Summary of best practice approaches
Pharos
The Netherlands
Bram Tuk (b.tuk@pharos.nl)
Pharos
National knowledge and advisory center
on health care issues concerning
migrants, refugees and people with limited
health literacy reducing social economic
health differences and increasing the
quality and effectiveness of health care
www.pharos.nl
What is a best practice?
• It’s a subjective term; who determines what
a best practice is?
“The political, social and economic
landscapes in each respective country
create a myriad of difference which can
pose dilemmas and tensions regarding
how approaches or elements of best
practice can be adopted”.
• Is it a best practise in the eyes of Roma
youth and parents?
Spain
Manchester
Netherlands
Fundacion
Secretariado Gitano
services for the
development of the
Roma community
BHA,
the Manchester City
council and
mediators
Pharos
and cooperating
organisations
650.000 Spanish
Roma 50.000 (?)
Newly arrived Roma
100.000 -1000.000
Roma in the UK
600 professionals
Team of 9 (?)
Persons
3000-20.000 Roma
and Sinti and no
adminstration at all
Roma in Manchester
of newly arrived
3000
Roma
1 ½ person
Dutch policy and practice
• No national policy program for the
development or the integration of Roma.
• There is no national organization that
focusses at Roma. In the past FORUM,
Institute for Multicultural Affairs since 1998
until 2009?
• However, there are national networks on
education and municipal Roma policy.
Partnership and networking are
necessary
• The Trimbos Institute
(Research Roma and school
absenteeism)
• The municipalities of Enschede
and Utrecht
• Institute for
Roma integration i.f.
Opinions about Roma
and education
• Very different opinions and supposed solutions
• Agreement about the marginal position of the
Roma in the Netherlands,
• Cooperation at different levels improving Roma
Youth attendance at school and educational
performance.
What is a good practice improving Roma youth
education?(Trimbos research, 2011)
• Directed at the period between pre-school age and
the first job after secondary education
• A good practice intervenes on several levels: child,
family, social environment / peers, school
• Integrated approach. Municipality, school
attendance officers, school, welfare organisations,
families work together
• This network should not only pay attention to
education, but also to other life circumstances
(housing, financial, unemployment, legal status)
Integrated approach
Veldhoven, Enschede, Utrecht and some other municipalities
integrated approach. (Community approach?)
• Homework assistance - access to ICT and other education
materials.
• Weekly home visits to parents providing educational updates
on progress and offering the opportunity to answer questions
relating to education.
• Identify and solve problems relating to the educational
achievement of individual children.
• Offer information and advice to parents at the moment they
transfer from primary to secondary education
An intensive and prolonged
community approach is what
we need
Impressed by these examples of
community approach
When I grow up I want
to be
Roma mentor system
Inspiring best practices from Spain
and Manchester at our conference
“Thanks for the invitation for the conference. It
was useful and pleasant to have been there.
Good to have seen some examples from
different countries that may have importance
for the Dutch situation. The good news is that I
have sent a notice direct to the Minister and
that it had been published in our digital news
brief “Weekly Messages”.
Attendee, Utrecht
What’s Working project ambitions Pharos from
the beginning modest and aimed at exchange
and finding practically usable information
Optimistic because cooperation in the Welcome
to school project new arrivals 2004/2005 with the
EMAS team of Manchester City council.
The Long Roads educational
resource material
The subject areas
• Cultural Traditions
• Flag and Anthem
• Origins
• Slavery
• The Holocaust
“Long Roads is an excellent tool to
help Roma pupils feel valued as well as
challenging the stereotypical Ideas that
other non-Roma pupils may hold.”
The Admissions and Induction
Protocol pack
A process-oriented way of
introducing Roma/new
arrival children carefully
in the school system
and follow them.
Pharos website:
“There is much knowledge and information available. We
bring together what is out there, make a selection of what
works and translate applicable knowledge into daily practice”
Results What’s working project:
• Tools that are perfectly suitable for the Dutch classroom
• Increasing the connection between children and the
school.
• Improving school attendance.
thanks