Complementarities between urban and rural areas in promoting ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

COMPLEMENTARITIES BETWEEN URBAN AND RURAL AREAS IN PROMOTING EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL INCLUSIONMeasures have been combined that are normallyquite separate from each other. Drug addicts areprovided with therapy to counter drug abuse andare provided with training in life managementskills to enable them to manage everyday life. Atthe same time, they are provided with an apartmentand a package of services is tailored toeach individual.For the target group of long-term unemployedmiddle-aged men in Northern Helsinki, the basicideas are similar. This project has been runningfor 2 years and has reached about 120 persons,around 30 of whom now have a ‘sheltered job’with a couple of them employed within the normallabour market. The represents a considerableachievement given the extent of the problemsthese people have had.attitude that provides the motivation for helpingthese people enter employment and mainstreamsociety and that argues that these schemes areworthwhile regardless of the number of peoplethey assist.Secondly, the services system for the targetgroups mentioned above is directed at individualclients. Social workers have to carefully assessthe individual circumstances of their mostexcluded clients.Thirdly, we can learn from the cooperation ofdifferent types of authorities i.e. local authorities,the Ministry of Labour, healthcare institutions.While these authorities do not alwayswork together, during our project they neverthelessco-operated closely with each other.WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE EXPERIENCESIN HELSINKI?Tackling problems of social exclusion is, firstly,more a question of attitude than of method. It isHowever, one large problem remains. The labourmarket does not need people with low productivityand it remains a considerable challenge topersuade labour markets to accept low-qualifiedpeople on to the labour market.■ Social inclusion in Northern Karelia:a substance free life - an ongoing projectJorma Palola, Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities (AFLRA)— 18 —Drug addiction and crime are phenomena presentnot only in urban but also in rural areas.A cross-border programme in the Finnish andRussian parts of Northern Karelia tries to tacklethis problem. Several programmes have beenlaunched such as drug awareness courses forpupils and training schemes for Russian doctors.One project dealing with social inclusion in ruralareas in Finland deals with young drug-addicts.It is a cross border programme comprising theFinnish and Russian parts of Northern Karelia.A joint survey revealed that in one place, inSortavala, Russian Karelia, adolescents and children,as well as the healthcare services and educationand social services employees, where notespecially well informed about the adverseeffects of drugs. Furthermore, knowledge of substanceabuse prevention and the treatment ofsubstance abuse patients were lacking. In addition,there were no proper facilities for youngpeople to spend their leisure time.The project was set up with the objectives ofincreasing expertise on how to deal with substanceabusers, increasing children’s and adult’sknowledge of substance abuse and strengtheningtheir social skills. In addition, it aimed tosupport civic activities in Russian Karelia. Theproject is fed by Finnish government funds forcross border cooperation. There are severalactors involved, such as the Regional Council of
COMPLEMENTARITIES BETWEEN URBAN AND RURAL AREAS IN PROMOTING EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL INCLUSIONNorthern Karelia, a number of municipalitiesand the Finnish Nurses’ Association, who allwork together on this project. Results so farinclude the training of four nurses in substanceabuse prevention and the preparation of materialfor inclusion on the school curriculum ondrug prevention. The organisation “Mothersagainst Drugs” has been founded in RussianKarelia. Cross-border student exchange visitshave been organised which deal with the themeof preventing substance abuse. There have alsobeen activities to promote social inclusion skillsamongst students. A computer classroom withten computers was established in a school. Therehave been a number of indirect results as well asthose, which are already visible. The streets havebecome safer as anti-drug education in schoolshas increased in Russian Karelia.■ The role of local development in meeting the challenges of unemploymentand social inclusion: the EQUAL InitiativeGerhard Bräunling, DG Employment and Social Affairs, European CommissionEQUAL tests new ways of solving discriminationand inequality experienced by those in work andthose who are unemployed. The key principals ofEQUAL are: transnational co-operation, innovation,empowerment, thematic and partnershipapproach, dissemination and mainstreaming.Activities are structured on the four pillars of theEuropean Employment Strategy: Employability,Entrepreneurship, Adaptability and Equal Opportunitiesfor women and men. It is funded by theEuropean Social Fund (ESF).THE AIM OF THE INITIATIVEThe EQUAL initiative is a response by the EuropeanCommission to a number of questions ontackling exclusion, discrimination and inequalityin relation to the labour market. It is also designedfor those members of the workforce whohave problems starting new work due to theirsocial, health or family situation. EQUAL promotesnew means of combating all forms of discriminationand inequalities in connection withthe labour market through transnational cooperation.EQUAL is an experimental programme to develop,validate and mainstream new means of deliveringemployment and social inclusion policyand to undertake this at the local and regionallevel. This is also a means by which to empowerlocal and regional actors. In other words, EQUALis a laboratory for new forms of integrativeinclusive employment. As Ms Diamantopolouonce said: “If we were a production company,then EQUAL would be our laboratory, our developmentarm which develops and tests userorientedelements and implements them intothe mainstream policies at regional, nationaland European level.”At the European level, two major strategiesexist: The European Employment Strategy, currentlybased on the four pillars (employability,entrepreneurship, adaptability and equal opportunities)and the European Social Inclusion Strategy.Both strategies follow a similar pattern ofopen coordination and try to integrate local andregional actors and their experience. The problemis how this is done and one of the solutionsto this is through learning.EQUAL initiatives bring together all relevantactors. Transnationality is illustrated through acombination of experience, learning from othersand learning from experiences in other memberstates. Secondly, there is the aspect of partnership:there are no single projects. These individualprojects are part of a set of projects whichare driven by partnership of local and regionalauthorities, social partners, training agencies, aswell as NGOs. It cannot be assumed that partnershipswork. Consequently the funding arrangementwas changed and a preparation periodof at least 6 months was decided on. The idea— 19 —
Page 3 and 4: COMPLEMENTARITIES BETWEEN URBAN AND
Page 19: COMPLEMENTARITIES BETWEEN URBAN AND
Page 28: C ONSEILDES C OMMUNESET R ÉGIONSD

Complementarities between urban and rural areas in promoting ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?