WHAT IS ROMA MATRIX?

Roma MATRIX is a European project which is combatting racism, intolerance and xenophobia towards Roma and to working to increase integration, though a programme of action across Europe. Roma MATRIX is a partnership of 20 organisations in 10 EU member states. The project will run for two years. It started in April 2013 and runs until March 2015. It is co-funded by the European Union’s Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Programme.

Roma MATRIX is a cross-sector partnership: it includes local and regional authorities, non-governmental organisations, the private sector and two universities. The partnership includes Roma-led organisations and Roma staff working in other organisations to shape the direction of the work. There are 13 activities in Roma MATRIX across four main areas of work and each organisation is focusing on different aspects of the project in their region.

 

WHAT IS ROMA MATRIX DOING ACROSS EUROPE?

The 4 main areas of work in Roma MATRIX are as follows.

Fostering mutual understanding
Roma MATRIX partners are using cross-community mediation to work with communities to improve integration and reduce discrimination. Partners are carrying out extensive work with Roma and non-Roma children and their families and providing support for young people leaving care. Roma MATRIX is supporting Roma women to become health mediators within their own communities and developing employment programmes to improve the employment and employability of Roma people.
 

Countering stereotypes and raising awareness of racism
Roma MATRIX is promoting positive images of Roma people in various ways, including, developing public media campaigns, mentoring Roma in public authorities, and raising awareness through our partners’ extensive networks.
 

Improving redress, reporting and support mechanisms for Roma experiencing racism and xenophobia
The project is providing support to individual Roma suffering from racism and discrimination, and resolving and providing adequate redress for individual cases. Partners are working to improve the understanding of Roma people about their rights, redress mechanisms and reporting, by providing them with more and better information. There is also work to improve redress mechanisms within law enforcement and judicial authorities.
 

Understanding and analysing racism
The Universities of Salford and York are leading a major research programme looking at how the national strategies for Roma integration are being implemented within the ten partner countries.

WHAT WHEEL OF FUTURE FOUNDATION WILL BE DOING?

1. A network will be set up in order to help Roma people to tackle discrimination in their everyday life. The members will be trained with a special focus on educational discrimination.
2. Workshops will be held for Roma experiencing discrimination.
3. Antidiscrimination trainings are given to workers of municipalities in order to improve redress mechanisms.
4. Roma, working for public authorities, are mentored for a 12-month period.
5. A network of experts of multidisciplinary fields are set up to analyse the effective tools of antidiscrimination campaigns.
6. 5 short films as positive images of Roma people are created and distributed through public and commercial TV channels.
7. Parallel to the distribution of the short films mentioned above, a billboard campaign is organized to tackle discrimination and racism against Roma.

For more information, contact
Attila Mészáros
Email: meszaros.attila@jovokerek.hu