As an anti-poverty network, Dynamo International and its partners cannot fully accept these questions and they are wondering what the ultimate goal of the Commission is. In particular, they fear that the reason they are consultinggrassroots organisations is to approve anticipated cuts in resources allocated to social services in general, but also to identify the services that will be the most useful or important. These two elements are massively out of sync with reality on the ground, service-related realities on the one hand and the realities of people living in poverty on the other.

Furthermore, it would be an illusion to believe that it is possible to do more with less. The increasing instability of social welfare structures and persons now imprisons individuals in long-term poverty. Unfortunately, this is the result of policy approaches which, far from thoroughly combating poverty, are happy with ensuring it is managed. As it stands, social welfare sectors are in dire need of re-funding. In addition, all income replacement allowances must at least be increased to above the poverty line. These are two key conditions for combating poverty.

The full text of Dynamo International’s position paper is available here.

For more information: Mari Fresu, Communication Officer at Dynamo International, mari.fresu@travail-de-rue.net

In its contribution, Dynamo International encourages Member States to adopt a social protection system that is accessible to everybody, equally, without discrimination and based on the highest performing systems. Governments must also agree to provide family benefits for all families with at least one child in order to cover the children’s basic needs and to ensure that primary education is free and compulsory for everybody by allocating a significant, realistic budget to education. Alternative education options (informal education, mobile street teams, non-institutional education outreach should also be developed.

To read the complete version of Dynamo International’s contribution, click here.

For more information: Adelaïde Trousselard, Progress Project Manager at Dynamo International, adelaide@travail-de-rue.net
 

DEFENDING CHILDREN´S RIGHTS IN EUROPE

• English version
• French version
• Spanish version
• German version

 STREET WORK: RECOMMENDATIONS

• English version
• French version
• Spanish version
• German version

PROCEEDING WORDS DE RUE

• English version
• French version
• Portuguese version
• German version

DOSSIER

• English - French
• English - Spanish
• English - German
• English - Portuguese

Training Curriculum and Skills Profile

To achieve this, we count on academic experts but also street experts, street
workers who are able to pass on knowledge and values through the strength of their
experience. This training programme is the first step towards the Dynamo International –
Street Work Training Institute, for which a Skills Profile and Curriculum have already been
developed through contributions from members of our network.

MODULE 1: Social participation
(FRENCH‐ENGLISH) Lisbon 7-11 May 2012

PROGRAMME MODULE 1: fileshttp://www.street-work.net/files/News/training-institute-participation-sociale-en.pdf

MODULE 2: Human rights and vulnerable people
(SPANISH‐ENGLISH) Lisbon 2-6 July 2012

MODULE 3: Social Marketing
(FRENCH‐ENGLISH) Lisbon 17-21 December 2012

STUDY TRIP: Rights of the Child in Europe
(FRENCH) Brussels-Strasbourg-Geneva September 2012

Information and registration:
MODULES: training@travail-de-rue.net
STUDY TRIP: adelaide@travail-de-rue.net
 

Facts:
The call for urgent action has been launched following an action of social cleansing that took place on 22 March against street people living below the bridge at the road junction between Calzada de Tlalpan, Miguel Angel Quevedo and Taxqueña in Mexico City. The judicial police authorities together with the city’s Urban Services and Civil Protection Departments picked up dozens of people among whom there were 15 young persons and 10 minors, including 5 women.
 

Background:
On 5 August 2011, the Government of Mexico announced that it would invest 700 million pesos in the Under-Bridges Recovery Programme. The purpose of the operation is to recuperate public spaces for improvement and rehabilitation of the areas under 30 bridges within a three year time frame.
The Human Rights Programme of the Federal District (PDHDF), line 2022, makes provision for actions "to identify and prevent discriminatory practices as well as to stop forced removals in public places, which violate the human rights of people living on the street". Despite this and regardless of the recommendations (23/2009 and 13/2011), made by the Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission, several social cleanings
were conducted in different areas of the city during the past year.

Document: fileshttp://www.street-work.net/files/News/press-release-call-mexico-2012-04-06.pdf

Tel: +44 (0) 207 921 4560 / 4561 | Mob: +44 (0) 7855 963 330 | Fax: +44 (0) 207 921 4201
Louise@streetchildren.org.uk / Meinckea@parliament.uk
Skype: consortium.for.street.children1 | www.streetchildren.org.uk
 

As a newcomer to the Network, I had a general overview of the purpose of the pilot meeting; however, the following five days certainly brought me up to speed with the work of the Network and of its overall objectives and values.

With a career in youth work lasting almost thirty years, including many years front line street work and latterly managing large youth services in some of England’s most deprived cities, I was interested to see how the Network is able to support the developments of street work. I was particularly keen to ascertain what lessons could be learnt from the pilot projects and how they could be fed into the UK platform.

The programme for the week was full and offered participants a variety of presentations, opportunities for discussion as well as a number of fieldwork visits across Maastricht.

Amongst the feedback from the pilot projects, I was particularly interested to hear of the excellent research being carried out with the Roma community in Italy and Greece and the work being conducted around male prostitution in Belgium. Both projects served to illustrate the need for such research as well as the huge contribution that street work can make by working with such vulnerable and often persecuted communities.

The input from the “expert” speakers were incredibly informative and thought provoking. The contribution from Frank Van Strijan around street cultures was inspiring and the address from Jan Schellekens, a youth work trainer, and certainly captured the essence of what street work is all about.

The presentation from Dr Judith Metz was outstanding. She gave an excellent historical account of youth work in the Netherlands and offered, in clear terms, a very practical understanding of what youth work is.

With regard to the field visits, I was particularly impressed with the work being carried out by volunteers at the neighbourhood centre, a project that puts local people at the heart of the decision-making process and in control of their own local facility. Despite the fact that the centre was limited to the times it is able to operate due to financial restraints, the whole set up was a model of good practice and certainly something everybody involved should feel proud of.

The visit to the open youth centre left me with more questions than answers. While offering young people a place to meet, I was left feeling that it could have been much more. Firstly, there was little opportunity to meet with the young people in a structured way as they were pre-occupied with the games and music. Secondly, there was little evidence of any educative youth work available and thirdly, the Smoke filled atmosphere did little to secure a safe and healthy environment for the young people and staff. Nevertheless, I was impressed with the youth workers and believe that the level of trust developed with the young people offers the possibility of developing some exciting youth work.

The final session of the pilot meeting provided the participants with an opportunity to share their experiences of the field visits. All in all, the feedback was very positive with a general consensus that this element of the programme had been a very useful and informative exercise.

The remainder of the programme was spent with more “in-house” business i.e. reflecting on last years achievements and undertaking future planning, particularly in relation to the next training group event.

The meeting ended with showing of a DVD presented by Henk Geelen. The film fittingly highlighted how the perseverance and skills of good street workers can help change the lives of young people.

I conclude my personal reflections with some suggestions for future pilot meetings:

• Perhaps an induction session for new participants to the Network would be helpful.
• It would have been interesting to have heard more from frontline street workers from the Netherlands.
• More time for breakout groups throughout the week would have served to generate more discussion.

Finally, I left the Pilot meeting feeling tired, but inspired by the level of commitment of the participants. The meeting was very well organised, the hospitality overwhelming. I felt that the Network is progressive and a very much needed platform for street workers through the world.

I look forward to being able to contribute to the Network in the future.”

Don Irving
UK Federation for Detached Youth Work
 

We were called by the shelter to help on finding his ID documents. We needed his help to get information useful to know more on his story and his family. But the only thing he could remember was that he is from Albania and nothing else. He couldn’t remember his date of birth and his place of origin. He just remembered that he came from a small area next to Korça city (in Albania) where there is a lake or a river (he wasn’t sure), where he used to swim. Miri recalled also his two brothers, one sister and his grandmother, whom he loved very much. He didn’t have any document certifying his identity, and wasn’t sure even about his own name.

In our first meeting Miri claimed that he was 13 years old. Many years earlier he had arrived with his family in Athens walking through mountains, he said. He recalled that he had lived for 6 years in the shelter, but not how he came there. He said that he liked Greece but not Albania… “I will never go back over there! – he said - never for any reason on earth!”. However, he admitted he was looking forward to seeing again his brothers and sister.

It was impossible to identify Miri’s family with these few data only. We informed our partners in Albania but they couldn’t find anything specific for the child. Then, we communicated with him by phone several times trying to help him remember small details. He approximately remembered the name of his village and that his home was behind a big hospital. His best friend was the son of gravedigger… He couldn’t remember any name, neither of his parents nor relatives, neighbours or friends.

But the village’s name he gave and the lake he mentioned helped us to think about Pogradec city.

We asked for old and new photos of the child and went to Albania. The first thing that we looked for was the hospital. We found the location, but nothing was left of the lodges that existed earlier behind hospital.

The second detail was the gravedigger… somebody told us where a gravedigger was living. So, we went there with the hope that he would be the same person we were looking for.

The area was much degraded: sludge, old houses and poor people. Nobody seemed to be in the gravedigger’s home. We waited for a while until a young man appeared. He said that his father was arriving in a bit. We asked him for how many years his father had been working as gravedigger. Then we asked if he could remember a childhood friend named Miri. “Yes!” he answered surprised, “but he disappeared and nobody knows what happened to him”. After some time, his father came and told us that the two kids (Miri and his son) were very attached to each other. He also told us the names of Miri’s parents. He was still speaking to us when he interrupted his talking to call a woman who was passing in that moment very close by. This is the mother! – He explained.

The woman resembled very much to Miri. She was shocked when she learnt that her child was alive and living in a shelter in Greece. Afterwards, she narrated the child’s story. Miri used to live with his grandmother, her own mother, because she was staying alone and wanted a child to feel less lonely. Since the child’s father was very violent, Miri’s mum hoped to save at least one of her kids in this way.

She spent the last years blaming her mother for selling the child to someone unknown, in order to make him work and earn money in Greece. Since then she had not heard any longer about him. She even could not remember his date of birth. But eventually our Albanian partners managed to find his certificate of birth. Miri was 15 years old and not 13, as he believed.

During our journey to Albania, Miri called us often to get news. When we told him that his mother was in front of us, he wanted to talk to her, but it was difficult because Miri had completely forgotten Albanian and Romani language. But it was very important for him to be able to celebrate his birthday on the right day.

Today, Miri is 22 years old and he doesn’t want to go to Albania to see his family… he feels angry with them…

The Conference recommendations will be presented to UN ECOSOC, UNESCO, Council of Europe, Children Rights Forum of European Commission, the Fundamental Rights Agency and the European Economic and Social Committee.

The call for workshop papers will be closed on 30 April 2012.

Registration will open on 28 February 2012.

Contact: ijjo2012@progressevents.co.uk. Website