SOMRA – Supporting meaningful Occupations for low-qualified Migrants, Refugees, and Asylum seekers using the Green Entrepreneurship Model Erasmus Project

Project Title

SOMRA – Supporting meaningful Occupations for low-qualified Migrants, Refugees, and Asylum seekers using the Green Entrepreneurship Model

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Environment and climate change; Social entrepreneurship / social innovation; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

The SOMRA project offers an innovative approach to tackle two major challenges of the 21st century, namely climate change and refugee crises, by engaging refugees, asylum seekers and low-qualified migrants in meaningful occupations that transform them into environment role models with a sustainable impact in their new and previous home. The main idea of the SOMRA approach is to enable these main target groups to become true factors of change that influence positive environmental habits that are first established on a local and regional level, and eventually even beyond the borders of the EU.

Therefore, the SOMRA project will pursue the following objectives:

I) Facilitating environmental change on local and regional level through grassroots activities organised by green NGOs and the SOMRA participants
II) Fostering common values and civic engagement of migrant communities in their new environment
III) Offering low-threshold learning opportunities related to environmental measures that increase the employability by strengthening key competences for low-qualified migrants, refugees and asylum seekers

To achieve these aims, six partner organisations from six EU countries (UK, AT, IE, FI, PT, CY) have joined together and will develop three main intellectual outputs and a variation of additional results:

1) The SOMRA Holistic Study Report (IO1) will provide a reliable reference instrument for professionals working with low-qualified migrants, refugees and asylum seekers as it combines relevant information on supporting meaningful occupations in the environmental sector, legal restrictions and obligations for migrants in accessing the labour market and participating in civic life as well as motivation and perspectives of the target group themselves.
2) The SOMRA Green Entrepreneurship Model (IO2) is the heart of the SOMRA project. It will be an accessible handbook for the main target group and provide crucial facts, strategies and calls for action that supports low-qualified migrants, refugees and asylum seekers to take charge and either participate in or even found their own green NGO properly and sustainably. Additionally, an online media library with green hack videos, testimonials and a short film documentary about the SOMRA project will be available and continuously updated.
3) The SOMRA Green Entrepreneurship Training (IO3) will be concepted as a modular blended-learning course featuring tiny learning bits in form of challenges on topics relevant for becoming a green entrepreneur, founding and sustaining an NGO, organising eco-friendly grassroots activities and occasions to get in contact with the social and civic environment in their region.
4) The SOMRA Induction Training will be a short-term staff training event for 12 staff of the partner organisations who will implement the national piloting phases in their respective countries.
5) National Piloting Phases testing the SOMRA Green Entrepreneurship Training in all six partner countries in a real context with 30 low-qualified migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, who will be the first to directly benefit from the competences acquired in the course.
6) National Multiplier Events planned as “Target Group Engaging Events” in Austria, Cyprus, Ireland, Finland and Portugal and as an open SOMRA event at the Edinburgh Climate Festival 2022 in the UK.
7) Dissemination Results such as the SOMRA project website, SOMRA social media channels, 5 different dissemination materials and gadgets, a dissemination guideline, an exploitation and sustainability guideline, regular impact assessments via 6-monthly reports by project partners.
8) Quality Assurance Results such as a Quality Management Handbook, quality assessment instruments such as questionnaires and surveys for internal and external evaluations, quality evaluations of the intellectual outputs at suitable development phases through feedback of the main target groups, regular evaluations of progress, product and impact quality.
9) Administrative Results such as a Variance Analysis Tool for continuous monitoring of progress, potential delays and risks, regular budgetary and progress reports of project partners, agendas and minutes of partner meetings, an interim and a final project report.

Overall, 330 persons will be actively involved in the project activities and directly benefit from the SOMRA results during the 24-month project’s lifetime. Furthermore, approximately 250.000 persons including the main target groups and wider stakeholders will be reached through extensive dissemination and exploitation efforts on local, regional, national, European and international level. This will ensure a huge multiplying effect and sustainable long-term impact on the target groups of low-qualified migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, as the competences acquired in the SOMRA project are transversal and sustainable, preparing participants for tackling environmental challenges of an uncertain future in a resilient manner.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 222525 Eur

Project Coordinator

Edinburgh and Lothians Regional Equality Council Limited & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Auxilium pro Regionibus Europae in Rebus Culturalibus
• PLAYSOLUTIONS – Audiovisuais Unipessoal, Lda
• INNOVENTUM OY
• CENTRE FOR ADVANCEMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY LTD-CARDET
• The Rural Hub CLG