Live Facebook Events reaches over 2,200 Hungarian ROMA clients in response to COVID-19
Settlement Workers in Schools (SWIS) is highlighting a valuable partnership that supports the Hungarian Roma community and is between The Neighborhood Office, Yorktown Family Services, West Neighborhood House and CultureLink Settlement and Community Services. This team of Hungarian speaking workers have set up meetings every other month for the past 10 years to share experiences and brainstorm about how to best support this community.
When quarantine came into effect, it was clear that the current situation needed rapid actions from the government, so the partnership thought it would be essential to inform the community about the changes and give them a forum to ask questions. A live Facebook Event was quickly planned early in April with over 1,000 viewers engaged. With so many changes happening on a daily basis, the following week, a second event where the team answered questions live reached over 2,200 viewers. It was an incredible response to an overwhelming need. The presentation is still available on Facebook. The team continues to meet and composes the main points to share with the public.
At this moment, smaller and more specific groups are being formed on Facebook for youth and families to meet once or twice weekly. This way, they will be able to divide the huge number of clients among the four partner agencies to provide more effective support. Right now, the most important need is to connect the students with the schools and their homework. The goal is to ease their uncertainty by giving youth a platform where they can share their feelings, ideas for session topics and meet with their peers while staying safe at home.
Partnership Team: 
- Hajnalka Klein – SWIS, CultureLink Settlement and Community Services
- Livia Kenyeres – Roma Youth Outreach Worker/ The Neighbourhood Organization
- Zsuzsanna Szel – Roma Youth Outreach Worker – West Quadrant Yorktown Family Services
- Ildiko Franyo – Settlment Workers, West Neighborhood House