EDU, o.z.

Project Coordinator, Slovakia

The EDU Civic Association was founded on 9 November 2006 in Bratislava. The association contributed to the development of tourism, to the popularisation of local culture, to the creation of its distinctive regional identity and to the support of national and ethnic minorities.

During its existence, the association has also significantly contributed to the development of international contacts between Austria and Slovakia. EDU has been working very closely

with Austrian partners for years, still looking for ways to help and deepen mutual co-operation, which would greatly help the development of tourism in all parts of our region.

The organisation is constantly moving forward and trying to make the most of the hidden Slovak potential. A very important area of EDU’s activities is the support of education and culture of national and ethnic minorities. During its existence, EDU has largely contributed to the support of the Carpathian-German minority in Slovakia.

The founding members of EDU are young and ambitious people with the potential and willingness to fulfill the set goals. EDU’s mission is to make constant efforts to help where needed, especially in areas related to educational activities and activities addressing the problems of national and ethnic minorities living in the Slovak Republic.

EDU is one of the founding members of the Euroregion of the Danube Initiative, which takes care of the development of education, cultural issues and activities addressing the problems of national and ethnic minorities living in the Slovak Republic.

Sukromna stredna odborna skola DSA Trebisov

The beginnings of The Vocational School in Trebišov (DSA) go back to the 1970s when under the name of Vocational school for food processing, trained skilled work force for food processing industry were educated. The changes during the beginning of 1990s required also changes in the school system. The school undergone transformation, and in 1994 the secondary educational school started there. From that year dates the training of students in the field teacher for nursery schools and tutorage. 

Due to changing legislation, the school changed its name twice but the content and realisation of education did not change. From 2008 the name was Secondary vocational school, and it had three study fields.

In 2015, there was a change in the school´s ownership – it went under the DSA and the name changed to Private secondary vocational school DSA. The school educates students in three study fields: Teachers for nursery schools and tutorage, Water industry worker and Biotechnology and pharmacology. Since 2019, the school prepares in the study field teacher for nursery schools and tutorage and in the field water industry workers in dual educational system as well in co-operation with regional employers. 

One of the basic visions of the school is to continue in education in the field of teacher for nursery schools and tutorage. In the moment, the school has 406 students and shows the tendency to grow further. In the past, the school took part in several successful projects in the operational programme Education – the change of traditional school to modern, Golden key for the field teacher for nursery schools and tutorage, BioFar from the field biotechnology and pharmacology, INFOVEK under Slovak government aimed at new attitudes in education with internet, etc. 

Private secondary vocational school DSA in Trebišov actively co-operates with the city of Trebišov, other cities in Košice region, with local regional government, with State institute for vocational education, Ministry of Education, with association of employing unions of the Slovak Republic and other local employers. The school has currently 80 staff members, 50 of which is pedagogical staff and 400 students.

Kontakte für Europa e.V.

KfE was founded in 1998 and aims among others at the statutory purpose of the promotion of education. The association realises projects in the fields environment, education and employment as well as European Citizenship.

Since 2000, it is General Co-ordinator of the Compound of Interests for the Promotion of Economy and Employment in middle and Eastern European Countries with currently 18 members, e.g. local/regional administrations, Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Handicrafts, compounds of enterprises and educational institutions from Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Moldova. In this function, the association initiates, realises and supports the co-operation of enterprises and other stakeholders of economy and of the education and labour market of the named countries through workshops, seminars, contact fairs, information events as well as consultations, trainings and the exchange of experts.

Since its foundation, KfE planned, organised, co-ordinated, implemented and evaluated numerous projects within the European funding programmes INTERREG, TACIS, Leonardo da Vinci, GRUNDTVIG, Youth in Action, Europe for Citizens and ERASMUS+.

Apart from 2 permanent staff members, KfE works with a number of freelancers and volunteers with specific expertise in different sectors. Interdisciplinary co-operation is lived in our organisation and is part of our philosophy.

JUGENDSTIL

JugendStil was founded in 2002 and employs currently five staff members. 

Purpose of the association is the promotion of youth work, of education and mutual understanding between countries. The statutory aim is particularly realised by the implementation of activities at the local/regional, national and European level in the working fields mobility, integration and lifelong learning. Since 2007, the association has been realising projects in the frame of European funding programmes in co-operation with other NGO, educational institutions, regional authorities and relevant stakeholders. Among this were particularly youth exchanges, projects of participative democracy, seminars (Youth in Action), learning partnerships and Workshops (GRUNDTVIG) as well as Transfer of Innovation projects (Leonardo da Vinci). 

The association’s staff could gain according capacity and special technical competences with the management of the Transfer of Innovation project KOMPASS and particularly with the management of the Strategic Partnerships „ROMINKO“ and „The national anchoring of ROMINKO“ and its partnership in the project „YouthCompass“. 

The main target groups of the association are marginalised groups, particularly members of ethnic or national minorities, people with migration background and persons with handicaps.

PANHELLENIC CONFEDERATION OF GREEK POM

ELLAN PASSE, the Panhellenic Confederation of Greek Roma, is the main and most representative entity of the Greek Roma community and comprises 9 regional federations and over 60 associations around Greece. It is the first time ever in Greek history that the vast majority of the Greek Roma community has been represented by a sole organisation. Since its inception in 2016, the Confederation has gradually stood out as the main and most important stakeholder of Greek Roma communities on a both regional and national level, becoming gradually not only a reliable negotiator with national and international stakeholders and authorities, but also a potential policy-maker.

ELLAN PASSE has created a wider network of co-operation with the Special Secretariat for the Social Inclusion of Roma and the recently established General Secretariat of Social

Solidarity and Poverty Alleviation. Moreover it co-operates and interacts with numerous regions and municipalities across Greece, the Ministry of Labour, Social Insurance and Social

Solidarity, the General Secretariat of Trade and Consumer Protection as well as legal entities of public and private law.

ELLAN PASSE has recently become an official member of the Management Authorities of Attica, Epirus and Western Macedonia regions, member of the National Commission for Human Rights and has signed special Memorandums of Understanding in co-operation with the prominent Piraeus University and the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece.

The Confederation has successfully participated in and completed a European project about Roma alphabetisation “RomABC – the next dimension” (Erasmus+) as partner and has nowadays been implementing another important transnational project “The national anchoring of ROMINKO” (Erasmus+) about job market inclusion of vulnerable team members. Moreover, it has initiated and successfully implemented the training and education of Greek Roma in the fields of entrepreneurship, alphabetisation and job market inclusion through the completion of the adult education projects “Thrive I” & “Thrive II” in co-ordination with the National Scholarship Foundation.

Apart from transnational projects, ELLAN PASSE has acted as associated partner on many regional and national projects, campaigns and actions in Athens, Thessaloniki, Central and Western Greece concerning housing, education, employment and healthcare of Roma populations.

These programmes and actions aim to inform, raise awareness and support the improvement of Greek Roma living standards and their participation in the labour market, the enhancement of school participation, alphabetisation and lifelong training, improvement of healthcare access, the gradual reduction and final elimination of early-marriages as well as the promotion of Roma participation in local and national governance. The participation in these projects and their implementation is based on the actual mobilisation and participation of Roma community members and their local and regional entities, such as its member Federations, Greek Roma Mediators Association as well as numerous local Roma and non- Roma associations and NGOs.

ELLAN PASSE believes that the detailed recording of Roma populations and their problems is the first and most critical step towards the implementation of effective Roma integration

policies. In this direction, the confederation has repeatedly called on the Greek state to conduct bigger and more detailed censuses on Roma populations throughout Greece. In addition to this, ELLAN PASSE has successfully conducted population censuses in some of the most important Roma communities throughout Greece (e.g. Efkarpia, Delta, Megara, Veroia, etc.), in close co-operation with the local and regional authorities. Beside this, in the framework of European programmes, members of ELLAN PASSE have conducted more specialised surveys and questionnaires in Greek Roma communities (e. g. school customs and experiences, motivation in adult education, access to healthcare). Those actions, campaigns and surveys have covered numerous critical Greek Roma issues such as their living standards, health care access and their participation and collaboration with local, regional and national governance entities. 

Ellan Passe, headquartered in the center of Athens, operates on a daily basis, with paid staff (scientific associate, legal advisor, accountant), the 15-member board and a wide network of volunteers throughout Greece.

DIMOS CHALANDRIOU

The social service of the Municipality of Halandri employs a total of 57 persons distributed in different areas such as 12 persons in the Preventive Medicine Counselling Center, 4 persons in the Social Grocery, 2 persons in the Social Pharmacy, a bureau for the empowerment of unemployed persons, 4 women in the Women’s Counselling Centre, 7 in the Roma Community Centre, Centre for the Protection of Elderly 17 persons, etc.

At the same time, groups of volunteers implement activities, such as free foreign language courses, food and clothing collection for special population groups, etc.

Humán Eröforrásért Egyesület Dél-Alföldi Régió

HEEDA was founded in 2001. Its general statutory aims are the promotion of the idea of European union, of the European integration process, the social dialogue, the adoption of living conditions in Europe, the integration and re-integration of disadvantaged groups, of human resources, the environment and natural resources, of economy, an active citizenship as well as cross-border co-operation. For the implementation of this purpose, 10 staff members work currently in 4 departments:

1. Mobility (Youth Centre organising youth exchanges, camps)

2. Education (Education Centre implementing seminars, workshops, further educations, strategic partnerships)

3. Environment (Competence Centre for Regenerative Energies und Energy Saving Measures offering trainings, project days for schools, workshops)

4. Competence Balance (Competence Balance Centre providing Competence Balance for young and adult Roma)

As applicant or partner, HEEDA has already been involved in projects in the frame of Youth in Action, TACIS IBPP, TACIS CBC SPF, Leonardo da Vinci, GRUNDTVIG as well as Europe for Citizens and ERASMUS+. HEEDA is foundation member of the Network „Mentors of Europe’s Diversity“ with currently 33 members from 15 countries.

SPEHA FRESIA SC

Speha Fresia, a non-profit co-operative, acts since 1983 at national level in the fields of lifelong learning, labour active policies, local sustainable development and social research. By integrating its professional competences with a wide network of public and private institutions, it has been committed in European projects since 1996 (Now, Youthstart, Horizon Initiatives). Since then, Speha Fresia has exploited the European opportunities and the transnational co-operation in the function of “Research & Development”, with the aims at

sharing knowledge, best practices, developing innovative methods and tools, in order to improve the quality of our local services provision. The co-operative is registered at the National Registry Of Research to the senses of the artts. 63 and 64 of the D.P.R. n. 382/80 with the code G02900BT. The research area is targeted to sustain knowledge-based innovative devices and to valorise the best practices in the fields of the social economy, of local development (smart, sustainable and inclusive), of training and lifelong learning policies.

The preference for the qualitative research has influenced the different areas of activity, focusing its attention on participatory practices in the community empowerment, and on narrative and self-biography methods in guidance, training and adult education. It is conformed to the Quality Management Standard UNI EN ISO 9001:2008, as regards:

Guidance Counselling,

Service for local development,

Design of systemic measures in support of disadvantaged groups,

Social research,

Continuous vocational training,

Lifelong learning.

It is a certified body for guidance and training in the Regions of Latium and Sicily, and at local level organises continuous vocational training courses for workers funded by interprofessional funds.

In the Region Latium, Speha Fresia is also accredited as Employment Services Agency, particularly engaged in the labour market inclusion of young people (Youth Guarantee), refugees (also with separated children +16 year old) and for workers fired from their jobs. It is also a certified body and on the short list of the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Welfare to work with people with migrant background (Immigration General Directorate from 07/03/07 – n° A/465/2007/RM), and it is recognised by UNAR of the Ministry Council Presidency – Equal opportunity Department as body engaged into the fight against all forms of discrimination.

The co-operative is associated to Legacoop, one of the biggest trade associations of co-operatives in Italy. The local networks are composed by other co-operative companies, mainly those engaged in social-educational and inclusion policies, by associations and public bodies (districts of Rome, employment services, schools and universities), by trade organisations, and by gender associations committed to fight against the domestic violence. Similar networks are also active out of the region Latium, e.g. in Sicily, where we have our secondary seat.

Speha Fresia’s partners are 14 (7 women and 7 men), 11 of them compose the company stable staff (7 women and 4 men), with 2 part-time employees. The overall staff is composed by 70 certified professionals, among tutors, guidance counsellors, trainers, experts and researchers. The main governance organ is the Members’ Assembly committed in voting the composition of the company Board, composed by 3 members, and the president of the Board is the legal representative of the co-operative. In 2019, we had more than 1,000 adult participants to our local training activities and we were involved in six new Erasmus+ projects, we were committed in closing two projects, one as leading partner (VAL.oR.) and the other as partner of a French organisation (ENGAGE), and progressing with a third one ending by August 2020 (BizMiz).

Asociatia pentru Educatie si Dezvoltare Durabila

Association for Education and Sustainable Development (AESD) is an educational centre and its main activities are; the implementation of formal and informal lifelong education courses; building an organised system of consulting throughout its region; and the management and provision of information and training. AESD’s goal is to promote lifelong learning in society in order to facilitate the growth of active citizenship; increased social cohesion and higher levels of employment for all age groups.

One of the key activities of the association is the on-going analysis of the needs of the region and the structuring and establishing of a network of local centres for distance learning. It pursues this strategy to ensure that quality education provision can be easily accessed in even the most disadvantaged areas. The association compliments the mainstream educational network that already exists offering more flexible, individually tailored and market focussed courses for the lifelong learning of adults. One of the goals of our association is to give marginalised adults access to lifelong learning and access to current job experience in order to help them obtain (fixed) employment in the long term. The City of Calarasi, where AESD is based, is one of the least developed regions of Romania.

In the long run, AESD hopes for an improvement in the professional and training competences of adult educators, teachers and trainers who provide services to Roma, acquisition of new training competences aimed to train the learners with reference to creativity and transversal competences.

Open University Subotica Ltd.

Open University Subotica (OUS) is one of the leading institutions in adult education and organisation of cultural events in Serbia (OUS is the executive producer/organiser of two famous and relevant Festivals – European Film Festival Palic and International festival of children’s theatres Subotica – 27th edition of both festivals will be organised this year).

Open University Subotica is an institution which has years-long experience in education and lifelong learning through the organisation of education courses, seminars, workshops, public debates, research activities and creation of strategic documents. Our institution has been one of the leading institutions for research, development and innovation activities, nonformal education and training in Serbia for more than 65 years (in period before year 1992, OUS was known as Workers university for adult education).

Programmes and projects of our institution emphasise especially constant education, (self)-engagement and (self)-employment, entrepreneurship and SMEs development, ideas and

initiatives of sustainable development and different contents of (inter)national co-operation. It has 25 employees and over 500 associates engaged in different programme activities. Promoting the concept of lifelong learning, OUS offers a wide spectrum of educational contents and forms to users from various social groups. The offered range of the programmes for acquisition and improvement of knowledge and skills is formed on the basis of constant monitoring of contemporary trends and the latest methodological approaches to the

teaching process, but also in response to the identified needs of the users.

The widespread network of domestic and foreign partner institutions in the field of adult education greatly contributes to development and innovation of the programme contents of the Open University. The offer of the Open University Subotica consists of over fifty programmes systematised into 5 programme units:

School of Foreign Languages,

School of Computers,

School of Occupations,

School of Beauty and

School of Business Skills.

In order for education to be conducted at a high quality level, special attention is devoted to continual modernisation of the technology and facilities and to engagement of the best experts in particular fields, thus providing attendees with acquisition of quality theoretical and practical knowledge and skills. Apart from the great number of individual attendees, the proof of the quality is also a significant number of training courses held for the public institutions, as well as for the ever-growing number of private companies in the surrounding area.

Constant improvement of human resources is one of the key factors of the sustainable economic and social development necessary for the successful business and market positioning of each economic operator. For this reason, the Business to Business (B2B) programme offer is distinguished as a separate unit within the OUS. Through these programmes, companies in the surrounding area are offered a variety of specialised programmes and innovations of knowledge which are tailored to their specific needs.

OUS is situated in the centre of Subotica, has its own 2500 m2 building with 2 amphitheatres, 4 conference halls and 20 classrooms for different types of courses, seminars and workshops.