First RSG in Maramureș County (RO)
More than 25 of representatives of public authorities, public institutions and NGOs active in the cultural and social field, participated on September 30th 2024, in the 1st regional meeting organized by Maramureș County Council, Romania.
The event agenda included the presentation of OpenRegioCulture project, the presentation of the preliminary results of the research on the accessibility held in Maramures, analysis of proposals for improving the access of people with special needs to natural and cultural resources in Maramureș, discussions related to the survey findings and proposals for future regional activities.
Introducing the project: In the opening of the event, Margareta Căpîlnean – project manager, Gheorghe Paul Szaniszlo – technical and inter-institutional relations expert, Mihaela Lițe – implementation expert and Roxana-Talida Roman – communication expert, representatives of the Maramures Council project team, presented the main elements of the OpenRegioCulture project: objectives, partnership, budget, implementation stages and main activities. Maramures County Council representatives also shared the first examples of good practices presented in June, during the first interregional meeting in Krakow, Poland.
Survey: Related to the project research, according to the methodology agreed at the project level, 3 categories of questionnaires have been developed in Romanian language by Maramures County Council and sent to Policymakers and public authorities; Organizations and stakeholders in cultural heritage sites; People with disabilities and varied needs from Maramures.
The aim of the survey is to explore the current state of accessibility of people with disabilities and varied needs to cultural environments and resources, to evaluate the effectiveness of existing policies that support the accessibility of people with disabilities and varied needs to cultural environments and to assess the barriers and identify the challenges faced by people with special needs in accessing both cultural resources and services.
More than 100 questionnaires have been sent to public authorities, institutions, NGOs and people with special needs from Maramureș and up to now, 49 representatives of Maramures target groups participated at the survey.
Workshop: During the workshop, the stakeholders of Maramures County discussed about the survey findings and presented their experiences regarding the accessibility, in terms of facilities offered by the cultural and natural sites and activities held for supporting the people with special needs. As well as, the discussions referred to proposals for accessibility partnerships and expectations regarding the regional policies in the field.
Conclusions: Solutions were proposed for improving the existing accessibility facilities and for the development of new initiatives on the matter approached in partnership as an inter-institutional effort. At the end of the meeting, proposals were made to improve the accessibility of cultural and natural resources for people with special needs, focusing on methods of awareness raising and people education in order to concretely aid the population in understanding special needs, develop empathy and train the civic spirit. Such goals are to be achieved relying on activities developed in partnership based on the adaptation and application of good practice models identified by means of OpenRegioCulture interregional partnership.