Objectives
The overall aim of the project is to improve the access to basic and quality social services for 150 immigrants (asylum seekers and beneficiaries of a form of protection in Romania).
Specific objectives:
1. Developing in the first month of the project an assistance program that meets the needs of beneficiaries, that is complementary to the services offered by GII and is correlated with the development and application of appropriate tools for social assistance in accordance with legal standards;
2. Providing a kit of integrated services among 150 asylum seekers and beneficiaries of a form of protection in Romania, focusing on vulnerable groups (unaccompanied children, single mothers, disabled persons, elderly unaccompanied persons);
3. Increased access to complex educational services for 50 children from GII centers or in foster care by participating in an educational program conducted during the school year;
4. Increasing opportunities for integration and improving living standards by developing in the first 3 months of project of a support network project for 15 single mothers from among the target group and their families;
5. Increased access to social insertion services for 4 persons with disabilities in the target group, by developing employability workshops twice a month;
6. Improving living conditions for 30 people without financial possibilities from the target group (elderly, relocated refugees, etc.) by integrating them in the socio-medical units or access to rented housing;
7. Increasing employability opportunities in the labor market in the first 6 months of the project for 25 people who have received a legal form of protection in Romania;
8. Developing the skills of 50 employees who are involved in the provision of services to the project beneficiaries (social workers, psychologists, GII officers, medical personnel, personal care)in order to provide quality services, through monthly training sessions aimed at understanding the needs and peculiarities of socio -psiho-cultural direct beneficiaries of the project and by training in the social field;
9. Providing equal opportunities for 150 people in the target group and preventing their discrimination within the community and various institutions they come in contact with;
10. Strengthening an inter-network for supporting and monitoring the target group of the project by attracting at least 10 partners / collaborators (public and private) until project completion;
11. Increasing inter-connections and community awareness to the issue of refugees by organizing monthly cultural and artistic events in which will be involved at least 30 persons from the target group;
12. Increasing the capacity of granting effective social services to the target group, following an exchange of experience and good practices during a visit to a donor country or in the EU for a team of representatives of the applicant and partners;
13. Organizational Development Objective 1: Developing organizational human resources by attracting at least 20 new volunteers and by the access of the staff and volunteers to at least 3 training courses / trainings throughout the project;
14. Organizational Development Objective 2: Providing, at the organization level, during the project, at least 3 types of new social services.
Beneficiaries of the project are:
– 150 vulnerable immigrants, people who obtained a form of protection in Romania or asylum seekers;
80 of these persons are housed in the Centre for Accommodation and Procedures for Asylum Seekers, subordinated to GII Bucharest; 10 are minor unaccompanied children living currently in foster care and family centres subordinated to DGASMB; and the rest are refugees or asylum seekers registered at GII who did not request accommodation in the centers of the Inspectorate. Most of them are Siryan refugees, plus about 40 persons from Burma (resettled refugees), facing great integration difficulties. Other refugees are from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Sudan and other countries in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. Over half of these people show other forms of vulnerability, having a poor economic situation or being part of groups at risk (minors, unaccompanied minors, disabled people, elderly persons, pregnant women, single parents with their minor children, victims of human trafficking, persons with mental disorders, persons who have undergone torture, rape or other serious forms of psychological, physical or sexual violence, or being under other special circumstances similar to those mentioned).
Children, especially, are very affected, given the fact that, besides the negative effects of family separation and refugee status, are added the effects of institutionalization in orphanages where conditions for integration are major, and they are often rejected and in many cases it happens to run away. Access to education for children and also to vocational training courses is low, because of language and cultural barriers and also because of the lack of knowledge of the opportunities they can access. Most beneficiaries that are able to work encounter major obstacles in terms of employment. Many of them claim difficulties in cultural adaptation, respect for their habits, problems of discrimination and intolerance. Most of them also do not access services they could benefit from, especially because they are not aware of these services, who is providing them, and what are the procedures in order to access them; besides all of these they have a strong reluctance due to the fear and insecurity to find themselves in an alien space , often perceived as hostile.
The project approaches the issue of vulnerable groups of refugees and asylum seekers, especially the ease of their access to quality social services and how these services can be adjusted to meet the needs of the target group, maintaining in the main timeits quality standards .
What we are proposing within the project is that social services be offered as an integrated kit, covering all areas of interest (social, educational, labor market integration, psychological, medical, anti-discrimination); such an integrated approach, offered exactly at the place in which the refugees and asylum seekers are housed, increases the opportunities of their access to the services.
The beneficiaries of the project will be selected on the recommendations of the General Inspectorate for Immigration, primarily from the Center for accommodation and procedures for asylum seekers and between the persons in the GII database, living outside centers. Concerning refugee children, in the selection process, in addition to GII, will be also consulted GDSCCP in order to obtain information regarding the centers in which the children are living, and also socio-behavioral details and integration details, etc.
The beneficiaries are mainly engaged in person in providing social, psychological, educational, medical, and legal services ( by nurses and social workers), and by GII officers integration. There are also aimed representatives of agencies concerned with employment, professional trainers and prospective employers. The main activities in which these beneficiaries will be involved refer to trainings, round tables, presentations and seminars in which:
– Will acquire new skills regarding working with asylum seekers and refugees;
– Will gain information on the status of the main beneficiaries of the project and difficulties that they are facing;
– Will develop a non discriminative attitude, of acceptance of cultural diversity and to adapt to the target group;
– Will participate in the development of strategic directions which will allow to increase the acces of the project envisaged group to social services and higher chances of integration;
– Will participate in professional training courses certified in social work, multicultural communications, management of issues and interaction with vulnerable people in providing quality social services.