A 5-day international seminar was held in Chiclana, Spain involving 20 young Roma and non-Roma youth workers, activists, local coordinators and multipliers offline and 10 online between August 9-16. 2020. Participants learnt about the concept of antigpsyism, shared their knowledge, experience and expertise related to the field they are coming from, and collected ideas for an international and national campaign. The seminar was implemented together with our partner organization, FAGIC – Federation of Roma Associations in Catalonia.
Main objectives of the seminar were: To involve and build connections among young Roma and non-Roma leaders, youth workers and activists internationally in order to:
- explore and learn about the concept of and raise awareness about antigypsyism through critically analysing its manifestations today;
- identify, share, develop and train participants to respond to antigypsyism through education and innovative, creative campaigns, through media and art;
- develop the capacities of participants in organising public national and international campaigns to make Roma youth issues visible, promote the importance of Roma youth participation and make the activism and self-organization of Roma and non-Roma youth visible;
- encourage the development of follow-up activities.
The program of the seminar was starting from understanding the concept of antigypsyism, sharing participants’ work and experiences, developing tools to challenge antigypsyism to a concrete work on the international and national campaigns, including pecific workshops on media and art. By the end of the seminar, participants developed ideas for a possible online campaign which ideas were taken further to activities, such as to our advocacy training in September, in Budapest.
The seminar was funded by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe as part of the 2020 Work Plan of Phiren Amenca.
