In the period April 13-16 in the OP "Youth Center Plovdiv" was held a national training seminar for organizations working with vulnerable groups. The event was officially opened by Georgi Tityukov - Deputy Mayor for Sports, Youth Activities and Social Policy and Maria Vasileva-Valova (Maria Valova) - Director of the External and European Programs Directorate.
During the preparation and implementation of the seminar, the team of the center was supported by Alexandra Raykova - a certified trainer at the Council of Europe.
The program was divided into two modules to meet the needs of professionals in several different fields,
The first was attended by health mediators from across the country, who discussed the main challenges and difficulties in working with vulnerable groups.
The main goal was to improve the connection between the various programs aimed at inclusion, equality and participation of people from the Roma community, the opportunities for inclusion of Roma youth in training programs and projects of youth centers. They discussed the challenges and difficulties in the field work, as well as joint activities of the youth centers in the country.
The second part of the seminar was aimed at educational mediators, principals, teachers and representatives of non-governmental organizations from all over the country. The main objectives of the two-day module were: defining policies, programs and activities for the empowerment of Roma women at local and national level and improving the cooperation of youth centers in the country to plan specific joint initiatives on the topic.
During the four days of the seminar, workers from more than 30 settlements took part and as a result of round tables, discussions and sessions, good practices from the experience of mediators were presented, as well as general guidelines for several joint activities between participants.
The seminar is implemented as part of the project "Youth Center Plovdiv - a powerful factor for local development" under the Local Development Program, funded by the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area 2014-2021.