The project “Nucleo – Activation in Ferentari,” carried out between May 24, 2021, and December 31, 2022, by the Amfiteatru Foundation in partnership with the Căminul Phillip Foundation and the Respiro Association – Human Rights Research Center, aimed to form an action core that, through the involvement of the area’s residents, would facilitate general access to the rights of the citizens in the neighborhood.
The Amfiteatru Foundation focuses on the development of programs and partnerships at the local level and integrated approaches with a social purpose, to provide communities with solutions and support. The experience accumulated within them led to the drafting of a public policy with an impact at the level of the Ferentari community and its submission for approval to the Sector 5 Town Hall at the end of 2022.
Over the course of the eight months, the community action core in Ferentari established objectives, activities, and directions of action, succeeding with few resources in solving a series of specific needs that had not found a solution from the authorities for a very long time. Through the analysis of community needs, it was concluded that the only way things can improve in the community is through the intervention of local institutions that actively involve individuals in civic issues.
Community leaders conducted a needs analysis with a major impact at the community level, subsequently prioritized during meetings in the territory. The goal was to find solutions that would satisfy all residents. Through the vote of the people in Ferentari, a series of glaring and constant shortages spanning more than 20 years were highlighted: legal assistance, psychological counseling, programs dedicated to substance users, medical assistance, and programs dedicated to children. Thus, the idea of an integrated community center took shape, starting from the reality that, to truly help the people in the community, an organized framework, a dedicated space, with qualified personnel, is needed.
The community center will be able to offer health and prevention services, educational, information, and counseling services, while also representing a social and recreational space for the people in the community. Access to these services must be constant and long-term, ensuring continuity.
With the help of a public policy consultant, using recent data and qualitative data collected from the neighborhood, the foundational text for the establishment of this integrated community center was drafted. The draft document was submitted for consultation to civil society partners, and the final text and supporting signatures collected by community leaders in the neighborhood were submitted in December to the Town Hall of Sector 5 of Bucharest Municipality. Based on this, in the last month of 2022, community leaders held discussions with political decision-makers in the Sector 5 Town Hall, with representatives of all political parties interested in this initiative: PNL, PSD, and USR.
The roles that emerged from the meetings so far are, for the community – to identify the appropriate space for the community center in Ferentari, and for the Sector 5 Town Hall – to establish and ensure through a local council resolution everything that means costs for this center: construction, land acquisition, services.