IO3 focused on the planning, preparing, designing and delivering the pilot capacity building programme for formal and non-formal educators supporting Roma women, developed under IO2, as well as on creating a Handbook for non-formal education trainers regarding a holistic approach in working with Roma women. This manual is available online and has been widely disseminated to the relevant public. This deliverable was not initially included in the project proposal and has been created in response to a need identified within the project.
The first task within this IO was the organizing of a 3-day transnational webinar which represented a training of trainers for 10 participants from the partner organizations. They were trained using the content of the educational resource developed within the project, with the purpose of passing down the information to formal and non-formal educators.
Next, the formal and non-formal educators working with Roma women in the four countries of implementation were selected for participating in the pilot delivery of the capacity building programme, in task 3.2. The selection of participants was based on open call for applications, based on a set of criteria, as well as the local network of formal and non-formal educators of each of the partner organization.
Under task 3.3 the pilot delivery of the capacity building programme was carried out in the four countries (Romania, Spain, N. Macedonia and Greece) in the period of July-November 2022. The trainings were organized in a hybrid format (Romania and N. Macedonia) and in-person (Greece and Spain) and their duration was generally of three days. The format and duration of the trainings was adjusted in order to best address the specific needs of the formal and non-formal educators from each country. A total of 54 formal and non-formal educators participated in this programme: 23 in Romania, 11 in Greece, 10 in Spain and 10 North Macedonia.
One of the key innovative elements of this IO was the use of the pilot approach as a technique for testing and validating the capacity building programme in four different national contexts and local communities. Another innovation element was the cascading capacity building methodology employed: the trainees who participated in the transnational training of trainers were then trainers in the national capacity building programs. This has allowed for optimizing the relation between resources invested and the results obtained, especially since the transnational training of trainers took place online, based on the educational programme developed under IO2.
The implementation of this IO has had a significant impact upon formal and non-formal educators of Roma women, who were empowered through their participation in the local capacity-building programme and capacitated to carry out their work in Roma communities. Moreover, the work carried out within this IO also had a positive impact also at institutional and community level, since the newly developed educational tools were introduced to local, national and international stakeholders and will also be used in empowering other communities.
The results of this IO are easily transferable and can be adjusted and replicated in any local setting, throughout the EU and beyond. All the materials are electronically available in English, Greek, Spanish, N. Macedonian and Romanian on the online platform. Information about the program is also provided in Romani language.
At the end of the delivery of this programme, an evaluation of the programme was conducted in each country of implementation, which resulted in a comparative evaluation report. The evaluation confirmed the appropriateness of the capacity building programme, therefore the content did not require adjustments. However, participants formulated recommendations which can improve the application of the course material, namely that training should be delivered over a longer period of time and held by female trainers, so that they are role models and inspire the participants or by former project workers.
