Vulnerable people to benefit from special support package through Inclusion and Social Dignity Programme

Vulnerable people will benefit from a special package of support through the Inclusion and Social Dignity Programme, the first calls for projects to be opened in the second quarter of this year, informs the Ministry of European Investments and Projects (MIPE).

In total, in 2023, 10 calls worth a total of 970 million EUR will be launched through this program, and projects can be submitted by administrative-territorial units, local action groups, social service providers, social enterprises or administrators of entrepreneurship schemes social, told Agerpres.

According to MIPE, from the total budget of 4.15 billion EUR available to the Inclusion and Social Dignity Program, the largest allocation goes to the support given to preschoolers and students, mothers with new babies and the provision of basic food/hot meals for people from disadvantaged groups (980 million EUR).

"It is for the first time that Romania has a program with European funding specifically dedicated to vulnerable groups and we will use this opportunity to support the elderly, children, people with disabilities, single-parent families or mothers in difficulty. We have financed, in recent years, from EU funds, measures that have improved the lives of many Romanians with low incomes - food parcels, educational vouchers, "Support for Romania" social cards, energy cards and we are preparing other similar measures. But, unfortunately, 1 out of 3 Romanians is exposed to the risk of poverty or social exclusion, the most exposed to this phenomenon being the vulnerable groups. In this sense, the Social Inclusion and Dignity Programme is an instrument that allows us to build a system of integrated social services that will support, in the long term, vulnerable people : we will finance integrated social centers, home care services for the elderly, educational or integration centers on the labor market, independent living services for people with disabilities who leave the institutionalized system, social enterprises," declared the Minister of European Investments and Projects, Marcel Bolos.

The Inclusion and Social Dignity Programme will finance 11 investment priorities: local development placed under the responsibility of the community; local development placed under the responsibility of the community - rural area; protecting the right to social dignity; supporting rural communities without access or with limited access to social services; reducing the disparities between children at risk of poverty and/or social exclusion and other children; support services for the elderly; support for people with disabilities; social and support services provided to other vulnerable groups; social innovation; helping disadvantaged people; technical assistance.

Public and private institutions, especially in the field of social protection, can submit funding applications.