Building knowledge from local practices : a solution for better care and support of unaccompanied minors in Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Building knowledge from local practices : a solution for better care and support of unaccompanied minors in Europe

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Integration of refugees; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Migrants’ issues

Project Summary

The project « Building knowledge from local practices : a solution for better care and support of unaccompanied minors in Europe » is part of the objectives of the European Union relating to the integration of young migrants.

It aims at promoting and reinforcing the quality of work of youth workers which, today, work with and for unaccompanied minors (UMs), through the sharing of good practices and peer learning, and supporting the implementation of new tailored educational solutions by the organisations for these youngsters.

Initiated by the consortium Action for Families and Youth (AFFY), this project is led by Apprentis d’Auteuil, a foundation which has been active in France for over 150 years in the fight against social exclusion of youngsters in need. It brings together seven European partners and one partner from Morocco: field operators working directly with unaccompanied minors, Apprentis d’Auteuil in France, Federazione SCS CNOS in Italy, Christliches Jugenddorfwerk Deutschlands in Germany, The Smile of a Child in Greece, l’Heure Joyeuse in Morocco, and partners from the research field, Ghent University in Belgium, University of Bedfordshire in England and the Observatory on the migration of minors (University of Poitiers) in France.

The project is first born of the following shared observation by field operators: in their respective organisation, professionals on the field, who, daily support unaccompanied minors are confronted with educational challenges, to which existing trainings do not provide full answers. Nevertheless, confronted with these challenges, many educators have developed a unique know-how and expertise on the field. These empirical practices, often tacit and informal, would be a unique resource for other professionals confronted elsewhere with the same challenges.

Therefore, our project offers an original solution for capitalizing on these good practices developed locally in Europe: one of building, at the European level and over time, an active community of field professionals (practitioners) and researchers (theorists of professional practices) to exchanges experiences and knowledge relating to the educational support of UMs.

Over the two years of the project, close to 60 youth workers (educators, social workers) and researchers will get together, during four work sessions of 5 days each in France, Italy, Germany and Greece.

All sessions will use the methodology of the “community of practices and knowledge”, which will enable the participants to share their knowledge gained from experience, cross them with theoretical knowledge and to extract lessons learned. This facilitation method, active and participatory, combines common reflection and capitalization, and opens new perspectives for cross-pollination between views and experiences, enabling in this way enriching exchanges of practices between multidisciplinary stakeholders. The meetings will be prepared by groups of participants, which will carry out job-shadowing missions ahead of each meeting. As a result of these activities, the participants will have reinforced the professional competences related to their educational mission.

Thus, throughout the project, the best practices will be revealed and capitalized through the production of an innovative pedagogic tool for training, “Digital notebooks”. This capacity-building tool will offer a means for organisations to better support their educational teams in this field of intervention, and more largely, will allow a greater number of field professionnels to receive a continuous training by engaging themselves in a process of reflection and research.

At the end of the project, a multiplier event will gather in Paris more than 100 guests in order to share the results of the project to a greater number of actors in the field of child protection and academics.

The eight partner organisations, with their own specific expertise, have built together this project with the idea of learning mutually from one another, with the preoccupation of pooling ideas and resources, with the wish of bringing lasting changes to educational practices. All of them will involve their professionals on the field, trainers, researchers, and beneficiaries.

The impact of the project will be immediate and lasting for each participant, as drivers of an innovative project; for their organisations, at the same time thanks to the evolution of training contents and methodologies of educators and the improvement of their educational practices; for the academics, thanks to the enrichment of their scientific research on the topic; and for most actors in Europe, who will be tomorrow making use of the “Digital notebooks” to reinforce the capacities of social workers.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 217735 Eur

Project Coordinator

Fondation Apprentis d’Auteuil & Country: FR

Project Partners

• SALESIANI PER IL SOCIALE APS
• UNIVERSITEIT GENT
• TO HAMOGELO TOU PAIDIOU
• UNIVERSITY OF BEDFORDSHIRE
• CHRISTLICHES JUGENDDORFWERK DEUTSCHLANDS GEMEINNUTZIGER EV