The Council of Europe announces a Call for expression of interest for Roma and pro-Roma civil society organisations, Roma women activists and Roma youth activists in the framework of the EU-CoE Joint Programme EQUIROM “Equality and Freedom from discrimination for Roma”

The aim of this Call is to establish a group of up to 20 representatives from Roma and pro-Roma civil society organisations, Roma women activists and Roma youth activists who are eager to participate in capacity-building workshops focused on design of public campaigns on Roma inclusion-related topics. The workshops will entail the development of positive narratives about Roma encompassing their history and culture, addressing Roma Holocaust, promoting gender equality and diversity and combating racism. The method of narrative building workshops, previously used by the Council of Europe, will be applied jointly with a participatory and learning-by-doing approach. Using the practical online toolkit developed by the project "WE CAN for human rights speech", the stakeholders will analyse instances of antigypsyism and anti-Roma discrimination, will construct human rights-based narratives and messages and will create online campaign models, supported by campaign activists and graphic designers. Tools developed by the CoE No Hate Speech Movement, such as “Bookmarks” and “We CAN” manuals, will be used. 

Participation entails attending four sessions as follows:

• Workshop 1: Skills strengthening (planned for November 2023 at national level)
• Workshop 2: Development of a campaign, defining methods key massages, and common standards for implementation (planned for January 2024, in Strasbourg, in English)
• Workshop 3: Group work by country on national adaptations of the campaign (planned for January 2024, in Strasbourg)
• Workshop 4: De-briefing of the campaign implementation phase (phase 2 of EQUIROM, in 2025 TBC)

The use of varied and diverse educational approaches and methods is important for these workshops. The specific final content of the workshop sessions will be closely coordinated with the Council of Europe’s Roma and Travellers Team.

In-person participation will be required. The precise dates of the workshops will be communicated in September 2023.

Costs associated with participation in the workshops will be covered by the Council of Europe.

Interested candidates from the project's target countries, namely Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania, are invited to express their interest by completing the application form

Deadline for applying: 15 September 2023 (23.59 - Strasbourg time). Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.

Questions regarding this call for expression of interests can be addressed to [email protected] with a subject line: Workshops_ Questions