The Third Sector of Social Action and Roma People During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The most recent scientific literature shows the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on socially vulnerable groups such as Roma people. Non-profit social initiative organizations were active agents in overcoming the effects of the pandemic. This article shows the role that Third Sector of Social Action organizations played in alleviating the impact of the pandemic in collaboration with the Roma community itself, as part of the R&D&I research project ROM21, which studied the social agency of the Roma population in Spain regarding overcoming inequalities caused by the pandemic in relation to education, social services, and civic organizations. Based on the communicative methodology, discussion groups and interviews were conducted with Roma people and professionals from social services, civic organizations, and the health and education sectors, with 54 Roma women, 24 Roma men, 40 professionals, and 5 social activists participating. The results show the social initiative entities’ social action strategies in collaboration with the Roma community and the public administrations that responded to the needs that arose during the pandemic and in the post-pandemic context.

1. Introduction

From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to the present day, the social sciences have been investigating its effects on different social spheres without investigating, in many cases, the intersectionality of variables in depth. However, studies have shown the need to contemplate the specificities of various social groups when analyzing the pandemic’s impact (Smith and Judd 2020; Van Bavel et al. 2020). As will be shown later, the Roma community is one of those groups that has suffered the most significantly from the consequences of the pandemic (Macias León 2022; Macías León and Del Pino-Brunet 2023; Stasolla and Vitale 2020). The already existing precariousness of many Roma people was exacerbated by this situation (Cârstocea 2023).

Although the social sciences have advanced in providing knowledge on the impact of the pandemic from an intersectional perspective, there is still a gap in scientific research that shows us actions that have helped to overcome the impact of the pandemic (López de Aguileta 2024). On the other hand, there is an abundance of scientific evidence about the human agency capacity of Roma women and thier tendency to exercise positive leadership within their families and communities concerning different agents in their social context (Garcia 2015).

The R&D&I project ROM21: Evidence-based solutions for the overcoming of COVID-19 effects on the Roma community. Roma women leading communities’ transformation was designed to cover the marked lack of evidence, with its general objective “to create knowledge with scientific and social impact, which contributes during and after the project to identify policies and actions led by Roma women aimed at overcoming the inequalities faced by the Roma population in Spain and aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic”.

This article responds to this general objective by showing the results related to the role that Third Sector of Social Action (TSSA) entities, in collaboration with Roma women and their community, public administrations, and other social agents, played during the pandemic. It focuses on specific elements that helped alleviate the impact of the pandemic on the Roma community in three different regional communities: Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Aragon.

1.1. Contextualization

Like other contemporary systems, the Spanish welfare system is institutionally mixed, so the coverage of social needs is provided through a combination of four main actors: the State or public sector, households/families, the market, and civil society (Rodríguez Cabrero and Pérez Yruela 2023). Given the events in the contemporary history of Spain and the Mediterranean welfare state, on which the effects of the 2008 economic recession were particularly intense, social policies have been cut back when necessary (Martín Martín et al. 2024).

Concerning this, many contributions of the scientific community have revealed that the expansion of individualistic values of choice in the face of public and private offers of social assistance (especially among the middle classes), the growing fragmentation in citizen expectations and the emergence of new collective ‘needs’ have stimulated the appearance and development of a ‘third sector’ in socio-economic relations (Moreno and Sarasa 1992). The Third Sector, or the TSSA (Third Sector of Social Action), develops three primary functions: claiming and defending social rights, providing personalized services and support, and promoting the civic participation of the affected people and all citizens (Rodríguez Cabrero and Pérez Yruela 2023).

Regarding the COVID-19 crisis, it should be noted that Spain entered a cost-of-living crisis, having been the most affected nation in southern Europe and one that took longer to recover from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic (Moreira et al. 2024). According to FOESSA, in the study “Evolution of social cohesion and the consequences of COVID-19 in Spain,” compared to previous crises, there has been a faster and more global response of public policies to contain the increase in social needs. However, this buffer effect has been limited by the delay in collecting some aid and the difficulties in accessing it for the most vulnerable groups (Fundación Foessa 2022).

1.2. Roma People in Spain

Data on the number of Roma people has always been unclear due to the lack of ethnic registers in the different countries that make up the Old Continent. The most recent estimates from the Council of Europe indicate an average of 6,172,800 Roma individuals across Europe (European Commission 2011), with about 725,000 residing in Spain, mainly in Andalusia, Valencia, and Catalonia. However, with the adoption of more precise counting methods that include ethnic self-identification, this number drops to 560,676 (La Parra-Casado et al. 2018). Although the coexistence between majority societies and the Roma has spanned 600 years, this ethnic group still faces social inequality compared to the majority, stemming from a long history of rejection, persecution, and efforts to exterminate them (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights 2022; Hancock 1987; Kenrick 2007).

This situation of social injustice from the outset caused the Roma community to suffer more significantly the consequences generated by the COVID-19 pandemic in different areas of the development of daily life (economic–labor, educational, relational, health, food, and spiritual), as shown by the scientific literature in this regard (Arza et al. 2020; Magano and Mendes 2021; Soares et al. 2024). It should also be noted that the existence of deeply rooted Romanophobia in majority societies (Hancock 1987) led to questionable institutional practices from the point of view of human rights, such as militarized quarantine in countries such as Slovakia, described by Surová (2022). Many times, this population has been blamed for the spread of the virus, exacerbating the structural discrimination, racism, and xenophobia against Roma (Macias León 2022).

Fortunately, in the Spanish context, there is a political will to eradicate the inequality of Roma People, as evidenced by legal and political actions such as recognizing them as a people (Declaración Del Parlamento de Cataluña de Reconocimiento de La Persecución y El Genocidio Del Pueblo Gitano 2007). The creation of mechanisms for political participation at the state, regional, and local levels and the recent incorporation of anti-gypsyism in the current anti-discriminatory law in Spain (Madrid Perez 2022) have also contributed to this effort. This commitment to eradicate the situation of the social injustice of the Roma people is advancing thanks to the context of political opportunities (Tarrow 1997) in which the Spanish welfare state is configured, as will be seen below.

1.3. TSSA and Roma Presence Within Associations

Regarding contextualization, we see how the welfare state model, added to the different episodes of economic crises, has led TSSA entities to become increasingly important, serving as an essential complement to the social services system in being able to respond to the needs that public administrations do not address (Cabra de Luna 2014). It should be noted that these entities are important not only for their role as a provider of social resources but also because their independence from public bodies allows them to develop a free-minded role of claiming the rights and defense of certain groups that do not appear as priorities in political agendas. They are, therefore, channels of participation and inclusion that contribute to making established democracies more participatory (Rodríguez Cabrero 2013).

In the case of Roma people, associations have been a pivotal tool in moving towards equal opportunities, social recognition, and overcoming the anti-gypsyism that operates, unconsciously wandering both in different social structures and the collective imaginaries of citizens (Adelantado 2008; Ruíz 2009; Ujaranza 2009). It is worth noting the critical role of Roma Women’s Associationism, which began in 1990 with the creation of the Romí Association in Granada (Museu Virtual del Poble Gitano de Catalunya and Méndez 2016). This set a benchmark for other associations, such as the Drom Kotar Mestipen Women’s Gitana Association in Barcelona (born in 1999), which mobilizes more than 700 women worldwide through its international Roma Congresses (Congresos Internacionales de Mujeres Gitanas 2022).

Returning to the TSSA in general, the scientific literature, both Spanish and international, highlights its ability to respond to the social needs of population sectors that do not have access to the essential social services offered by local administrations. Administrative demands such as a certificate of registration or a residence permit, as well as the relational difficulty in fitting in specific organizational dynamics or institutional cultures, cause some people to be excluded from social services and/or the resources accessed by the majority of the population; this is especially harmful in the case of the most vulnerable, such as immigrants, the homeless or ethnic minorities (Calò et al. 2022; Heaslip et al. 2021; Padilla et al. 2024). In the case of the Roma, due to the existence of a situation of generalized structural racism (Cachón Rodríguez 2023), the third Roma (and non-Roma social sector) has been crucial to transcend these difficulties (Palacín Bartrolí et al. 2021; Ruiz-Lozano et al. 2021).

As aforementioned, the TSSA is not a set of social entities that arise spontaneously and are isolated from the social system in which they are located. On the contrary, as (Bel Adell and Gómez Fayrén 2001) point out, we must not fall into simplistic interpretations that make an absolute division between the public sector, companies, and the TSSA since the latter, as well as governments and companies, must assume public responsibility, and their activity has public consequences, as in the case of other sectors too. In addition, its existence is sometimes fostered, and sometimes not, by a specific structure of political opportunities (Tarrow 1997). Thus, the TSSA works collaboratively with the public sector and the private sector through different ways of collaboration, although they maintain sufficient independence that gives them some advantage in making decisions and making more expensive organizational changes in more bureaucratic structures.

1.4. Social Care from the TSSA in Times of COVID

According to the scientific literature consulted both in Spain and elsewhere in the world, TSSA entities have played a prominent role in providing social care during the time of the pandemic and in covering the new needs generated by it once the period of the health crisis passed (Yurrebaso Macho and Picado Valverde 2021). As with social care devices in the public sphere, TSSA entities were affected by this crisis, having to continue carrying out a social task with the health risk that it entailed and with security measures such as confinement and/or social distance, the lack of technological devices to be able to modify healthcare procedures and the lack of protocols for social action or social emergency plans in 2020.

However, some additional difficulties are highlighted in these entities concerning the need for economic and human resources. At the financial level, the remittances of funding from public administrations were retained and/or reduced, which led to a shortage of resources to cover the social needs they were detecting. On a human level, they were deprived of the possibility of hiring all the necessary personnel. At the same time, many volunteers who carried out social tasks had to leave their functions because they were part of a group of elderly people, who were very vulnerable at that time.

Despite these vicissitudes, their role was as detectors of new needs, to make visible some of the groups most affected by the pandemic and, by their ability, to redefine their mission and reorganize themselves to be able to act (Malillos and Pérez 2020). According to the literature consulted, this capacity for action has to do with the abovementioned aspect related to not being subject to constraining regulations and/or rigid bureaucratic structures that hinder the ability to decide and act.

At the same time, their role as a binding node of all the social agents involved in the lives of the people they care for is unraveled. In this sense, the networking that entities had already been developing has been key to being able to improvise responses by connecting and coordinating resources and seeking old and new alliances with public administrations, other social initiative entities, private initiative companies, and religious entities in the contexts in which they are located (Llosa et al. 2021). In some ways, they were facilitators of processes of the co-creation of social value through the interaction of different spheres of society to innovate beneficial responses for society (Ratten 2022).

In the case of the Roma community, we have already referred to the importance of Roma associations in improving the social situation of these people. Likewise, in the pandemic context, they also played an important role in emotional accompaniment, the provision of resources of different kinds (informative, personal, material, economic, and educational), and dialog with administrations and networking with other non-Roma entities and people of the neighborhoods they live in both nationally and internationally (Arza et al. 2020; Hetherington 2020). Likewise, non-profit entities with a strong tradition of working with the most excluded groups have also played a prominent role in the care of the Roma community (López de Aguileta 2024). It should be noted that recent studies show that entities within the TSSA, especially Roma associations, have facilitated and taken advantage of the leadership potential of Roma women to be able to innovate responses by incorporating the knowledge provided by their world of life into the scientific and technical expertise of professionals in the entities (López de Aguileta 2024).

In the same vein, the role of social care in Roma settlements in Europe is also present in the scientific literature about this topic. Some measures were established with the argument to preserve the health of those Roma settlements and to prevent the further spread of the disease, actions that the literature has pointed to as stigmatizing (Holt 2020; Surová 2022). In many of these settings, normative polarization has been seen in public discourse, with justifications of these measures by some authorities and the pragmatist mediation of some Roma associations defending Roma rights and meeting the needs not fulfilled by authorities (Cintulova et al. 2020).

1.5. Theoretical Framework and the Present Study

The present study is framed within the theory of the Dialogic Society (Flecha 2022). This theory exposes ways in which societies are becoming increasingly more based on dialog and co-creation among very diverse social actors. Although power relations and violence remain, this theory exposes ways in which these inequalities can be overcome. A similar transformation is occurring in the field of social work, as in other areas of knowledge. Professionals and researchers can no longer impose their views or procedures without engaging with the voices and perspectives of service users and research participants. Increasingly, citizens are refusing to accept imposed decisions, even when coming from experts or professionals, and demand greater participation in scientific processes (Torras-Gómez et al. 2025).

Within the context of the Dialogic Society, dialog—verbal or otherwise—is understood as the foundation of all human relationships. As this theory argues, there are only two modes of human interaction, dialog or violence; no third option exists (Flecha 2022). In response, researchers are seeking ways to foster dialog and dismantle hierarchical power structures. This study contributes to this effort, specifically within the realm of social work.

It is within this framework that the voices of usually excluded populations are increasingly being considered, as is the case of Roma populations. This research will focus, therefore, on these dynamics toward developing more egalitarian relationships among professionals of the TSSA and Roma citizens who use such services. More concretely, it aims to address the needs of the Roma minority and the types of effective support.

In the context of the 2030 Territorial Agenda, as mentioned previously when contextualizing this research, research project ROM21, funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCIN) and the State Research Agency (AEI), within the framework of this article, is determined to advance the achievement of five sustainable goals set by the United Nations Organization as one of its objectives: (1) gender equality, (2) non-poverty, (3) quality education, (4) decent work, and (5) reduction in inequality. Concretely, in this endeavor, the project’s general objective is to make visible the social actions carried out during the pandemic and post-pandemic context by the different social agents indicated (Roma women community, public administrations, and civil society) that were effective in the specific case of the Roma community.

This article shows the results of this research, focusing on the role played by the third social sector in interacting with Roma families led by women, public administrations, and other agents such as religious entities and some for-profit companies. This research seeks, therefore, to show the synergies among the agents that are part of the social protection system, the TSSA, entities from the same community, and other social agents such as commercial companies and religious entities.

2. Materials and Methods

As previously revealed, the present investigation is born as part of the R&D&I project ROM21, Evidence-based solutions for the overcoming of COVID-19 effects on the Roma community. Roma women leading communities’ transformation funded by the Spanish Science and Innovation Ministry (MCIN) and the National Research Agency (AEI).

This is a qualitative study that follows a communicative methodological orientation, in which knowledge is built through social interaction and dialog (Puigvert et al. 2012). This is an exploratory work, and the main aspects of the fieldwork are as follows: (a) a review of the scientific literature obtained from different scientific databases such as the WoS, JCR, and SCOPUS; (b) semi-structured interviews carried out with social services professionals, medical institutions, educational centers, non-profits, and religious entities (40 professionals and five non-professional social agents), deepening in different aspects according to the profile and experience of each professional or activist; and (c) communicative life stories and discussion groups of Roma men and women and Roma families (54 women and 24 men). This research was developed with residents from urban areas.

Regarding the sociodemographic data of the Roma participants, most participants fell within the 25 to 64 age group, with a small number of younger individuals and a few older participants. Marital status varied: the majority were married, while others were unmarried, widowed, or chose not to disclose this information. In terms of education, backgrounds ranged widely. Some had only completed primary or secondary education, a few had reached post-compulsory or tertiary levels, and a smaller group reported no formal education. Several participants did not disclose their educational background. Most had children, though a few did not or did not provide this detail. Regarding employment, some were engaged in formal work or street vending, while others were unemployed, on temporary leave, retired, or still studying. A notable portion of participants did not specify their employment situation.

The data was collected in three Spanish autonomous communities, Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Aragon, during the first two years of the project (2022–2023). Most interviews and discussion groups with Roma people were conducted in person. For professionals, the online option through platforms such as TEAMS or Zoom was the most used, with the corresponding meeting recording. Throughout the fieldwork process, the role of Roma women was a recurring subject of study of the researchers, being present in the interviews of the women who are part of this community and the professionals from the different areas of care. However, it should be mentioned that the interviews were conducted in two languages, Catalan and Spanish. The approximate duration of each interview varied depending on each narrative story and the personal experience of the interviewees. The data obtained in the fieldwork was encoded and transcribed upon realizing the analytical categories established later on in this section.

On an ethical level, this research followed the deontological precepts established in the Helsinki Declarations (World Medical Association 2000) and Taipei Declaration (World Medical Association 2016) of the World Medical Association. All collaborators were informed about the ROM21 project, the treatment of their data, and the subsequent publication of the results through reports, articles, and congresses, and informed consent documents were signed for data to be recorded. It should be noted that this article does not facilitate access to fieldwork data since it is sensitive material that can damage both individuals and the participating institutions. In this way, with informed consent, anonymity is guaranteed for all research participants. At the same time, this research has the ethical approval of the Community of Research on Excellence for All (with reference number 20230212).

Given this objective, the role of the TSSA in interacting with the Roma community and other social agents has been described in the following analytical categories based on a deductive analysis (Echeverría 2005). See

Table 1. Analytical categories related to social care from the different social agents present in the territory.

Code	Name	Description
C1	Flexibility and networking	Immediate responses, change in mission/function of the entity or professionals, network work overcoming corporatism
C2	Psychosocial support	Availability of listening, reporting, mediating, creation/powering of social/community networks, and empowerment
C3	Material resources	Food, ICT, healthcare material, and other healthcare resources
C4	Ethical and moral positioning	Action for compassion, professional deontology, and institutional values

Source: Own elaboration from the fieldwork of ROM21 (2021–2024).

:

In the analytical procedure, the transformative/exclusionary two-dimensionality described in the communicative methodology (Puigvert et al. 2012) has been taken into account as shown in the following table (

Table 2. Analysis chart.

	Exclusionary Dimension	Transformative Dimension
C1	1	2
C2	3	4
C3	5	6
C4	7	8
C5	9	10
C6	11	12
C7	13	14
C8	15	16

Source: Own elaboration from the fieldwork of ROM21 (2021–2024).

):

Although the analysis focuses on third-sector entities, by focusing on their interaction with other social agents, the sample analyzed includes public bodies from different fields (social services, health, and education) and third-sector entities that are the focus of our interest. It also consists of the testimony of agents linked to the evangelical church (See

Table 3. Entities involved in the processes of aid to the Roma community during the pandemic.

No.	Type of Entity	No. of Participants	Profile of Participants	Code
3	Autonomic Administration	3	Decision maker, executive position	ESOCDC 1, ESOCDC 2, ESOCPC 7_8, SOCDA1
5	Local administration	9	Social workers, intercultural technician, translator	ESOCPC1, ESOCPC2, ESOCPC3, ESOCPA1, EOCAGA 2
7	Roma entities	14	Social workers, decision makers, educational technician, social technician	EOCGC1, DMP_4, EOCGC 2_1, EOCGC 2_2, GDMP_5, EOCGC5_1, EOCGC5_2, EOC GX5 3, EOCAGA 2, EOCAGAH, EOCAGAM, GDMP_3, EOCGC2_1, EOCGC2_2
4	Non-profit entities	4	Social workers, pedagogists	EOCOOA1, EOCOOA2, EOCOOE1, GDMP_1
9	Educational centers	9	Directors, primary and secondary teachers, and a social integrator	ECEDC1, ECEDC2, ECEDC3, ECEPA1, ECEPA2, ECEDE1, ECEDE2, ECEPE1, GDMP_1
3	Health entities	3	Social worker, doctor, executive position	EOSC1, EOSC2, SOCDA1
1	Evangelic church	3	Evangelical pastor, parishioners	EOSRC_1, EOSRC_2, EPSRC_3
Total:		32 participants	45 profiles

).

3. Results

The results of the analysis of the data obtained in our fieldwork are structured through the four categories described in the previous section. The aim is to elucidate the main characteristics of the actions carried out by both public and third-sector social action organizations that provided care to the Roma community, mainly during the pandemic period, although actions are also envisaged in the post-pandemic scenario.

3.1. Civic Recognition and the Role of Roma Women

According to the accounts of the different professionals and social agents interviewed as part of this research, as well as the narratives of Roma men and women, the results obtained show that the social care provided to the Roma community during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic came from two sectors in the analyzed contexts. On the one hand, it came from the entities that make up public administrations, and on the other, from the entities and organizations that make up the third social sector or TSSA.

The ability to be flexible and to respond to the new needs that have arisen in this period is seen as an important protective factor. This means adapting functions, rules, and protocols agilely, following ethical and deontological criteria specific to aid professions such as social work, over and above regulatory rigidities, corporatist interests, and valid forms of social intervention in a normalized context. At the same time, it is important to highlight the responses articulated by the same agents involved in the problem. This refers to the role played by the Roma community itself, adopting an active role in solving their problems and within their environment, especially their families:

We women are mighty […]. As we say, we are very resourceful, but not only in the economic and eating sphere, we are resourceful in everything, in any sense, we have been surviving for so many years… and the Roma woman has played a very important role (…). Not that we are any better or worse, but we are special. And we are indeed very family-oriented. What most defines us is to be family-oriented and that we are there (…) I can’t say that it is characteristic because, at the end of the day, we Roma are humanity. We are very much like that. We help each other, but always, not only because of the pandemic.

(HVMA1)

Concerning what has been described previously in this section, the organization of the civil population through community networks, in some cases, made up for the slowness of action that public administration services had to provide in the context of social emergencies. The following contribution is an example of this:

It is true that at the level of neighborhoods, for example, the [name of the neighborhood] and [name of the neighborhood] began to move the neighborhood networks (…). What they did was a little bit of the function that the Parishes did, making Food Bank, but from the informal networks themselves. Here, many of those who have come and accessed [the food bank], it was indifferent whether they were Roma families or not, because, in the end, they are the same. (…)Then, these networks were launched, and in some neighborhoods, they were the ones that were sustained until the aid from the administration arrived.

(ESOCPC1)

Strictly speaking, regarding TSSA organizations, it should be noted that they changed their mission during the pandemic, adapting themselves fundamentally to the needs of the same agents to whom they direct their attention. This circumstance not only highlights the capacity of the organizations to adapt, especially in an adverse moment of social crisis, as in the context of this study, in which on some occasions, an assistance-oriented task was carried out, but it also evidences a context of decentralization:

The families needed an answer, and we have had to learn many things. As an organization with a mission from the Foundation, we do not work with this online procedure. We have always helped them, but there are things that we do not know (…). In [location], many collapses were already occurring in our normal daily lives. When the pandemic arrived, many families in the submerged economy that Social Services was not following collapsed, so these were the procedures Social Services was already trying to do for us. It was conducive in this sense.

(EOCGC5_1, EOCGC5_2, EOCGC5_3)

3.2. Coproduction Under Institutional Constraint

Throughout the pandemic period, strategies led by the TSSA and public administrations were channeled through various efforts, which included psychosocial support offered by specialized agents with greater availability of support and monitoring:

We have had a demand that has gone beyond our service and most of the time we have come to be a resource of relief and encouragement for the families, solving their lives and situations it is not easy […] It is true that my work has been more about relief and adapting schedules … I was sure that I had to instruct Roma women about technology education […] But it had a fundamental function that went with it, to serve as a support and relief by attending and listening to them.

(EOCAGAM)

Moreover, it must be highlighted that the important information provided by these entities to the Roma population, in some cases, assumes an intermediary role between Roma women and social agents present in their daily lives. According to our interviewees’ stories, this intermediation was carried out with public administrations and schools to meet the needs that arose at specific moments in time.

To be able to give a voice and pass on information it was also important, not only reacting by being a space where they could come to do paperwork and school revision but also the role that the entity has played as an intermediary within the Public Administration and the needs they had. We cannot say that we have made major changes, or that since we have given a voice it has changed, but they have felt that someone was responsible for providing information. That was also something that was clear to us as an entity.

(EOCGC3)

At the same time, another key factor of the social action and synergies maintained between Roma people and the entities that provide care to this community is the creation and empowerment of community social networks. The role of Roma women in this sense was presented as key by the participants. This aspect has fostered values like solidarity and has contributed to alleviating the adverse effects of the social crisis experienced.

Everyone was locked up in their home, but there were a couple of families who did not get infected. These families will be the vehicle to bring closer to the rest everything they need from food to cleaning products to messages. All the rest were confined because they were positives, there was even a request from here to the city council, then [name of organization] and [name of organization], and food was collected and brought in by them to their home doors. There was a strengthening of the links and attitudes and solidarity behaviours, that as a very positive aspect.

(EOCAGA2)

3.3. Informal Solidarities and Inter-Organizational Networks

One of the collateral effects caused by the pandemic was related to the structural level, specifically with public administrations and schools moving from in-person attendance to a virtual one, with the consequential digitalization of bureaucratic procedures, formalities, and academic contents. The difficulties of material access and IT resources for some Roma families generated, in some cases, an intensification of the digital divide previously existing in their community. Likewise, this issue became one of the main lines of action covered by the organizations to mitigate the consequences of this technological exclusion.

We also seek digital devices: tablets, computers, because in a house there may be just one mobile device, and without internet, we provided internet connections to many families, and then from La Caixa and with our money too, we also offered school supplies, it was incredible, in many families there was not a single pen.

(EOCGC5_1, EOCGC5_2, EOCGC5_3)

In the health area, strategies from the organizations were not only addressed by providing medical supplies but also took part in actions related to public health promotion:

Transferring all these situations to public health spaces in the framework of the strategy, this concern was taken up and reached already post-pandemic, well post-confinement. Meetings promoted by public health and Roma organizations about Roma women and mental health were achieved, and some COVID-19 impact aspects were covered, then conferences were held and led by Public Health, and the speaker was a doctor because in his medical office has attended many Roma women with anxiety and self-medication situations and overload.

(EOCAGA2)

3.4. Relational Work and Territorial Embeddedness

Related to ethical and moral stances presented by all the interviewed professionals from either the public sphere, the TSSA, or Roma civil organizations, we found, in our research, a remarkable ethical and moral position sustained throughout different stages of the pandemic by these social agents. Firstly, it should be noted that the guidance/companionship in different aspects of everyday life issues converged from assistance experiences to compassionate action (Stamm 2005), with the guidance/companionship aspect emerging in emergency healthcare situations.

Manage whether there was any assistance, all this without computers and through mobile phones, we do not have a place, at street, sitting in a bench with four Roma women, getting the mobile phone and making appointments to arrange their guaranteed rent […] We had a Roma family who lived in a van and the woman had tremendous hemorrhages amid the pandemic and we were the only ones who gave them food, we approached to the park to bring them the food bags and we saw that she was bleeding and we took her to the emergency outpatient clinic. We did not have IPE (Individual Protection Equipment); the virus was up here.

(EOCGC2)

Secondly, in general and specifically regarding “Chapter VI of Responsibility to society” from the Code of Ethics (Código Deontológico de Trabajo Social. Herramientas e Instrumentos Del Trabajo Social 2015), which raises ethical concerns in social work, social workers, on the one hand, have to participate in the development of society and cooperate in the prevention of social inequalities and the improvement of life quality and, on the other, contribute towards increasing the chances of progress especially within groups and individuals with fewer opportunities and promote and respect their rights. The evidence obtained showed that the professionals involved ensured these principles previously mentioned:

We met many families who were left in the streets, they could not pay and here XX [name of the city] there was an important ‘boom’ of evictions and all local organizations agreed and with a lot of pressure we started to stop it […] There was a lot of evictions but there was an associative network with the organizations, the generic welfare system that exists in the neighborhood.

(EOCGC5_1, EOCGC5_2, EOCGC5_3)

Eventually, the presence of different institutional values from all the organizations, especially from the Roma civil organizations in adverse situations, became a protective factor since it not only favored rapprochement with a given population but, through action, promoted diversity recognition.

For us the human component is very important […] There is an emotional and human component which makes us work differently, apart from us being Roma which also brings us closer to this group, the problems are so many and so diverse that it is often the staff who decides to give support although the Foundation is behind, above all during the pandemic the Foundation was there and we personally more.

(EOCAGAM)

4. Discussion

The fieldwork reaffirms the existence of a necessary cooperative work in processes of welfare protection between the Local Administration and the Third Sector of Social Action (TSSA), especially when talking about the most vulnerable and isolated communities in Spanish society (Fundación Foessa 2022). This circumstance highlights the evident effort shown by our informants in a situation of social crisis to guarantee access to social rights and material resources to the whole population. This collaborative dynamic and networking that has overcome corporatism has been a protective factor itself, and it has enabled the ability to reach out to a wide range of Roma community individuals and given an articulate response to all the requirements presented in a context characterized by uncertainty and volatility.

In this sense, we can say that the results show how the pandemic has led to a tendency towards the co-creation of social values or common good by all actors involved in people’s lives (Ratten 2022) and, in this case, the Roma community. In line with previous reports where Roma citizens demanded well-established channels of communication for public policies and intended solutions (for instance, for housing) (Vitale 2021), in our research, it was found that many of the Roma participants were co-creating the solutions with professionals of the TSSA.

Some authors have highlighted that the states in Europe are increasingly being challenged and that how social regulation (i.e., norms related to welfare, work, and social coexistence) relates to political regulation (how governance is carried out, who makes decisions, and which institutions are involved) is being reconsidered (Le Galès 1998). In this research, we provide ways in which citizens, public administrations, policies, and the TSSA are co-creating a way in which the responses are the most satisfactory for the end-users and the most deprived populations.

Nevertheless, as reported by the scientific literature, in the case of the public administrations, the responsiveness of social care systems has varied according to the institutional and local context, but the evidence shows that, generally speaking, the crisis was a stress element for different public sectors, and they did not give immediate responses despite the realized efforts to streamline and adapt at different levels (Llosa et al. 2021; Eito Mateo et al. 2020; Santás García 2020). For this reason, the role played by the Third Sector of Social Action (TSSA) has been fundamental as they have been acting as intermediaries between Roma families and public administrations. In addition to the tasks accomplished by Roma civil organizations, they have driven the rise and empowerment of social community networks, promoting the creation of opportunities for the target population, without forgetting the vicissitudes of the health crisis that have activated their participation in public health promotion, among other duties.

In this vein, the dialogic turn highlighted by the Dialogic Society theory was evident in many of the studied contexts. Although power interactions and inequalities were observed, a tendency towards more egalitarian decision-making and strategies among professionals of the TSSA and Roma end-users was seen in the studied cases. This is in line with the global trend toward the dialogic society and de-monopolization of experts seen in other contexts (López de Aguileta 2024; Roca et al. 2022). It is especially relevant in the case of Roma women, who have traditionally been subject to prejudice and greater exclusion due to the intersection of multiple forms of discrimination, including within social work (Vrăbiescu and Kalir 2018).

Regarding the role of Roma women, these findings are highly relevant. In a context where they have been determined, even by the scientific literature, as being more submissive, passive agents, our research has found otherwise. The focus on the Dialogic Society has enabled us to capture their voices using egalitarian dialog, showing examples of Roma women’s social action in order to preserve their communities’ well-being (Roca et al. 2022; Garcia 2015).

Therefore, at this point, the essentialness of the role played by multidisciplinary teams from the TSSA should be noted as they have been able to undertake leadership positions to seek solutions to the issues externalized by those affected by them, working together with Roma women and other actors involved in the community action within the territory. Recent scientific contributions (Novo-Molinero et al. 2024; Ovseiko and Kalpazidou Schmidt 2021; Soler-Gallart and Flecha 2022) show the importance of scientific knowledge co-creation to obtain scientific evidence for public utility that has an impact on improving citizens’ lives. In this sense, organizations within the TSSA, whether Roma or not, have drawn on scientific evidence and knowledge of the Roma community, especially Roma women, to act as their main interlocutors, responding effectively to the needs arising from the pandemic.

The successful transformations related to psychosocial support, evidenced in the previous section, highlight the ability to utilize scientific evidence through different information channels offered by the social actors. And because of this, Roma women have had more decision-making and agency in adverse contexts. Nonetheless, the emergence of the increasingly dialogic dynamics in human relationships constitutes a new feature in society, which presents practices that are helping to meet the challenges of our plural societies (de Botton et al. 2005). The professional practice of these teams has empowered the Roma community, fostering spaces for the generation of common good following the TSSA’s general objectives (Jaraíz Arroyo 2015).

Although the results showed transformative actions and positive synergies between the TSSA, public administrations, and the Roma community, it is also important to acknowledge the tensions and limitations that emerged during the process. The adaptability of the TSSA was often constrained by a lack of structural and human resources, and institutional responses were not always quick or equitable. Furthermore, collaboration among actors was not free from friction, especially in contexts where institutional and community cultures had divergent values and operational rhythms. These ambivalences reflect the complexity of generating effective responses in situations of social emergency. In this regard, the recent literature on the vulnerability and solidarity of the Roma population during the pandemic (Arza et al. 2020; Soares et al. 2024; López de Aguileta 2024) offers a critical and complementary perspective that helps to better understand pre-existing structural inequalities and the forms of resistance and mutual support that were activated from within the community itself. Previous studies have emphasized that, when faced with material and resource scarcity, the solidarity of the community has helped in meeting basic needs in other settings (Stasolla and Vitale 2020).

According to the results of the report about the TSSA in Spain, “Response and resilience during the pandemic”, these organizations have faced major difficulties in fulfilling their mission and activities, even going as far as adapting them; this finding matches the results obtained in the present research. In this decentralization framework, manifested by the interviewed professionals, the ability of the organizations to adapt to the pandemic’s evolution with its different stages was an underlying protective factor. Consequently, in certain contexts, this helped the ability to perform post-pandemic tasks as new requirements arose in the social action field.

Moreover, the approach of Le Galès and Vitale (2013) is especially useful for interpreting the findings of this research, since they conceive urban governance as an always incomplete, fragmented process, marked by inequalities. From this perspective, the role of the Third Sector during the pandemic can be understood as a manifestation of these dynamics: the responses were neither linear nor homogeneous, but rather the result of continuous adaptation and negotiation among public actors, social entities, and Roma communities themselves.

The role of all the organizations presented was meaningful in the social emergency of COVID-19, and so was the Roma community’s efforts. They developed an active role in their issue resolutions through leadership and organized a food bank with a civil Roma organization, part of the associative community of the neighborhood, and it is worth mentioning that they initially focused their tasks on education reinforcement in the pandemic period; these serve as examples of this organization’s ability. Delving deeper into the analysis and context for their leadership role, it should be noted that the dynamics of solidarity are multidirectionally oriented. Matching with the scientific literature and extrapolating evidence collected in the field, solidarity goes beyond the neighborhood and families as it expands to social movements (Garcia-Espinel et al. 2017; Grau Del Valle et al. 2024). Likewise, the social impact from strategies led by Roma women detailed in the previous section is extended to the whole population that is living in vulnerable situations and goes beyond the Roma community. This dialogic perspective contributes to disarticulating the prejudices and stereotypes that are traditionally rooted in the Roma community since they are marked in the individual and collective responsibility of the Roma themselves and, in this case, Roma women.

5. Conclusions

Both the documented research and empirical evidence obtained throughout the ROM21 investigation project led us to the conclusion that TSSA entities/organizations, including the Roma associations, have contributed in a meaningful way to soften the pandemic impact in a group that suffers from social inequality, as seen in the studied cases. Its nature made it possible to perform, in a significant way, the following actions:

• Provide psychosocial support;
• Cover the basic requirements;
• Provide access to social resources designed, without consdering the ethnicity or social condition of major vulnerable groups;
• Organize social responses through the creation of networks;
• Offer guidance/companionship and promote necessary knowledge in the context of change;
• Empower the Roma community and build collaborative spaces for resolutions.

To be able to respond effectively to emerging requirements in the community, a co-creation process was produced, derived from the dialog between the Roma community, professional teams, and other social agents such as technicians from various administrations, political stalemates, companies, religious entities, and citizens in general. This stance strengthened the leadership role, established in the field of social action, taken on by Roma families and women, both in the pandemic and post-pandemic period. The maintained synergies between Roma women and the social actors highlight that both the TSSA entities and Roma civil organizations generated social impact and, at the same time, influenced, in a multidimensional way, the successes arising within the COVID-19 pandemic, a period of adversity, in the studied contexts.

Lastly, to foster more holistic and cross-cutting action in a period marked by social and health crises, it would be convenient for public administrations to generate and define new intervention strategies that allow multidisciplinary teams to act with agility and efficiency, offering appropriate responses to the needs presented by citizens, especially those in vulnerable situations.