Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion presents 2013 report to cabinet

The following is a press release from the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion:

At yesterday’s cabinet session the Czech Government took into account the 2013 annual report of the Agency for Social Inclusion. The report summarizes in detail the results of the Agency’s work in towns and villages where it aids local governments in addressing their inhabitants’ deteriorating social situations.

The report also summarizes the Agency’s collaboration with Regional Authorities, its support for towns where anti-Romani assemblies have been held, and other activities. "After six years, the Agency in collaboration with municipalities and other partners, is achieving clear results. The Agency has a reserve of more than 50 professionals and expert know-how. It is prepared to solve the problem of the growth in socially excluded localities on the territory of the Czech Republic," says Martin Šimáček, director of the Agency for Social Inclusion.    

"At the start of January and the start of July of this year we selected new towns and villages to work with, and at the end of June we left nine municipalities after three years of collaboration there. Many good results remain in those place after our involvement. In Obrnice there is now a center that provides backup to four kinds of social services, in Bruntál, Jirkov and Kutná Hora social enterprises have been developed to employ the long-term unemployed, and in Bruntál and Jirkov we helped introduce a system of permeable employment that helps increase jobless people’s chances of finding work," Šimáček says.    

The Agency assisted the municipalities with which it collaborated in preparing strategic plans on social inclusion. Those plans were the basis for the support given during the design of specific projects, funding for which was then sought from both domestic and European subsidy programs.

During 2013, 98 projects that had received Agency assistance during their design were approved and implemented. Towns and villages received more than CZK 663 million to support social inclusion, impacting more than 12 000 people.

During 2013 the Agency continued its collaboration with some Regional Authorities, specifically, the Karlovy Vary, Liberec, Moravian-Silesian, Olomouc and Ústí Regions. These Regional Authorities, together with the Agency, designed extensive projects to support social services.  

The Agency also collaborated on the design of these regional projects with the regional branches of the Labor Office. Thanks to these projects, dozens of subsidized jobs for the long-term unemployed have been funded.

"This past year was also marked by repeated anti-Romani assemblies in several places around the country. Agency staffers were directly at the scene of such marches in 15 cases, monitoring the situation and offering municipalities and police support with ameliorating the impacts of these assemblies on local residents and with cooperation," Šimáček says.  

During 2013 the Agency also continued to oversee the fulfillment of the Strategy for the Fight against Social Exclusion and, in collaboration with various ministries, continued to prepare the new program period of EU subsidy funds for 2014-2020. The Agency also continued preparing a campaign against hate violence that will be implemented this year.