ENSA GENERAL ASSEMBLY Klagenfurt 7-8 June 2011 Social Inclusion network report of activities

Overview  Social inclusion represents one of the pillars of European society, as it is the foundation for social cohesion and development  It represents an area of major work for local authorities who can learn and improve services from joint work and sharing good practices  In the current year, participation of civil society, volunteer work and combating poverty are high in the EU agenda  Social inclusion and economic inclusion and empowerment are critical in times of global crisis and demographic changes

ENSA INCLUSION  In a diverse and changing society, inclusion of different categories of persons has been the focus of activities:  Migrants  Minorities  Ageing people  Other groups at risk  Inclusion is in fact a cross- thematic group, whose approach intersects with the other groups, the activities have been:  Networking  Search for partners  Project implementation  Project design

Joint EC-UN Initiative on migration and development  Networking and participation of local authorities  Mapping of good practices on M&D of EU and third country local authorities  Mobilization of a network of local authorities  Peer review and draft of policy recommendations to local authorities  Publication of a final report and high-level conference held in Brussels at the CoR (November 24th,2010)

+ RESPECT  + RESPECT : participation and anti discrimination awareness raising of ROMA people in Europe  Focus on regional and local authorities  Works on:  knowledge and capacity building of authorities by building participatory tools for inclusion and participation of ROMA people  Development of education curricula for schools  Awareness for media professionals  Empowerment of ROMA communities  Multimedia communication tools to combat anti-ROMA feelings and raise awareness

Areas of common interest  Sharing good practices on social inclusion  Networking with other regions and experiences (links to different projects working on sharing and transferring practice: PEOPLE, G4G, DART)  Organization of conference in March, in Venice concurrently to promote ENSA in the +Respect project)  More joint project design enlarging target groups (people of all walks of life affected by the crisis, including families) 2 projects awaiting for approval  Synergies with other thematic networks