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Anna Csongor is a university professor and a professional dealing with development and support policies. She has been involved with Autonómia Foundation for over 20 years, where she is currently the Chair of the Board of Trustees. Throughout her career, she has tried to harmonize theory and practice, linking the two aspects in her activities, and contributing to the spread of community based thinking and assistance. For ten years after finishing her university studies she served as a family assistant in an outer district of Budapest, then for another ten years she studied the situation of Roma children in the education system as a sociologist.
From 1993 to 2013 Csongor’s professional work was focusing on Autonómia Foundation, first as a member of staff and after 1995 as the head of the organization. This private foundation deals with socially disadvantaged people, working out community based solutions to the various manifestations of poverty. Also since 1993, Csongor has been working at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Eötvös University, Budapest, contributing to the education of social work and social policies. She is striving to pass on her professional experiences through teaching subjects related to the Roma population and community social work as well as to non-profit and project oriented activities. She was also an active initiator of Civil Society and Community Development Masters studies. Besides teaching, she undertakes the development of educational materials on antidiscrimination.
Between 1999 and 2003 Csongor was a member of the board of International Association of Community Development (IACD). From 2005 to 2006 she was working on a contractual basis at the Ministry of Youth, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, where she was in charge of controlling mentoring activities related to the model program of housing and social integration of people living in Roma colonies. In the early 2000s she was co-chair of PAKIV European Roma Fund, where she dealt with the support of programs related to income generation and interest representation of Eastern European Roma communities.
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