Mobile Team for Roma Inclusion formed in Boljevac
The project "EU Support to Improvement of Living Conditions of Roma" will provide support to the Mobile Team in the preparation of the Local Action Plan for Social Inclusion of Roma. In addition, technical documentation for housing will be prepared
The Municipality of Boljevac has formed a Mobile Team for Roma Inclusion through the project "EU support for the improvement of Roma living conditions". The Team was formed through formal Municipal Decision as a body of Municipal Council. Team has seven members, including the coordinator for Roma issues, representatives of the center for social work, the health center, the national employment service, educational and civil society organizations. The municipality has sent an official letter to each of the institutions and organizations involved in the work of the Mobile Team to appoint members who will represent them in the work of this body.
The mobile team is a kind of "connective tissue" of various institutions engaged on improvement of intersectoral cooperation in Boljevac, and its goal is to ensure better access to services and improved exercise of
In the coming period, the Mobile Team will work on the preparation of a new local action plan (LAP) for the social inclusion of Roma. So far, demographic and socio-economic data on three substandard Roma settlements - Bogovina, Gaj and Lukovo - have been collected, and this information will be used as a basis for needs assessment and preparation of a new LAP. According to the 2011 census report, there were about 2.2%, i.e. 287 members of the Roma population.
The previous LAP adopted by the municipality covered the period from 2014 to 2019 and was a concretization of the strategy of sustainable development of Boljevac, which contributed to improving the living conditions of Roma in the municipality.
The new Local Action Plan will cover the challenges faced by members of the Roma community, and will contain a set of measures and activities that should lead to the improvement of the exercise of rights and increase the social inclusion of Roma. By defining LAP measures, the local self-government will strive to improve the position of Roma in the areas of housing, health, education and employment. The LAP is an organized effort to address complex and numerous Roma issues in the municipality of Boljevac in an efficient manner and with the mobilization of all available human and material resources. The new local action plan will cover the period 2021-2024. years.
The mobile team will receive the full support of the Project during the data collection and during the LAP development process, and through trainings planned for the members of the mobile team, parallel work will be done on raising the capacity of the entire team.
In addition, based on the identified needs of the municipality, a team of experts engaged in the project is working on the preparation of technical documentation for the implementation of housing solutions, ie a residential building with 28 apartments that should accommodate 112 tenants (almost 40% of the total Roma population). In this way, most of the needs of the municipality for the accommodation of Roma families would be solved, all with the aim of improving the living conditions of Roma in Boljevac.