Czech Govt Agency for Social Inclusion introduces itself to Romani coordinators in South Moravia

Representatives of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion attended last week’s meeting of Romani advisers from communities throughout the South Moravian Region in order to introduce the opportunities for support that the Agency is able to offer to local governments. The representatives illustrated their activity using specific cases of localities already collaborating with the Agency.

 “To introduce the localities where we are working we chose Brno and Břeclav, which are the only two cities in the South Moravian Region where the Agency has already been providing comprehensive, intensive support for several years now. In both cities the Agency is currently already implementing projects that arose within the framework of the Coordinated Approach to Socially Excluded Localities and those projects are succeeding rather well,” the Agency’s Brno-based local consultant Zdeňka Slámová explained the purpose of the meeting.

“We would like to offer our cooperation to other municipalities that would like to actively take an interest in subjects such as, for example, housing, employment, education, safety, debt and other matters, but frequently do not know how to effectively address problems in those areas,” she said. Collaboration with the Agency is not restricted just to municipalities already grappling with the existence of an excluded locality on their territory.

According to Agency representatives, it is important that municipalities of all sizes know about the possible expert support that exists, including those that frequently may be addressing just one of the above-mentioned subjects, or those that want to be prepared to know how to actively respond in time to new problems that could arise. “It is clear to us that the Romani advisers, in their positions as bureaucrats, are not able to decide about any eventual cooperation between the Agency and a municipality, but they can offer the local political representation their own specific knowledge of existing problems and contacts to those who can aid with resolving them,” commented Markéta Chkheidze, a local intervention methodological support person with the Agency.