Second community meeting among SenioriNET members

SenioriNET members have decided to meet monthly in online “community meetings”. Yesterday evening at 7pm was the second such meeting.

We told each other what’s new in our organisations – activities dedicated to seniors, projects, challenges.

We also had guests – Diana Chiriacescu and Mihaela Munteanu (who presented platformasociala.ro – a project run by FONSS in partnership with Caritas Romania (founding member of SenioriNET), FONPC and Dizabnet.

We learned about future focal points and advocacy courses, working strategies to get private social services funded. After 1 January, the procedure by which new members from Federations and Networks can be included in the platform will be published.

At the same time, the coordinator of SenioriNET (Mariana Oancea) updated us on the proposals for the draft decision on the approval of some Programmes of National Interest for the development of social services for the elderly submitted to the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection.

Ideas from the meeting:

• – Coalization is very important if we want to achieve impactful changes in the social system and if we want to make our work easier, more coordinated and more efficient.
• – It is beneficial to encourage our beneficiaries and other vulnerable people to apply to public authorities for the services they need, thus helping to map the need for social services and ‘encouraging’ authorities to budget for their funding.
• – It is necessary for us, the providers, to evaluate the costs of services and to remain in constant dialogue with the authorities in order to signal both the existing social needs and the offer of services.