Participation and empowering: A hope for a country

1. Participation and empowering: A hope for a country Gyula BODÓ-TÓTH

2. Participation and empowering ● Romanian law, overview Participation and empowering are in fact an ownership problem. Main theme: who owns the social service? ● Some national policies in place since the 90's but implementation was crippled by buerocracy, inefficient state-run institutes, lack of public interest and understandig. ● A shift in national policy is in place since the european adherence process, still not completely implemented – it would need a wider social and economic change than just produce policy drafts. ● The most important facet of this shift is ceasing the state control on all levels of social care to third party actors, most importantly NGO-s.

3. Participation and empowering ● Romanian law, the situation now Most explicit part of current legislation regarding minimal conditions for government certification of social care institutes: ● Beneficiary implication on all organisational levels with the care provider, which needs to be re-assessed regularly ●Identify and build procedures to involve the beneficiaries in institutional policy making ●Beneficiaries need to be involved in new program/initiative launching within the organisation ●Promote the involvement of beneficiaries in social and economical life of the target community ●Promote the involvement of the target community in program's sustaining and developing There are working laws and conditions in place to obtain state financing for social programs, though not complete and not all the essential needs. Ongoing debate: draft law for state financing of church-run social institutes

4. Participation and empowering ● Local initiatives The overall role of NGO-s is increasing on the social field A country with no NGO culture, nor ownership philosophy – we need to re-invent many things people just “dont'get” „NGO effect” a fact in the region, Caritas Alba Iulia holds a leading position by beneficiar's numbers and size of activity. Some regions of the country seriously lag behing. Vectors of participation and empowering implemented by NGO-s: ●NGO's in fact are an empowered community's manifestation, power and initiative can not be given, it is taken ●advocacy for disabled persons ●self-help and user-led group models in addiction care ●community development programs involving community members by volunteering

5. Participation and empowering ● A peek in our own backyard Caritas AlbaIulia: 20 years of social activities, many lessons learned. A roadmap from aid distribution to a major social care provider. Program offer diversifies in time: with children, families, early development, elderly, disabled persons, mentally ill, Romany people. The challenge now: Doing something FOR them or doing something TOGEHTER with them?

6. Participation and empowering ● A peek in our own backyard Case study 1: Maria Stein day care center, Caritas AlbaIulia Main goal: Developing the community through education,life quality change and active beneficiary involvement in community life. Vectors of participation and empowerment within Maria Stein: ● Maria Stein program is crafted and assessed with the involvement of the beneficiaries ● Community is involved both financially and by engaging volunteers ● Day-by-day life in the day care center supports involvement as it contains elements made by beneficiaries for beneficiaries which propotes the ownership-feeling and thus the responsibility taking.

7. Participation and empowering ● A peek in our own backyard Case study 2: Family Care Program, Caritas Alba Iulia Main goal: Caritas Family Care Program aims to get a community based mental health service in a practical manner to those stuck in different types of social deprivation like isolation, poverty, old age, minority status. Vectors of participation and empowerment: ● Our programs are designed to be deployed in close collaboration with the target community from financial sustainability down to people-to-people level. ● Financial and human resources of the target community are extensively used in comparison with similar programs which confers a strong community development commitment: we cannot succeed without strong community commitment with us. ● Beneficiaries provide some services to other beneficiary groups in our program design (teen-agers to children, children to parents, children to old-aged) ● Children are involved in crafting and using their own gadgets for playing in some programs.

8. Thank You! gyula.bodo.toth@caritas-ab.ro