Sokolov, Czech Republic: Collaboration with Agency for Social Inclusion has not met expectations and will end

Both sides came to the conclusion that their mutual expectations have not been fulfilled. Vice-Mayor Jan Picka (Choice for the Region – VOK) told journalists he believes the Agency staff have not been active enough in their case, while the Agency leadership said the town took too little advantage of the capacity of Agency staff and kept no track of any improvements or outputs of their collaboration, as Agency Director Martin Šimáček told the Czech News Agency (ČTK).

“The main reason is that we expected much more from our collaboration with the Agency for Social Inclusion in particular. I anticipated a reduction in the number of the so-called socially excluded localities, which did not happen. I also expected that cooperating with the Agency would aid us much more than it has with investing into properties designated for use by groups who are socially weak, which also did not happen,” Picka said.

The vice-mayor mentioned the recent COVID-19 situation, which ended the activity of nonprofits in social services in the Sokolov area, leaving most of their agenda on the shoulders of the local police and the municipal social welfare department. According to him, the Agency did not aid the town during those crucial moments in any fundamental way.

Picka said the town has considered ending its collaboration with the Agency more than once and that both parties have now agreed to do so. The decision still has to be approved by the local assembly.

The vice-mayor stressed that the Agency has aided the local police with developing projects to finance more crime prevention assistants. Šimáček concurred with that evaluation.

In an interview with ČTK, the Agency director said communication between the two parties had not worked very well. He assessed the collaboration with the town as having been dead for some time.

The Agency, according to the director, chiefly communicated with local police staff. He also said that since 2011, when the collaboration began before it was interrupted between 2014 and 2016, many things have managed to be successfully started or even completed in Sokolov.

“Recently we have been quite active and initiatory, last year we noted that Sokolov still assumes it will elaborate its own concept for developing housing and we offered our capacities and expert support for that, which means we could inform them how to respect the needs of potentially homeless people and those in social exclusion so as to increase the general affordability of housing in the town,” the director told ČTK. It is up to the town whether to implement such a project or not, he said.

Another such project that the ASZ director claimed is almost ready and could be completed by the town is the opening of an advisory center on debt. In Sokolov, 7.7 % of residents are struggling with at least one collections proceeding.

An expert advisory service could help people avoid falling into debt and advise those in such a situation on how to get out of it. The Agency has opened similar advisory services in collaboration with towns in other regions, such as in Liberec or Ostrava.

Šimáček said the utility of such services has long been attested. Without official collaboration or connections with Sokolov, the Agency will not be developing any future activities there.

Šimáček said other towns in the Karlovy Vary Region have also recently ended their collaborations with the ASZ for different reasons. This year the towns of Kraslice and Vřesová have ceased cooperation, last year the towns of Chodov and Rotava did so.

On the other hand, Šimáček highly praised the development of the Agency’s collaboration with the town of Aš. The ASZ is a department of the Czech Ministry for Regional Development.

The unit is an expert instrument of the Government for arranging support for social inclusion. The Agency mainly serves to support territorial self-governing units at all levels with the social integration of people at risk of social exclusion or already living in such exclusion.

The ASZ is meant to aid with reducing the number of socially excluded localities throughout the country. An entire neighborhood can be considered such a locality, as can a single property or street where social problems are concentrated.

Most residents usually perceive such places as problematic. Excluded localities are very often inhabited by groups whose members have limited access to education or employment.

Such people are frequently involved in many collection proceedings. The ASZ was created in January 2008 by the Office of the Government and has been part of the Ministry for Regional Development since 2020.