Context/backgroundThe project aims to explore the role of non-formal adult education in the new refugee situation. The partners are sharing different ways to work with refugees in order to help them to integrate into the society during the time they are arriving until the time they get decision about their status. Relevance, needs, EU priorities and target groups:The overwhelming refugee problem is highly topical in Europe and challenges all the stakeholders in society to contribute. Many institution have to find new ways to work and also find new partners and networks in the work with the refugees. The project wants to explore new roles of the non-formal education in promoting participation of the refugees in society. The target group of the project are: refugees, teachers, planners, health workers, representatives of NGOs and public authorities.Objectives9 partners will present their activities regarding the work for migrants and refugees.Main objective is the exchange of experiences and examples of best practice between the partners.Second main objective: The final report and the brochure about innovative ways supporting immigrants and refugees .We will disseminate these products to local and national stakeholders, and publish the documents on the projects website.Number and profile of participantsWe were looking for an adequate geographical distribution of partner institutions in Europe, mixing countries of the "Coalition of willing" with countries showing deficits concerning European solidarity in the distribution of incoming refugees.All the partners have been involved in educational projects at a European level; the Austrian coordinator worked previously together with the partners from Poland, Hungary and Romania; the German and Finnish partner did cooperate in a different project.New to this consortium are the partners from Bulgaria, the Netherlands and ASDL from Austria.Common theme of every partner is the daily work with immigrants and refugees from different points of view: Language courses /educational measures fostering integration in Austria, Poland, the Netherlands and Germany; legal issues from BSA from Austria; special focus on Roma issues from Romania.The mixture of different institutions - Volkshochschulen in Austria and Germany, BSA - Association of social-democratic academics lawyers section, cultural institute in Poland, Development Agency in Bulgaria, Diakonaal Platform in the Netherlands, city office Budapest in Hungary, Roma organisation in Romania - guarantees an interesting mixture and different approaches to the common objective of support for immigrants and refugees.The geographical distribution allows a deeper insigth in the situation of refugees in Europa and the different attitudes towards immigrants depending on the respective country.Description of activitiesThe project meetings are the most important task of the project:- Exchange of information and best practice- Identifying innovative ways of support for immigrants and refugees in education, legal guidance, introduction into society, labour market, housing, mobility, national habits etc.We will share experiences and develop good practices around migrants, asylum seekers and refugees who have already an official status. These experiences concern education that targets different aspects of life in a new country in cases where the formal education is not the right organization to do this. In that cases we explore opportunities how to work together as formal and non-formal organizations and investigate what kind of educational pathways promise a successful integration into society.Timetable for the project meetings:Oct 2016 - ViennaJan 2017 - HannoverApril 2017 - SofiaJune 2017 - BudapestSept 2017 - LodzDec 2017 - HelsinkiMarch 2018 - ResitaMay 2018 - Zwolle- Gathering all the information in 8 national and 1 final written report- Writing a concise brochure about innovative ways integrating of migrants and refugees to European societies- Establishing a website with a description of the partners involved, the 8 national and the 1 final reportMethodologyDuring the project meetings we will use different presentation formats: PP-slideshows, films, round-table discussions, story telling, excursions to points of interest.The reports will have the form of brochures printed on demand, our website will support the dissemination activities.A short description of the results and impact envisaged1. As an outcome an website with the 8 national reports on the situation of refugees and immigrants in the partner cities2. Improvement of the work in the own institution: Exchange of best practices, learning from each other3. Identifying new and innovative ways to support the integration of immigrants in European societies.Longer term benefits- A better understanding of the needs and wishes of refugees and immigrants in Europe- A contribution to the successfull integration of refugees
• Context/background of the project; The project focused on the role of non-formal adult education in the new refugee situation. The partners are sharing different ways to work with refugees in order to help them to integrate into the society during the time they are arriving until the time they get decision about their status. The overwhelming refugee problem is highly topical in Europe and challenges all the stakeholders in society to contribute. Many institutions have to find new ways to work and also find new partners and networks in the work with the refugees. The project wanted to explore new roles of the non-formal education in promoting participation of the refugees in society. The target group of the project were: refugees, teachers, planners, health workers, representatives of NGOs and public authorities. • Objectives; The partners presented their activities regarding the work for migrants and refugees. Main objective was the exchange of experiences and examples of best practice between the partners. Second main objective: Working on a brochure about innovative ways supporting immigrants and refugees. Third objective: Report on the implementation of a best practice of any other partner in one’s own institution. • Number and profile of participating organisations; The mixture of different institutions - Volkshochschulen in Austria, Germany and Finland, cultural institute in Poland, Development Agency in Bulgaria, Diakonaal Platform in the Netherlands, city office Budapest in Hungary, Roma organisation in Romania - guarantees an interesting mixture and different approaches to the common objective of support for immigrants and refugees. The geographical distribution allows a deeper insigth in the situation of refugees in Europa and the different attitudes towards immigrants depending on the respective country. • Description of undertaken main activities; We organized 5 project meetings in Vienna, Hannover, Sofia, Budapest and Helsinki following the distribution of tasks and the progress of the project work. We agreed on the working plan and supported each other creating different templates for our tasks. The local cooperation with different stakeholders formed the basis for our dissemination work thus informing and distributing our products. It was important for us to reach out to other institutions to get inspired by their activities, and to get a full picture about the activities undertaken to support the work for refugees. • Results and impact attained; Every partner worked on a report about the situation of refugees in his/her country. Following the rhythm of work, we presented these reports during our project meetings. We may say that we really got a serious overview on the situation of refugees in the partner countries: The commonalities and the differences from Bulgaria as the southernmost country to Finland in the North. We produced a collection of best practices including examples from other organisations. So we came up with 23 examples. We began to disseminate this product almost a year ago to other relevant local and national and European stakeholders. We expect a certain impact on the migration work inspiring different institutions to adapt the one or the other best practice example, learning from each other and tightening the relations to local and national stakeholders, NGOs etc. As this is a European exchange project we were ambitious enough to import one of the best practices of the partners in one’s own institution. The result was a report on these implementation activities. • If relevant, longer-term benefits. As the political situation in the EU countries raises concerns and scepticism towards refugees we think it is important to encourage these institutions that work in favour of refugees. We wanted to present positive examples and inspire other institutions by our work.