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Czech thematic networks point out interesting projects outcomes

January 2007

After almost a year of the existence of national thematic networks in the Czech Republic all the relevant actors attended a nationwide conference to summarize the progress achieved so far. The most praised part of the conference was a "fair" of successful projects. Four of these interesting projects are presented in detail below.

The National Support Structure, PricewaterhouseCoopers, in cooperation with the EQUAL Managing Authority, held an annual conference on national thematic networks. The conference took place in Prague November 24th 2006. More than 180 people attended the event, including representatives of each DP, policy-makers, representatives of local and regional governments, other relevant public institutions at national and local level, third sector organizations, and mass media.

Since February 2006, thematic networks have been operating in order to gather and disseminate the best practices in the Czech Republic. The following six thematic networks were established in the Czech Republic:

Facilitating access and return to the labour market for persons who have difficulty in being integrated into the labour market
Setting up businesses and development of individual entrepreneurship
Strengthening the social economy, in particular the services of interest to the community
Supporting adaptability and lifelong learning
Equal opportunities for women and men
Integration into the labour market for foreigners

After almost a year of existence, all the relevant actors attended a nationwide conference to review the developments achieved so far. Blanka Elfmarková, deputy minister of Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, and Pavel Pinkava, representative of the European Commission, gave the welcome note. Both of them stressed the significance of thematic networks in the overall mainstreaming process.

Afterwards, the chairman of each network presented its mainstreaming strategy. These strategies will be carried out in the following months and their outcomes will be presented at the next annual thematic network conference.

Chairmen also provided an insight into the work of the different thematic networks and sharing good and bad experience. "Find experts with a professional interest in the theme, set achievable goals, which will unite the DP's and experts, and do not forget to have fun" advised Robert Sztarovics, chairman of one of the networks.

In order to get an insight from other Member States, Barbara Orthodoxou from the British National Support Structure and Will Thompson from the UK Managing Authority were invited to take part in this conference. Their presentation summarized British experience with national thematic networks. These networks have played a key role in producing mainstreaming strategies for every theme in the UK. "Policy makers have influenced the mainstreaming priorities of each theme while DP's have welcomed this intervention as it has benefited their mainstreaming and dissemination potential" pointed out Barbara Orthodoxou.

The overall feedback from the participants was positive. "It was a good opportunity to meet with other project managers, strengthen contacts with experts and also to compare the first outcomes with others" stated one of the participants in the feedback form. As it turned out, the most praised part of the conference was a "fair" of successful projects. The fair took place in the foyer of the conference centre where nine projects presented their so far achieved outcomes.

Four of the interesting projects from the conference fair are presented in detail below:

Czechs check new ways in soft skills development

The "Competencies for Labour Market" project (CZ-43) in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic has been confirmed as a good practice model in LED: Local Employment Development. RPIC-ViP/Regional Employment Agency and its 22 partners prepare a unique innovative programme for soft skills development within the life-long learning process from primary schools to senior age. A confirmed interest of partners from other countries in the Key Competencies Programme supports the idea to "internationalize" the whole programme in the European Union.

Life-long learning system development for the hearing-impaired

"Blindness separates people from things, deafness from people," with these words from Helena Kellerová as its motto, the project "Lifelong learning system for aurally-handicapped" (using the acronym "For a full life" - CZ-45) strives to be a key player in lifelong learning system development for the aurally handicapped in the Czech Republic. One of the project's manifold activities is focused on the improvement of the communication of the deaf in public institutions. A network connecting public institutions via the Internet to the on-line sign language translation centre is being put into test operation within the framework of this activity.

Social firm as a suitable model for employment of disadvantaged people

Social firm Café Therapy is a café restaurant employing people with drug addiction experience in the centre of Prague. Social firm Garden, a transformation of a sheltered workshop - employs people with mental illness experience and provides small gardening and up-keeping services. Both above mentioned social forms are part of the project called "Social firm development" (CZ-64). The project aims at presenting a social firm as one of the models for employment of disadvantaged people in the Czech Republic.

Focus on reintegration of ex-prisoners to the labour market

"The Chance project - Coalition Chance" (CZ-28) is implementing a new reintegration program for people before and after release from prison. "First I did not know what a mentor is but I imagined that one would come to my house to control me like in a movie... I was scared... But now my mentor helps me to write down a schedule of values to pay my debts, she assists me while I look for a job and I treat her more as a friend... I think that Chance is a benefit, it is not a bureaucratical approach..." summed up one client's experience with the project.

Further information on EQUAL in the Czech Republic can be found on www.equalcr.cz.

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