1. Case-study No. & Title:
No. 236. Involving Roma organisations and firms in the local civil and political life in the town of Frýdek-Místek, Czech Republic

Keywords

2. Author information
2.1 Author’s Name
Peter Mulder

2.2 Institutional Affiliation and Contact Details:
Peter Mulder (Chairman občanské sdružení Spolu-CZ)
Spolu-CZ
P.O. Box 651
661 51 Brno-2
The Czech Republic

Tel.: +420-603-843.982 (private)
Fax: +420-5-4524.61.66 (work)
E-mail: peter.mulder@post.cz

2.3 Date recorded
21/03/2001

3. Good Practice Information Sheet
3.1 Local Level Good Practice:
Since the year 1999, the local authorties of the Czech town Frýdek-Místek have been seeking ways to work more systematically on involving the local Roma community in the social and political life of the town. To achieve this aim, the local authorties started a co-operation with a local Roma NGO and with all other subjects active in those parts of the city in which the majority of Roma live. The co-operation has two main aspects:

3.2 Location:
Frýdek-Místek is a town in north-east Moravia. It has 62,000 inhabitants, of which 1,500 - 2,000 are Roma. The town is part of the north-Moravian industrial region, where after the fall of communism a large proportion of the heavy industry and mining sector collapsed. This has lead to a relatively high level of unemployment.

3.3 Minority/Target Groups:

3.4 Major Actors Involved

3.5 Budget allocated by local government authorities and/or by other actors
In the first two locations, in which the City in co-operation with the Association of Roma in Moravia and Roma private firms started to work on repairing and improving flats, approximately 2 million CZK have been spent per location. In the third location, these costs might be higher in the future, since the planned reconstruction-works are more extensive.

By providing space for a symbolic rent (1 CZK per square meter), the city is also sponsoring the activities of local organisations that work with the Roma (Association of Roma in Moravia and the Christian Association). Both organisations are also provided with financial support of 30,000 (Association of Roma…) and 15,000 CZK (Christian Association) to pay for gas, water and electricity, and for basic office-costs.

3.6 Timeframe
The initiative was proposed after the local elections in 1998. During 1999, the co-operation between the local authorities and the local Roma organisations began to become more substantive. The first main reconstruction of flats and flat-buildings took place in the year 2000, planned to continue during 2001. The project does not have a fixed end-date, since it is a step-by-step process of co-operation, working on new ideas, on carrying them out.

3.7 Local level good practice relation to national level ethnic policy
The approach of the local authorties in co-operation with the Association of Roma in Moravia is local, and does not have a direct link with state-policy. However, within its work, the local authorities of Frýdek-Místek are using the existing possibilities, created by the government, to address the problems of the Roma community. Another important fact is that from the perspective of the national government the different ways in which local authorities co-operate with Roma initiatives are carefully watched, and in generally more often supported than opposed.

4. Good Practice Description
Since the year 1999, the local authorities of Frýdek-Místek started to co-operate with the local Roma community. This co-operation became possible after the local elections in 1998, which significantly changed the political landscape in Frýdek-Místek. The reason to start this co-operation was to find ways to make the Roma community more actively join the social and political life of the town. Another fact which made co-operation possible was the active approach of a group of Roma themselves, who wanted to co-operate with the City and who were willing to take responsibilities upon themselves.

From the beginning, the local authorities closely co-operated with the local department of the "Association of Roma in Moravia" SRNM. This co-operation appeared to be very fruitful. Three times a year, a local round-table meeting takes place. At this meeting, the following organisations and institutions take part:

The Association receives funds from these commissions for their activities for children, for example Children's Day, St Nicholas-meeting or sport-tournaments.

Concrete activities to improve the situation of Roma take place in the districts where there is a high concentration of Roma inhabitants: Ulice Míru, Nová osada and Beskydská-street. These activities are the following:

Ulice Míru
The houses in these streets are small flat-buildings, built in the period from the 1940s until the 1960s. Each building consists of 12 flats. These flats were in a bad state. In co-operation between the local authorities, the Association of Roma in Moravia and certain Roma private enterprises, the common spaces in these flats have been painted and the most needed repairs have been carried out. Also a multifunctional sports-ground and a children's-play-ground have been built in this street by Roma firms.

These activities have been carried out in close co-operation with the Association of Roma in Moravia. This organisation also plays a role in keeping an eye on proper usage of these newly-repaired and painted parts of the flats and on the play-ground, to prevent them from becoming derelict.

Around the above-mentioned houses there are several smaller buildings, previously mainly used as storage for wood and coal for heating. The Association of Roma in Moravia is now planning to improve and repair these buildings (in co-operation with Roma private firms) and to use them for common activities. The first plan, to be carried out in the near future, is to establish a laundrette, to be used by people from the neighbourhood. Other plans are common showers with warm water (for those families who do not have flats with a bathroom(1), space for activities for children and a (food) shop that is open in the evenings.

During the year 2000, a shelter has been built in the same street for the homeless and for people evicted from their flats because of not paying rent. Its 8 rooms have space for a maximum of 28 people. The reconstruction of the former flats into these shelters has been carried out by Roma firms.

In one of the flats in the Ulice Míru street, the Christian Association has space to organise activities for Roma children, youngsters, men and women. These spaces are rented for a symbolic rent of 1 CZK per square metre (0,03 USD). To equip this centre and also to support low-income families, the city arranged the possibility to buy furniture for a symbolic price.

Nová Osada
In the area of Nová Osada, the flats are located in similar buildings as in Ulice Míru-street. The difference here is the composition of the community: In Ulice Míru there live mainly Roma, in Nová Osada the community is mixed Roma / non-Roma. The buildings and the flats are in the same derelict state. In case of 10 buildings, the city repaired, again in co-operation with Roma firms, roofs, drainage and water and gas-supplies. The plan is to employ for each building a care-keeper, who can keep an eye on the building, can carry out minor repairs and who is available in case of problems. Also in this street, the city provided money for a children's play-ground.

Some of the flat-buildings have been sold to private owners, to change the composition of the community into partly flat- or house-owners, partly people who rent city-flats. Also flats have been offered to the tenants for sale. While in many cities this means that the previous tenants never have the financial means to take up such an offer, in Frýdek-Místek these flats are sold for a low price (compared to Czech standards) of around 20,000 CZK (approximately 540 USD).

Beskydská
In this street, again with similar houses as in the earlier-mentioned streets or areas, the city is planning more extended reconstruction, including drainage. Since a large project like this costs more than 500,000 CZK (approximately 13,500 USD), the work has to be offered to firms by means of a public tender. This limits the possibilities for the city to contract Roma firms for this project. The city will try to partly solve this by negotiating with the firm who will win the tender, to approach smaller Roma firms to be sub-contractors.

Since December 2000, a Roma cultural and social centre has been opened in Frýdek-Místek. Also for this centre, the City agreed to ask a symbolic rent of 1 CZK per square metre. The centre is used for activities of the Association of Roma in Moravia. One assistant/secretary is employed to work in the centre. The wage of this person is provided for by the local Labour Office, within the framework of Public Useful Labour.

Since September 2000, the status of Roma-advisor has been established at the town-hall of Frýdek-Místek. The task of this person is to provide council and support to Roma in their contacts with the local authorities and the different municipal offices.

Note 1: This is something which is far from uncommon in old, low-category flats in many Czech cities, towns and villages