Development of social solidarity as a premise
Is a public institution really for the local people? Can anybody enter it? Will the person be able to get into it even if he or she is poor or lives with disabilities, or in the periphery of the settlement? Will that person receive equal treatment to the others, without any discrimination?
Is there an actual, true will to make great efforts to assure that those who not only cannot but do not want to participate in community life step out of indifference, lethargy and the depth of life, and actually join into different situations and it is assured that they are welcomed there? In addition to this, do we really want these people to enter a place where there is willingness and facilities to become stronger and a full-fledged and accepted member of the society?
Not everybody can have access to cultural institutions and participation in the ‘circulation’ of the settlement especially when the individual or smaller group in question, due to some sort of disadvantages, has no opportunities for access. Many different disadvantages can be the root-cause of the fact that these people do not even try to have access to the opportunities rendered available by an institution or an initiative made by the settlement. We have to pay special attention to equal opportunities in the area of quality of life in the family, in addition to the economic and social areas. In order to enforce the principle of equal opportunities also in practice, we have to implement the so-called positive discrimination measures, but in the case of a settlement, the ideal situation is to develop and sustain solidarity.
When we think about how we can assure that a community opportunity is actually available to everybody, we have to do it with an approach according to which everybody is the inhabitant of the settlement, and can do something for community life, the improvement of the community and, through this, the improvement of his or her own life. It is another issue how motivation to do so can be created if it is not there and how it can become not only the right (quasi opportunity) but also the responsibility of the people. The opportunity to know about it, to be part of it and shape community life or become an initiator at a level adequate to the person’s level of activity can be granted to everybody – no matter whether we speak about old, young people, women, children, people living with disabilities, sick people, or those living in poverty. It is the responsibility of the whole settlement, the local community as a whole to assure that everybody can do it and that the conditions for access are guaranteed to everybody, including the disadvantaged people.
It is especially important to think over the assurance of access from the perspective of equal opportunities and by special groups because in the lack of the other actors of the society it will remain just an empty phrase. Helping the people living in disadvantages is possible only by supporting cooperation among the inhabitants of the settlement and strengthening attention to each other and solidarity among them.
Who are those that can do the most to make caring about and assisting the disadvantaged and assuring their involvement in the process part of public and community awareness?
- Decision-making level,
- Human service provider level (inter-professional – mostly social, rural and municipal development, educational, health-care, environment protection),
- Citizen level
At each level, the objective is awareness raising and putting and enforcing these aspects and considerations in practice during the programmes and procedures. In order to assure that the communities are in the focus during the initiation and implementation of the processes targeting the settlement, a part of the settlement or the region and give birth in public culture to cultural institutions accessible to everybody, thinking together with those affected by the issue of equality opportunity is a must.
This approach requires also at settlement and institutional levels to become familiar with how it is possible to work with the disadvantaged people.
Social integration presumes at least two media; an including (integrating) medium and a medium willing to be integrated (medium to be integrated). On the part of one of the medium, the integrating one, there has to be openness, sensitivity and promptitude. On the part of the other medium, in addition to all the above, the most important thing is promoting confidence and self-confidence contributing to and promoting the mental level.
This article based on the following document: