Track record[editar]
The track record of the Acceder programme is linked to the track record of the European Social Fund (ESF), the main European instrument to support job creation, to help people to get better occupations and to ensure fairer employment opportunities for the citizens of the European Union.
The previous pilot experience was developed in Madrid in 1998 and framed within the Operational Programme Fight Against Discrimination (Integra).
Later, the First Operational Programme 2000-2006 would allow to improve the employability of the Roma population and to promote Roma access to salaried employment. The FSG established the groundwork to offer broad territorial coverage, with the implantation of 49 support centres distributed across 14 regions of Spain. Furthermore, it established an extensive partnership network with administrations and companies. These actions have generated a progressive change in mentalities, both among Roma families towards salaried employment and among public administrations and private companies towards the Roma community.
During the Second Operational Programme 2007-2013, Acceder’s primary purpose becomes the improvement of working conditions, permanence in employment, advancements in the inclusion of migrant Roma persons and the incidence in formative aspects with a view to improving the academic level and qualifications of beneficiaries.
Furthermore, the FSG launched new lines of action built on interventions initiated in the first Operational Programme: it generalised pathways of access to self-employment; consolidated the work realized in the framework of protected employment initiatives; initiated the study, evaluation and constitution of labour insertion companies; and intensifies its work at the European level, for instance by transferring the Acceder programme to Romania.
Since 2016, the Fundación Secretariado Gitano manages new projects within the framework of the European Social Fund Operational Programmes: the Operational Programme on Social Inclusion and Social Economy (POISES) and the Operational Programme on Youth Employment (POEJ). These programmes substitute the Operational Programme to Combat Discrimination that the FSG has been managing, together with other NGOs and public administrations, since 2000.
Today, the Acceder programme has proven to constitute a powerful instrument for the social inclusion of the Roma community by bringing the latter closer to employment; an initiative oriented to efficacy, quality, transparency and management rigour.
Honours and awards
The Acceder programme has received numerous distinctions, which suppose an incentive, a responsibility and a commitment to developing its action ever more effectively. The following may be highlighted among others:
- Receive the “Digital Skills Awards Spain 2020” Prize, awarded by the Assocation of Businesses in the Technological Digital Industry Sector in Spain, for the initiative “Empleando Digital”. It has also been winner of the 2019 Vocational Education and Training (VET) Excellence Awards
- Selected as Good Practice among “Roma Stories from around the EU” accompanying the European Commission’s 2013 “Communication Steps Forward in Implementing National Roma Integration Strategies” and “Proposal of a Council Recommendation on Effective Roma Integration Measures”. European Commission, 2013.
- Selected as Good Practice in social inclusion by the European Commission in the presentation of its Social Investment Package along with the rest of the operators of the “Multiregional Operational Programme Fight Against Discrimination”. European Commission 2013.
- Good Practice at ‘Replicated’ (or ‘Best’) level in favour of Roma employment. Council of Europe, 2012.
- Good Practice Model in Training and Employment. Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe, 2011.
- “CAM Integra Prize” for projects improving the quality of life and the social integration of particularly vulnerable groups. Caja del Mediterráneo, 2009.
- Good Practice Model with the recommendation to transfer it to Central and Eastern Europe. High Level Group of the European Commission for the Social and Labour Integration of Ethnic Minorities, 2008.
- Highlighted as a model of good practice with a recommendation to transfer it to Central and Eastern Europe and Report of the High Level Advisory Group of Experts on the Social Integration of Ethnic Minorities and their Full Participation in the Labour Market (2007).
- Example of Good Practice of European Social Inclusion Plans Package along with the rest of the operators of the Operational Programme Fight Against Discrimination, in the Seminar of Transference to the rest of countries in the EU, “Peer Review October 2007”.
- Example of Good Practice for the development of the Social Awareness-raising Campaign “Know them before judging them”. European Social Fund, 2005.
- “GOOD” qualification in WORLD HABITAT AWARDS. Good practice model for the improvement of living conditions. UN HABITAT. United Nations, 2006.
- “BEST” qualification in WORLD HABITAT AWARDS. Good practice model for the improvement of living conditions. UN HABITAT. United Nations, 2004.
- Good Practice example of the promotion of vulnerable persons’ access to work. Ministers of Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council of the European Union, 2004.
- Example of Good Practice for its level of effectiveness, its insertion rates and its contribution both to Equal Opportunities and to the European Strategy for Employment as well as to National Action Plans for Employment. European Social Fund, 2003.
- Good Practice Model. National Action Plan for Employment of Spain, 2001.
Acceder in the media
New York Times. 5 December 2010
“In Spain, Gypsies find easier path to integration”
ABC – Castile and León Edition. 30 March 2012
“Nosotros sí trabajamos”
European Commission. Video produced for the II European Summit on Actions and Policies in favour of the Roma Population.
Do we really know the Roma?Country factsheets: Spain, with reference to the campaign "When I grow up I want to be..."
Roma stories from across the EU: Spain, with reference to the Acceder programme
20 years of support for Roma by Spanish Acceder Programme