PATA-CLUJ: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO LOCAL ROMA INCLUSION
Pata Rât area is a spatially segregated informal urban settlement, in a condition of multiple deprivations near the city landfill, where currently approx. 300 families are living. The 4 settlements in the area formed mostly after repeated evictions of poor, mostly Roma families, from central areas moved to the city-outskirts. This combined with the immigration of poor people from the nearby villages coming to find means of survival in the landfill.
The existing strategy frameworks and public policy documents on social inclusion lack practical guidelines or mechanisms for implementation. The importance of the integrated participatory planning component is not recognized yet, but it is a premise of a truly inclusive and sustainable initiative. The standard interventions which address the improvement of the housing and living conditions, or education and employment of the disadvantaged Roma alone, are perceived by far as insufficient by the Roma themselves, and most often breed antagonisms and discrimination coming from the majority communities. Thus, an integrated approach is the second key element for improving the situation of vulnerable groups. The approach includes the following components:
- participation in the mainstream society
- access to education and vocational qualification
- access to childcare services
- formal employment
- access to health care services
- access to safe, violence-free living environment
- desegregation and the improvement of the housing situation.
The Roma Inclusion Working Group of EuroCities visited the Pata-Cluj project in September 2017. Click on the picture below and check out, how the project affects the community in Cluj.
More information on Pata Cluj is available here.
