On Friday, November 9, 2018, at the Royal Olympic Hotel in Athens, the Final Conference of PROACTIVE project co-financed by the European Union was successfully held.
«PROACTIVE: Prevent Roma discrimination, providing mediation skills to police officers» – JUST/2015/RDIS/AG/DISC/9451
The project consortium composed by the partner institutions: Center for Security Studies (KE.ME.A.) as Project Coordinator, National Center for Social Solidarity (EKKA), AMKE ANTIPROPON and CMT PROOPTIKI.
The purpose of the PROACTIVE project, which began on 15 November 2016 and was completed on 15 November 2018, was the coordinated and wide-ranging promotion of preventive security at city level, for the first time at national and European level. Through a series of trainings of 369 front line police officers on social issues in many parts of the country and the pilot phase implementation with committed trained police officers and the help of local authorities and services and local Roma communities, PROACTIVE project fulfilled its purpose.
An innovative element of the PROACTIVE intervention was the role of twin co-trainers, composed of members of the Greek Police and experienced Romani social mediators.
For the first time at national and European level, police officers and representatives of Roma communities systematically worked as members of the same society with common interests and common targeting to train representatives of the DIA, Traffic, Instant Action, OPOCE, Neighborhood Police Officers, and local Police Department staff.
Project’s Final Conference, whose purpose was to communicate the various actions that were carried out during its implementation and its results, was attended by more than 130 local authority and service officers, police officers, social mediators, members of Roma communities and representatives of civil society.
The Minister of Citizen Protection, Olga Gerovassili, declared the opening of the Conference, while central speeches were addressed by the Special Secretary for the Social Integration of the Roma Ms. Aikaterini Gianciou and the Assistant Chief of Staff of the Hellenic Police Force, Nikolaos Skartsis.
After the completion of the open public actions of the Conference, a closed Public Policy Workshop was held with the participation of representatives of the Special Secretariat for Social Inclusion of Roma, police officers, members of Roma communities, social mediators and local government officials. The aim of the part of the Policy Recommendations Group on Social Inclusion and Preventive Security Policy was to focus on strengthening police officers to improve related provision Menon’s services.
The PROACTIVE Project is part of the Thematic Center of Social Policy and Preventive Security of the Center for Security Studies, aiming at strengthening, interconnecting and co-operating Principles, Services and Institutions as an integral part of the social chain for the creation of secure inclusive societies.