Grant scheme consultative sessions held

More than 60 representatives from residential and psychiatric institutions, local gself-governments (LSG) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Policy, the Delegation of the European Union and other institutions from Serbia participated in the two consultation sessions held on 20 June 2013 as part of the project activities.

Meetings were held with aim to exchange lessons learned of the process in deinstitutionalization so the grant scheme experts would prepare the framework taking into consideration the needs and obstacles that actors face in the field. On the other hand, institutions, LSG and NGO will be able to start with preparing applications for the local projects.

Dr. Monika Gabanyi, Project Team Leader held the opening speech at the sessions and presented the project objectives and the main challenges that the project has met. The audience was addressed by Aleksandra Čalošević, senior grant scheme expert on the project. She provided objectives and framework of the expected call for local projects with grants in the total amount of 3.2 million EUR financed by the European Union, with co-financing of 15%.

The open call is expected to be announced in July and will be open three months. The residential institutions in the field of health and social care, LSG and NGOs will be able to apply. Several informational sessions will be held with aim to present open call conditions and to cover questions and answers.

Participants presented their experiences, good and bad practices they encounter in their initiatives for deinstitutionalization. The main conclusion was that it is necessary to develop a solution for the sustainability of future projects, and also to receive financial support and political commitment from LSG. They underline that there is a vast lack of professional skills for providing services in the community and that it is necessary to develop a database of accredited programs to help professionals to be prepared for the new service.

An additional result of these sessions was the initiation of setting up networks and possible partnership between representatives of different organizations.