Loose Ends

Intro

The ‘Loose Ends’ project is an international collaboration of three civil society organizations from Eastern-Europe engaged in education, social work and/or advocacy. The strategic partnership is financed by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.

As evidenced by several studies and reports Roma children are overrepresented in lower social stratas, are more vulnerable regarding early school leaving (ESL) and often children of Roma families find themselves in segregated educational institutions. Our project is a follow up of the research conducted by Együttható Egyesület and Nevo Parudimos in the frames of the LEADNFL project mapping ESL patterns in segregated communities and is aiming to collect and analyse data in a very specific way of segregation: educating Roma children with special needs in special schools. Althought in most of the cases the diagnosis justifying special education is valid, the socio-economic reasons behind an underperforming child are not taken into consideration. Attention-deficit or intellectual disabilities might well be the results of lacking access to healthcare and early childhood development, while the lack of social capital and financial resources may result in families lacking access to existing support structures in the later stages of development (i.e. specific development, youth services, labour market services, etc). The lack of access results in the circle of poverty and marginalisation on an even larger level, as the individual is stigmatized both because of ethnicity and because of disability.
Együttható has been running an afterschool in Gyöngyös since 2014, providing daily youth work for disadvantaged youth. The programme is aimed at children and young people aged 5-23 living the local segregated areas. In the process of first interviews with the students and their families we’ve learnt that almost all have young parents under 30 years old who were once enrolled in the local special education school. ’Loose Ends’ wanted to get to know better their life situation, their needs, their past, and then build on this to develop services for young people that could support their development, improve their position in the labour market.
The research programmes in Romania and Macedonia were born out of a similar need, with a focus on identifying the problem.

Our 24 months long project aimed to

• understand the reasons, associated life-paths and the consequences of education in such institutions by condicting, analysing and publishing 25 in-depth interviews/country involing stakeholders
• formulate policy reform recommendations by an expert panel, on the grounds of our findings addressed at national and European decision makers, highlighting the importance of secondary support structures in the form of youth organizations and their toolkits
• raising awareness on the issue amongst representatives, professionals and decision-makers of the sectors of formal education, secondary youth services, child protection structures, government administration

Activities of the project

• Organized 10 transnational meetings, 5 of them being online
• Developed Intellectual output 1 – analysis of more than 75 in-depth interviews in 3 countries, three studies published in national language and English
• Developed Intellectual output 2 – policy recommendations by an expert panel,4 set of recommendations, in national languages and english
• Organized 3 Conferences in Hungary, North-Macedonia and Romania
• wide dissemination activities

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Research

In the last few years there is less and less knowledge about the situation of the school integration of disadvantaged and / or Roma students in special education institutions. The desegregation efforts following the accession to the European Union - in case of Hungary, Romania and North Macedonia-, as well as the integration of Roma children in schools in general, did not fully promote the integration of Roma and disadvantaged children who has learning difficulties.

As evidenced by several studies and reports Roma children are overrepresented in lower social stratas, are more vulnerable regarding early school leaving (ESL) and often children of Roma families find themselves in segregated educational institutions. Our project is a follow up of the research conducted by Együttható Egyesület and Nevo Parudimos in the frames of the LEADNFL project mapping ESL patterns in segregated communities and is aiming to collect and analyse data in a very specific way of segregation: educating Roma children with special needs in special schools.

Results: What concrete outputs and other results did your project produce? The main aim was to make visible, as a result of the 75 interviews, the difficulties encountered by the young people involved in the research, regardless of their location. It can be said that, regardless of their place of residence, they live in poverty, on the margins of society, often characterised by unemployment and lack of access to services. They were placed in a special educational institution because of their poverty and the resulting disadvantage. The Romanian and Macedonian samples show that in many cases there were not only members of the Roma minority, but also members of other linguistic minorities, whose language was used, for example, Hungarian or Albanian mixed with Roma languages, which made integration at school difficult. In the special education institutions they tried to address these linguistic disadvantages. The project managed to achieve all its objectives and published the results.

Downloadable documents

Research Reports and Policy Recommendations - Hungary
Research report on Hungary - language: Hungarian
Research report on Hungary - language: English
Policy proposals for Hungary - language: Hungarian
Policy proposals fpr Hungary - language: English

Research Reports and Policy Recommendations - Romania
Research report on Romania - language: Romanian
Research report on Romania - language: English
Policy proposals for Romania - language: Romanian
Policy proposals fpr Romania - language: English

Research Reports and Policy Recommendations - North Macedonia
Research report on North Macedonia - language: Macedonian
Research report on North Macedonia - language: English
Policy proposals for North Macedonia - language: Macedonian
Policy proposals for North Macedonia - language: English

Joint Policy proposals - language: English

Partnership

Együttható was founded by social professionals, and enthusiastic young volunteers in 2010 to promote non-formal learning, innovative community services and a new way of thinking in youth and social work. It operates a youth information office in the 4th district of Budapest and an afterschool located in Gyöngyös. Inclusion of young people living with disabilities is an important objective at Hatáspont Tanoda - more than 20% of enrolled students are living with disabilites, including Autism Spectrum Disorder. Apart from individual tutoring and applying special pedagogy, non-formal education is a key method in developing soft-skills of our students.

RROMA is a youth-led organizaton that works on empowerment and mobilization of young Roma through creative methods and campaigning in order for them to become active citizens and positive role models in their communities. RROMA works on the personal development of young Roma through non-formal education, also on the advocacy of young Roma to remain enrolled in the process of education. RROMA is active in the North-eastern region of the Republic of Macedonia.

Nevo Parudimos Association is a nonprofit apolitical organization which was founded by a group of teachers, Roma activists and Roma students from Caras-Severin county, in the south-west of Romania in 2008. The aim of the Nevo Parudimos association is to decrease the economic, social, educational and cultural differences in the society. The organization is recognized in disadvantaged and Roma people’s inclusion projects. Nevo Parudimos is the first NGO promoting in Romania the CLLD principles and the bottom up approach in planning and developing local development programs and since 4 years we make lobby and support local people to have a voice in order to be equal partners in the decision making process at local level.

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Downloads

Research Reports and Policy Recommendations - Hungary
Research report on Hungary - language: Hungarian
Research report on Hungary - language: English
Policy proposals for Hungary - language: Hungarian
Policy proposals fpr Hungary - language: English

Research Reports and Policy Recommendations - Romania
Research report on Romania - language: Romanian
Research report on Romania - language: English
Policy proposals for Romania - language: Romanian
Policy proposals fpr Romania - language: English

Research Reports and Policy Recommendations - North Macedonia
Research report on North Macedonia - language: Macedonian
Research report on North Macedonia - language: English
Policy proposals for North Macedonia - language: Macedonian
Policy proposals for North Macedonia - language: English

Joint Policy proposals - language: English

Contact us

Questions? Feel free to contact us!
National coordinators of the project:

Balázs Nemesnyik, Együttható Egyesület, Hungary, info@egyutthato.eu
Urmeta Arifovska, RROMA, North-Macedonia, info@rromassn.org
Büşra Akdoğan, Nevo Parudimos, Romania, nevoparudimos@yahoo.com

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Download the results of our project

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