ENSA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Klagenfurt 7-8 June 2011

Social Inclusion network

2010 - 2011 report of activities

Overview Social inclusion represents one of the pillars of

European society, as it is the foundation for social cohesion and development

It represents an area of major work for local authorities who can learn and improve services from joint work and sharing good practices

In the current year, participation of civil society, volunteer work and combating poverty are high in the EU agenda

Social inclusion and economic inclusion and empowerment are critical in times of global crisis and demographic changes

ENSA INCLUSION

In a diverse and changing society, inclusion of different categories of persons has been the focus of activities: Migrants Minorities Ageing people Other groups at risk

Inclusion is in fact a cross- thematic group, whose approach intersects with the other groups, the activities have been: Networking Search for partners Project implementation Project design

Joint EC-UN Initiative on migration and development

Networking and participation of local authorities

Mapping of good practices on M&D of EU and third country local authorities

Mobilization of a network of local authoritiesPeer review and draft of policy recommendations

to local authorities Publication of a final report and high-level

conference held in Brussels at the CoR (November 24th,2010)

+ RESPECT

+ RESPECT : participation and anti discrimination awareness raising of ROMA people in Europe

Focus on regional and local authorities Works on:

knowledge and capacity building of authorities by building participatory tools for inclusion and participation of ROMA people

Development of education curricula for schools Awareness for media professionals Empowerment of ROMA communities Multimedia communication tools to combat anti-ROMA

feelings and raise awareness

Areas of common interest

Sharing good practices on social inclusion Networking with other regions and

experiences (links to different projects working on sharing and transferring practice: PEOPLE, G4G, DART)

Organization of conference in March, in Venice concurrently to promote ENSA in the +Respect project)

More joint project design enlarging target groups (people of all walks of life affected by the crisis, including families) 2 projects awaiting for approval

Synergies with other thematic networks