The Lleida City Council, the Servei d'Ocupació de Catalunya, and the Fundación Secretariado Gitano have signed a four-year agreement to promote training and employment for up to 440 Roma people from the La Mariola neighborhood. The Acceder program, which will come into effect immediately, will assist 110 people each year until 2029.
The agreement focuses on one of the neighborhoods with the largest Roma population in the city and does so with a starting point that marks the scope of the plan. Sara Giménez, Director General of the Fundación Secretariado Gitano, stated that 86% of the Roma population in Spain lives in poverty and that 60% of their women are unemployed.
The program will assist 110 people per year, and 55% will be women
The agreement was signed by Mayor Fèlix Larrosa, Secretary of Labor and Business Francisco Ramos, and the Director General of the Fundación Secretariado Gitano, Sara Giménez. The initiative will also have the collaboration of 40 companies from Lleida.
Roberto Pino, councilor for Civil Rights, explained that the program will offer personalized training and employment pathways. It will also include actions aimed at reducing prejudice and promoting the involvement of the local business community.
In addition to the overall figure of 440 participants over four years, the plan sets an annual distribution of 110 people. 55% of the places planned each year will be for women, in a context where the foundation itself places Roma female unemployment at 60%.
La Mariola is the starting point for the plan until the urban improvement is presented
The program will initially start in La Mariola, where a significant portion of Roma residents live. The choice of neighborhood links the employment intervention with other planned actions in the area.
Before the summer, the Lleida City Council will present the urban improvement plan for La Mariola. Larrosa argued that the agreement seeks to create opportunities and maintained that reducing inequality also improves coexistence.
Francisco Ramos framed the agreement within the cooperation between administrations and social entities. For her part, Sara Giménez added that the figures for school failure within the Roma population remain very high and linked programs of this type to sustained social improvement.
The Acceder program, defined as pioneering in Catalonia, will continue until 2029 with the collaboration of 40 companies from Lleida.