An Innovative Programme
The CALI programme works in 28 cities across Spain with a low employability profile of Roma women. Its three main objectives are to:
- promote equal opportunities for social inclusion and access to the labor market through personalized social and labor itineraries;
- promote gender equality between women and men, breaking cultural barriers, incorporating in their environments conciliation, and raising awareness on gender violence, supporting victims;
- and promote equal treatment, combating all forms of discrimination and assisting victims.
CALI is a program that seeks to empower Roma women, to guarantee the exercise and defense of their rights. A program that seeks ultimately full citizenship.
CALI is an innovative program in almost all its aspects. One of the main innovations is its holistic approach, addressing the needs of Roma women from a multidimensional perspective (personal, social, labour) aiming to promote equality (equal opportunities, gender equality and equal treatment). It is innovative because of the profile of the Roma women participating: Roma women mostly, with an extremely vulnerable profile and highly disadvantaged socio-labour conditions. And it is innovative in that it is an ambitious and powerful program, designed to have a strong impact and promote social change within the Roma community: it has a medium-term perspective, until 2019. Funding comes, among others, from the European Social Fund. It has a strong regional presence and it is developed in 28 Spanish cities. It allowed the hiring for execution of 30 professional women, 25 of whom are Roma. It means a new step foward in the gender equality that FSG is promoting.
Equality: A Matter for Everyone
The programme works directly with Roma women (is expected to reach more than 2,400 women until 2019), but not only with them. Achieving equality requires incorporating, on the one hand, the Roma men and the Roma community as a whole, raising awareness on issues of gender equality and conciliation. And it also requires adding allies out of the Roma community. For this purpose, the programme plans to work closely with public authorities, social services, employment services, gender institutions and assistance services to victims of domestic violence, prosecutors offices of hate crimes and discrimination, as well as other agents or specialized entities.
The Calí programme combines individual and group activities with Roma women (training, awareness…) and advocacy actions, to enable greater programme impact to change the social image that general society has of the Roma community.
CALI is a new program FSG developed under the ESF Operational Programme of Social Inclusion and Social Economy (POISES) which is in addition to those dedicated to vocational training and employment (Acceder programme, since 2000 ) and promoting school success of Roma students (Promociona programme since 2009) that continue in this new period under the POISES 2014-2020.