NEW SKILLS TO ENHANCE INTEGRATION OF ASILUM SEEKERS AND BENEFICIARIES OF INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION Erasmus Project

Project Title

NEW SKILLS TO ENHANCE INTEGRATION OF ASILUM SEEKERS AND BENEFICIARIES OF INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION

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 adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Integration of refugees; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

The NEST project is an initiative aiming at fostering social and labour inclusion of asylum seekers and beneficiaries of international protection in European Countries involved in the project and encourage their inclusive citizenship by enhancing soft and technical skills to social operators (educators, social workers, psychologists,..) working in the countries of the partners organisations and improving the autonomy level of beneficiaries in accessing local services.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), nowadays, around 65,3 million individuals have been forcibly displaced worldwide. More than 1.7 million of them have reached Europe since 2015. This unprecedented inflow of asylum seekers in Europe, pushed The European Union to take actions and to redefine its priorities. Although, many efforts have been made to prepare effective integration programmes for those who have been granted protection status, in the majority of EU countries this large scale immigration generated controversial reaction among civil societies and overcharged the daily activities carried out by local governments and communities. Integration process for Asylum seekers and beneficiaries of International protection is requiring time and requests tailored strategies because of the peculiarities of these people, the violence and the traumatic experiences suffered in their countries and during the journey to reach Europe. A huge burden to facilitate these integration is on the shoulder of front line organisations, responsible for supporting asylum seekers in finding house, accessing to education, health, legal services and the job market. In particular, in Europe, thousands of social operators (educators, psychologists, language teachers, lawyers, social workers) who directly work with this peculiar category of people are experiencing a demanding a challenging daily job which requires a set of soft and technical skills not always acquired in their academic career.

For that reason this project will promote social and labour integration of AS and BoIP through the elaboration of three main outputs:

(1) The development of a guidelines on policies and services implemented in Italy, Spain, Slovenia and Sweden for the AS and BoIP integration, based on a qualitative and quantitative analysis on the respective context. This will help NGOs to have an overview on UE contexts and on good practices that can be transferred and used by partner organizations.
(2) The development of a training methodology aiming at enhancing operators’ soft and technical skills on the following 6 topics: Conflict mediation/negotiation, Cross-cultural and Intercultural communication, community engagement, burn out prevention, skills assessment and balance of competencies and career /training and services guidance. Being employment perceived as a core part of the integration process by the majority of refugees and asylum seekers [IPOL, 2016], a relevant part of strategies and tools will be focused on the enhancement of employability opportunities by the target group.
(3) A toolkit easy to use with mobile devices (smartphone, tablet, laptop), both online and offline, to support beneficiaries in accessing local fundamental services.

This competences will be transferred through an innovative multidimensional training based on successful integration case studies and on-the-job experiences gained by the involved partners organizations with a recognized expertise on integration practices.

In particular the Italian, Swedish and Slovenian NGOs, Farsi Prossimo, Pro Ifall and Društvo za razvijanje prostovoljnega dela Novo Mesto, which have a large experience in managing integration projects in the AS/BoIP/migrants sector will design the training material related to the soft skills identified through an initial skills need’s assessment carried out among partners organizations.

FUNDEUN, University Foundation, with a large expertise in job guidance services development for young and adult people, will be responsible for the development of the methodology and training material of the modules focusing on technical skills employability oriented.

Training material will be enriched by innovative tools, based on audio-visual and digital technology and will be developed by ARGO private company specialized in the design of audio-visual products for training and communication.

We believe that the development of this project will provide organizations working in the field of asylum seekers and beneficiaries of international protection with an innovative methodology and tools that will make more effective the daily job carried out by operators and will support beneficiaries in their process of social and labour integration.

Project Website

https://fundeun.es/european-projects/nest/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 214831,5 Eur

Project Coordinator

FARSI PROSSIMO & Country: IT

Project Partners

• ARGO di Donda Andrea e C. snc
• MOBILIZING EXPERTISE AB
• DRUSTVO ZA RAZVIJANJE PROSTOVOLJNEGA DELA NOVO MESTO
• FUNDACION EMPRESA UNIVERSIDAD DE ALICANTE DE LA COMUNIDAD VALENCIANA