CoNet meeting in Sofia

Greeted by the Mrs. Atanasova, Deputy Mayor of Sofia, CoNet partners learned about Sofia's social services.

The Krasna Poliana district is a disadvantaged neighbourhood of the Bulgarian capital. Many residents in this district are from the Roma community. There were diverging views what role ethnic background and discrimination play in social segregation.  As other Roma communities in other parts of Sofia are well integrated a close look at segregation on a neighbourhood scale is necessary. Visiting and comparing two schools in the district highlighted the fact that teaching children from different ethnic and social backgrounds together is more likely to bring educational success than teaching disadvantaged children in "special" segregated schools.

A social enterprise project was visited which provides people with mental difficulties with employment. It is integrated into a daily center for this target group. CoNet partners from Apeldoorn, Gijon, Liverpool and Vaulx-en-Velin contributed examples of different social enterprises from their cities.