The project “Nucleo – Activation in Ferentari” is launched, which aims to form an action core consisting of the area’s residents. They will be informed and trained in community development and advocacy, ensuring real access to the rights of the citizens in the neighborhood.
The Ferentari neighborhood continues to represent a marginalized, isolated community whose members often live below the poverty line. The main problem is the fact that many laws and public policies affecting the citizens of the neighborhood are made without consulting them, meaning the impact on the community is often nonexistent and sometimes even negative. In addition to this core, the project will ensure the development of a local action plan created by citizens for citizens and will provide communication bridges with public institutions. The main beneficiaries will be 100 children from the Phillip Home and 50 adults from Ferentari, and the project activities will involve, alongside them, several hundred people from the neighborhood.
The purpose of these actions is to strengthen the ties between the people in the community and to attract other people from other areas of the sector or the capital to the community’s side. The events held, having a community, cultural, and social character, will be designed and put into practice in perfect agreement with the desires of the neighborhood residents, expressed throughout the public consultations during the project.
In addition to events open to the general public, community organizing and advocacy workshops will be organized for community collaborators and future leaders in the community. The ultimate goal of the workshops is to facilitate a better understanding of the efficient ways a core group of people can operate so that they can subsequently achieve the real impact that the Ferentari community needs.
Vulnerable individuals in the target group will be supported through a series of complementary services designed to reduce the gaps produced by social injustice, increase social inclusion, and benefit from an increase in service quality. Thus, for the benefit of the 100 children in the target group, three non-formal education workshops of 12 sessions each will be organized: a civic education workshop, a photography workshop, and an arts & crafts workshop. The 50 adults will benefit from financial education workshops, receiving information on budget management, the pyramid of needs, savings, inflation, and so on, in an informal setting and accessible language. The workshops will be organized twice a month for six months.
Furthermore, the services already created by the partner Foundation Căminul Phillip will be improved, namely the provision of hot meals for children and the granting of hygiene support for people from vulnerable groups. Thus, the existing kitchen will be equipped, and a professional washing machine will be purchased.
Project implemented by the Amfiteatru Foundation in partnership with the Căminul Phillip Foundation and the Respiro Association – Human Rights Research Center with the support of Active Citizens Fund Romania, a program funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway through the EEA Grants 2014-2021. The content of this website does not necessarily represent the official position of the EEA and Norway Grants 2014-2021; for more information, visit https://www.eeagrants.ro/ . Information about the Active Citizens Fund in Romania is available at https://www.activecitizensfund.ro/.