My name is Alunica Lepadatu, coming from Moldova. I am the head of Amari Europa Association, which is aimed to enforce Roma Youth from Moldova to contribute to the process of European Integration of our society. Being a participant of the Training Course on Management of Roma Youth Organisations, organised by the European Youth Centre of the Council of Europe, I proposed to develop a strategic plan of the Amari Europa NGO. I have discussed the idea of developing the strategic plan with my colleagues after my arrival from the training course and I have explained them that this plan is crucial for our organisation because it is newly established organisation and doesn’t have a strong platform to work on. After we had an agreement of developing a strategic plan, we started debating about the tape of activities we would like to implement. When we were thinking and proposing of activities we were also thinking of addressing the needs of our target group, young Roma from Moldova. – What are their primary needs and concerns, what would they really want to do, what are their interests, etc. In order to write down a strategic plan the membership of Amari Europa, had several Skype meetings (because we are not from the same city) and one meeting face to face and discussed what we want to do during 2 years within the frameworks of our NGO. My colleagues shared with me their ideas and we were writing all of them, then we had to choose the most important for us as an organisation and for our target group (the Roma youth). Nonetheless, the members of our organisation are in the same time representatives of the target group, so we know exactly what is important for us. We made a list of activities which we would like to implement in two years. At this moment our group is at the stage of monitoring and analysing our possibilities. We are seeking potential foundations and partners for our activities. If we find what we are looking for, it means that we can achieve our goals, thus the activity is possible. That is the way we will agree on each project and activity of our strategic plan.

The Alumni Club of the Young Roma Interns in the Bulgarian Parliament was established in 2008 and 50 young Roma who graduated the Internship Programme in the Parliament are actively involved in its activities. The organisational development plan of the Alumni Club prepared during the Training Course on Management and Development of Roma Youth Organisations aims to develop a long-term (3-year) strategy which will make the organisation more sustainable in future.

Along the process of developing this strategy the members of the organisation would provide insights on whether to be an autonomous juridical body or remain an informal group. Until now the Alumni Club had just annual plans with activities and annual budget voted by the OSI. Currently the organisation lacks funding for its activities. As part of the process of developing the strategy it is envisaged to have a 3 day strategic meeting where all club members together with previous (NDI, OSI Sofia) and potential donors can discuss and develop the strategy of the club. Apart from the meeting and the long-term strategy development, other expected outcomes of the process could be registration of the organisation, establishment of office and permanent funding, organisation of the 6th Internship Program for Young Roma within the Parliament of the Republic of Bulgaria and other opportunities for political and administrative inclusion of young Roma.

Under the mentorship of Alexandra Raykova I was able to establish the objectives of my organisational development plan. Also with the support of the president of my NGO we have developed some ground rules for cooperation and support. We have agreed on which seminars and trainings should be attended at national and international level in order to develop our skills in working with young people.

In order to be able to have an international presence and experience we have agreed to organise and/or attend language courses for the member and volunteers of the organisation. These courses would support the work of the members of the organisation in perusing youth exchange opportunities but as well to engage in work in youth development at international level.

As a reward of my commitment and respect of the values of the organisation I am proud to announce that I have been selected to participate at a Partnership Building Activity, in Portugal in March 2014!

I work as a project assistant within the association, where primarily I am responsible for dealing with issues of young Roma with the purpose of developing an intercultural learning process and strengthening the cultural education of young people to promote the positive spiritual and cultural values of the Roma community. Very often we are partnering with other organisations that have similar aims as ours. Among other I am responsible for raising funds and implementing youth activities which are coordinated by Association for Development and Social Inclusion in partnership with various NGOs or institutions.

Friends of Romano Lav is a small registered Scottish charitable incorporated organisation focused on working with the Roma communities in Scotland. The mission of Friends of Romano Lav is to improve the quality of life of the Roma residents living in Scotland. We are engaging with Roma people from different European countries (mostly from Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Romania) promoting Roma inclusion, social justice, inter-cultural dialogue and community participation. Our main focus is building capacities within the young Roma generation by encouraging them to actively participate in the civic society. We also challenge discrimination against Roma and spread cultural awareness about the Roma communities. We work in partnership with West of Scotland Regional Equality Council and Oxfam who support us to establish a strong organisational baseline. I am the project manager/coordinator.

Center for Community Development “Vrastiri” is a local Roma youth organisation established in 2011. The mission of the organisation is to develop Roma communities through activation of Roma Youth in rural areas making them active Bulgarian and European citizens.

The Organisational development Plan of the CCD Vrastiri aims to establish a local youth club in Kamen (population 1600, predominantly Roma) where young people can gather, share ideas and work on common projects and activities(e.g. Dance Club, Photo Club, Roma History Club etc.) directed to community development. The aim of the plan is to be found a starting funding for the Club activities and for the establishment of the Youth Club. Another envisaged goal is development of a long-term strategy (3-years). Currently the organisation is in process of registering within the European Youth Foundation platform.

Stefka Blagoeva is a founder and Chairperson of the Center for Community Development Vrastiri. She is the first Roma woman from the Roma community of Bourgudzhii (smiths) currently accomplishing her university degree in Primary Pedagogy with French.

"Calon, Produções" intends to capacitate 15 youngsters (Roma and non-Roma) to create and manage a Youth Organisation throughout trainings in technical and social competences. Desincoop have submitted two applications so far and the 2 were rejected. By this in these first 2 months we have been in contact with some of the local Roma youngsters who are very interested in being part of this project.

Desincoop is promoter of training for Roma adults (started in December 2013) and 3 of the adults (the youngest) wants to be part of the project. We’ve been in contact with the Portuguese National Institute of Youth and a representative will go to this training and speaks about "How to create an organisation" and motivate them to participate in the future, helping us in finding funds for the project.

I work at Desincoop since 2010 and I´ve started as a volunteer. I continue my participation with several Youth in Action projects and then, in 2012 I´ve became project assistant in a Dapnhe project, about prevention of violence and a LLLP about Roma inclusion through education. I´m part of the organisation and implementation of youth projects, the same as awareness campaigns in several issues.

Phrani NGO is a youth organisation for tolerance and equality in Georgian society. It was established in 2013 on March 20 (the Word Day of the Happiness). The main aim of Phrani is defending HR, integration and involvement of youth from ethnic and religious communities, and particularly from Romani and Domari communities. Our mission is to stand up against hate speech and discrimination, and make a field where Roma and Dom people will free to act themselves. On this level we face a lot of difficulties as are self-exclusion, language barriers, poverty and mistrust. The development plan of my NGO at the beginning consisted the main objective, to involve young Roma people from Georgia, involving them in the Fisrt International Youth Conference "Rota-2014", but after some discussion inside the Board we decided to conduct at first the research, which will help us to define the problems the Romani Youth wants to solve most of all.

"Krok steps" a true life story of a young Roma
In April 2013 I had the opportunity to give a personal speech in the European Parliament. This inspirited me to start a blog about my true life experiences as a former Roma refugee in the Netherlands and trainee in the European Parliament.

With the blog I wanted to contribute to more peace in Europe, through empowering young (Roma) people and fighting negative stereotypes. Although the blog and speech have received positive reactions, I felt sharing my story didn’t achieve its mission by reaching English speaking people only. Roma that speak English are often educated role models themselves. Realizing this brought me to a new concept: Creating an official website with a visible working group of young translators that are working for/with Roma communities.

The story will consist out of 15 pages. Each page will be translated into several languages by the group of translators. Each person will translate only one page, with the link to his/her electronic business card on the website. The official website will be launched this year and the open call for translators is still running. At the moment the working group consists out of 22 people from all over Europe. People that want to join this working group are welcome to contact me: [email protected]

To read some of the stories already please visit the two draft blogs: www.romankrok.blogspot.com and www.kroksteps.blogspot.com

‘Walk with us - Phiren Amenca’, as a Roma youth organisation was established on the 6^th February 2014. The main tasks of the organisation are to involve Roma and Egyptian communities in the process of integration in the mainstream society. The mission of our organisation aims to actively contribute to the development of engagement and active participation of young Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians in the life of Montenegrin society, strengthening institutional capacity for the inclusion of Roma and Egyptian populations, and reducing negative attitudes and discrimination against Roma and Egyptians in Montenegro. The organisation priority areas are: education, working with children, work with young people (but also elders), employment, health and legally invisible persons.

In accordance with the objectives of the organisation, we organized two actions on the occasion of 8th April, as an International Roma Day. The first was a press conference where we have presented the organisation's mission and objectives and then we presented the outcomes of the four workshops that were organised with Roma and Egyptian high school students. The second activity was in cooperation with the Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM), where we organised a ‘humanitarian action’ for several Roma and Egyptian families. Around 13 Roma and Egyptian primary school pupils living in the Konik area of Podgorica received school supplies such as: pens, notebooks, watercolours, rulers, etc.