In a competition of thirty-five registered projects from the entire Europe four finalists were selected to the final nomination. Together with projects of the Polish Central Prison Service, General Public Prosecutors´Office in Brandenburg and Amsterdam District Court, there was also a Czech project of the Probation and Mediation in Justice Association called "Mentor Scheme". In the end, the first prize went to the Central Prison Service of Poland for the project "Voluntary work of convicts on behalf of handicapped". But even so the short nomination was a high success for the Probation and Mediation in Justice Association which celebrated the fifteenth anniversary of its existence recently.
Mentors trained within the project try to motivate members of the Roma communities to a proper execution of alternative sentences, especially the community service. Thanks to them there has been a decline in the number of cases when these sentences are changed into imprisonment, potentially further worsening the situation of those the project is aiming at.
"The Mentor Scheme is the proof of a useful sharing of good practices in Europe, because this successful project was preceded by the cooperation with the Danish Probation Service from which we had derived inspiration. The prize is a beautiful present to the fifteenth anniversary of our Association´s start of operationing and an enormous support for our next activities", the Chairwoman of the Probation and Mediation in Justice Association, Dagmar Doubravová said.
The service is provided by a trained layman - the mentor, a member of the Roma community who accompanies and encourages his client. He motivates him to fulfil the set conditions, he steers him to responsibility, increases his awareness of the seriousness of the situation he is in, and the will to solve it. The advantage and the basic pillar of the service is the language and cultural affinity of the mentor which enables him to gain the client´s confidence and to get into a personal contact with him. It thus opens an area for further and often very needful help, e.g. in dealing with insolvency, unemployment, housing, child care and their education. The mentor mediates the client a contact with institutions, he is an interconnection between him, justice and other experts working with the Roma minority.
The Probation and Mediation in Justice Association, in cooperation with the Czech Probation and Mediation Service and supported by the Czech Ministry of Justice, has been implementing this project in the Czech Republic already since 2004. It has created a special course for mentors´ training comprising an introduction to law, social work and effective communication. 60 mentors have been trained so far therein.
As of 31 December 2008, 573 clients have been involved in the scheme out of which the intervention was successful in 265 cases.
More about the Probation and Mediation Service can be found at http://www.spj.cz and www.mentoring.spj.cz.
Petra Střítecká, Spokesperson for the Czech EU Presidency