In order to manage the social inclusion measures of Roma envisaged by national and local strategic documents and to achieve a coordinated approach and integrated service delivery, the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities - Association of Towns and Municipalities in Serbia (SCTM) provides significant support to the work of mobile Roma inclusion teams under the program "Support to EU Roma Inclusion - Strengthening Local Communities for Roma Inclusion", funded by the European Union.
Bearing in mind that mobile teams work in the field, visit settlements, work on individual cases, carry out ongoing activities related to education, employment, health, housing, social policy, culture, there is a need to support the technical equipment of teams. In the first phase of the Program implementation, European Union support in the form of donations of funds for the purchase of cars and computers was of great importance for the day-to-day implementation of the envisaged activities. This type of support was received by 30 local self-governments.
In addition to direct support to the population, the role of mobile teams is to collect data on the situation in the field. These data are the basis on which, after processing and analysis, local action plans for Roma inclusion are developed, as well as operational plans (OPs) for mobile teams, and the other strategic documents.
Thanks to the Program, the SCTM assigned mentors to the local self-governments covered by the Program to support and prepare operational plans, and upon adoption of plans and workshops and seminars, a set of documents was prepared (OP Matrix, Financial and Narrative Reporting Form, OP Drafting Guidelines and Contracts to co-finance OP) for their implementation. After the development of operational plans, local self-governments approach to solving identified problems according to established priorities.
So far, 10 local self-governments (Mladenovac, Becej, Vrsac, Doljevac, Lebane, Loznica, Pirot, Smederevska Palanka, Surdulica and Arandjelovac) have adopted operational plans and financial donation contracts have been signed. The SCTM provided more than six million dinars, and the same amount was provided by the mentioned local self-governments, so that thanks to these activities, more than 12 million dinars are invested in concrete local actions and measures for social inclusion.
What is Mobile Team?
The mobile team is an expert advisory working body of the Municipal or Town Council.
The mobile team consists of one member and one alternate member of the staff working in the field of human and minority rights and social inclusion:
- Municipal/town government, including Roma Coordinator
- Center for Social Work
- Community Health center
- Branch of the National Employment Service
- Schools founded by a municipality or town
- Preschool,
and as well:
- Health mediator engaged in the municipality/town;
- Pedagogical assistant engaged in the territory of the municipality/town.