Albania prepared an amazing night for the 10 years celebration of ERGO Network. We would like to thank them not only for the party, but for all their help in the preparation and implementation of the Annual Member Meeting!