Equal opportunities for women in the political life

1. Equal opportunities for women in the political life Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning

2. Gender equality in politics • The European Union fights for equal rights and opportunities for all citizens, including equal rights for men and women • Equality between women and men is a fundamental right and a common value of the European Union. • In March 2006, the European Commission issued the Roadmap for equality between men and women that describes six fields of priority action for the EU in terms of gender equality

3. Contribute to change – Young Women in Political Careers • The project is co-financed by the European Commission within the Europe for citizens Programme, Actions 2; Measure 3 (reference number CSP-2009-156279). • The partners of the project are: Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning/Romania, Ballybeen Women’s Centre Ltd/UK and AKLUB Centrum vzdělavani a poradenstvi/ Czech Republic. • The project has a duration of 1 year, starting on 1st August 2009 and ending on 31st July 2010.

4. The difference between the number of men and that of women members in the Parliament is considerably big; thus, the project aims at promoting equal representation of women in the decision-making process • The European project Contribute to change – Young Women in Political Careers aims at increasing the participation of young women aged 16-35 in the political and social life => a group of 10-15 women from each country will be involved in a series of interactive workshops, with the aim to prepare at the end of the project a public debate moderated by themselves.

5. Within these workshops the young women will learn to: • correctly develop their self-esteem within the working group • improve their self-expression abilities; • improve their knowledge on participatory democracy and the strategies of active involvement in the society as active citizens; • be aware of the importance of the involvement in the political life and the role of voting at a local level but also for the European Parliament; • how common interests and aims can create long personal relations and how informal education can cultivate the personality and knowledge of each participant.

6. Products of the project • success stories booklet with relevant stories and anecdotes of the activities • a DVD with all the materials developed in the project

7. Conclusions • There are great initiatives all over Europe contributing to the achievement of the European Union policies • Contribute to change – Young Women in Political Careers fights for an increased participation of young women in both political and social life, equipping them with all the skills and competences necessary for this.

8. PLUSVALOR PLURILINGUISM STRENGTHENINGVALORISATIONOFROOTS

9. Introduction • According to analysis developed by Catholic University and Lombardy Regional Observatory on Immigration and Multiethnicity, interventions envisaging immigrated students’ language support (L2) and valorisation of language and culture of origin are today still not sufficiently integrated with regular school activities. • Furthermore interventions on L1 risk turning into experiences of separation and stereotypes’ reinforcement.

10. PLUSVALOR • The international project PLUSVALOR is co-financed by the European Commission within the Lifelong Learning Programme, Transversal programme - Key Activity 2: Languages (143368-2008-IT-KA2-KA2MP). • The partnership of the project comprises 5 organisations from 4 European countries: Italy, Netherlands, Hungary and Romania.

11. The Project • This project intends to tackle the issue of L1-L2 relationship, also for the Romanian language in a migratory context and the Roma language in Hungary and it intends to achieve the insertion of such activities into school programs and students language portfolio, thus enriching institutional education offer. • The project predisposes Italian language and culture courses for Romanian adults and children on process of migrating or rejoining their families to Italy, so to favour a quicker social inclusion with a special focus on children’s school insertion.

12. The Aim • spread the aim of plurilingualism into primary and secondary school in partner countries; • deepen L1-L2 relationship, from the point of departure of language of origin (LO); • to develop innovative methodologies for valorisation of language of origin (i.e. 1st language valorisation) in migratory context • Develop a model of citizenship education for adults in migratory situations and in the new European contexts (Romania, Hungary) • The achievement of the objective above will foster the migrated families’ social inclusion, supporting parents’ role in the new contexts of migration.

13. The Target Group • Italy: Arab-speaking students from the (primary and secondary) schools network; Arab-speaking teachers; Italian teachers of primary and secondary school • Romania: Romanian students on process of migration in Italy; Their parents on process of migration in Italy; Romanian teachers that will work in the abovementioned paths; Romanian teachers of primary and secondary school; Romanian citizens • Hungary: Hungarian teachers • Netherlands: will elaborate the didactic materials of Arabic language teaching, targeting the abovementioned Arab-speaking students in Italy

14. Products • Events of dissemination: 1 conference on plurilingualism, 1 seminar on Intercultural education; • 2 booklets for each partner to be distributed among the local educational institutions; • Research-action model in Arabic teaching, in the aim of 1st language valorisation; • Educational paths in Arabic language; • Research-action model in Italian teaching as 2nd language for migrants; • Materials for Italian teaching; • Educational paths in Italian as 2nd language for migrants; • Training courses (on pluringualism + on Roma language and culture); • Project website; • Materials in intercultural education EU-oriented; • Educational paths in intercultural education for new European (Hungarian, Romanian) citizens;

16. Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning (SREP) Thank you very much for your attention!  Website: www.srep.ro E-mail: office@srep.ro