Mentoring programme for Roma youngsters support and tackling of early school leaving

<< Background >>The early school leaving situation among Roma youngsters is a serious and complex problem that affects their educational and social outcomes. According to the data from the FRA, the early school leaving rate among Roma youngsters in the EU was 68% in 2016, which is much higher than the EU average of 10.7%. This means that more than 2/3 of Roma youngsters do not complete upper secondary education, which is the minimum level required for accessing the labor market and further education.One of the ways to tackle the early school leaving situation among Roma youngsters is to implement mentoring programmes that involve Roma role models and mentors who can inspire and motivate Roma youngsters to pursue their educational and personal goals, as well as to foster their integration and participation in the school and community.The Romani ambassadors in education process are Roma people who have successfully completed their education and who act as role models and mentors for other Roma youngsters who face challenges and difficulties in accessing and completing quality education. The Romani ambassadors aim to inspire and motivate Roma children and youth to pursue their educational and personal goals, as well as to foster their integration.<< Objectives >>By implementing the RA 2.0 project, the partnership achieved the following objectives:•To provide skills and competences to adult trainers, teachers, and Roma workers in education process and to tackle early school leaving and low educational capacity in children of minorities.•To capitalize the existing European experience in the process of providing of counseling services to marginalized people.•To adapt the existing knowledge into an innovative training curriculum.•To introduce reliable and effective mentoring methodology aiming at supporting Romani youth and children in the educational process and career guidance.•To upgrade the existing skills of social workers, counselors, and trainers in the field of Romani support services.•To develop a mentoring programme for Roma youngsters, based on the best practices and experiences of the partners.•To train mentors and mentees in the skills and competencies needed for the mentoring process.•To implement the mentoring programme in the local contexts of the partners, involving Roma youngsters and their families, schools, and communities.•To evaluate the impact and results of the mentoring programme on the educational and social outcomes of the Roma youngsters.<< Implementation >>The project also produces several intellectual outputs, such as:•A guide for working with Roma families towards achieving the success of their children in school, which provides a transnational methodological proposal for professionals.•A training course for mentors and mentees, which includes online and face-to-face modules on topics such as mentoring skills, intercultural communication, conflict resolution, etc.•A mentoring toolkit, which contains practical tools and resources for the implementation of the mentoring programme, such as mentoring contracts, action plans, evaluation forms, etc.•A digital platform, which serves as a space for communication, collaboration and learning among the project partners and participants.•Two teaching and training events (C1 and C2), piloting and evaluating the mentoring toolkit and the facilitator training for engagement mentoring in education. The teaching and training events involve trainers, teachers and social workers from the partners’ countries, and they provide an opportunity to exchange feedback and experiences on the project outputs and activities. << Results >>•A mentoring toolkit (PR1), which is a practical and adaptable resource that contains tools and guidelines for the implementation and evaluation of the mentoring programme for Roma youngsters in different settings. The mentoring toolkit is based on the European experience and good practices in the field of professional educational intervention and intercultural mediation for Roma people.•A training curriculum (PR2), which is an innovative and comprehensive training curriculum that provides skills and competences for the role of intercultural mediator/mentor for Roma youngsters. The training curriculum includes online and face-to-face modules on topics such as mentoring skills, intercultural communication, conflict resolution, career guidance, etc.•A digital platform (PR3), which is an online platform that allows interaction and collaboration among trainers and social workers and provides advice and support throughout the whole process of mentoring acceleration and new skills creation. The online platform also serves as a space for communication, collaboration and learning among the project participants. The online platform hosts a MOOC with 6 modules and 40 hours duration of the training.