CREATIVE PRISMA project addresses current refugee’s crisis, which affects all European countries and presents a challenge for the reception, integration and employment of refugees coming from conflict zones. Employment of refugees is vital for their survival and for their integration into the society, in which they will settle and fights marginalisation, criminality and fanaticism, which are the grounds for the development of terroristic ideas and action. Currently, Europe is still tackling with economic crisis and unemployment. The “Third Sector”, representing societies, associations, NGOs, cooperatives, institutions and social enterprises, is a sustainable option that can provide not only employment to refugees and asylum seekers, but also inclusion into local societies. Fashion and creative industry and reusing and repurposing of textiles and clothes is an affordable solution facilitating the dialogue between different cultures and thus helping integration of migrants. Applicant of the CREATIVE PRISMA project is Boréal Innovation, a local development and business support cooperative in Provence. Partners are the Club for Unesco of Piraeus and Islands, a major cultural player, active in providing structures, humanitarian aid and support to disadvantaged and refugees, IDEC, a Greek certified LLL centre, consultancy and software development company, CESIE, an Italian NGO for provision of support to migrants and developing countries, FAMYLIAS a Social Initiative Cooperative and PADIL, a Tunisian developmental agency aiming at an inclusive society. The general objective of the project is to empower refugees, providing them with social entrepreneurship skills and specific skills for fashion, in order to support them to become financially independent and their inclusion in local society. Target groups of the CREATIVE PRISMA project are migrants/refugees, locals wishing to form social fashion enterprises with refugees as well as NGOs, public and volunteering organisations, supporting migrants and refugees. The specific objectives of the project are: - To gather good practices of social enterprises run by migrants and refugees - To enhance open dialogue between asylum seekers and migrants in the social sector - To develop a training course and learning material, based on good practices and case studies as well as European values about equality of sexes - To implement a mobile learning application - To develop an on-line network of social entrepreneurs and support their collaborative learning, through a mechanism of submitting new case studies and exchange of information. Activities that will be organised in the framework of CREATIVE PRISMA project are the following: O1 Good practices study Collection of case studies of social fashion enterprises run by migrants, identification of success factors and challenges, problems and solutions. They will be recorded in a uniform template and will serve as learning resources and ideas for social enterprises. O2 Training course – learning material Curriculum of a self-paced training programme, highly modular, based on principles of adult learning with case studies, good practices and games that enhance learning. O3 Mobile learning application Implementation of learning material in a mobile application, expandable with the possibility to include new learning resources, connected with social media. The approach to be used will be that of gamification. Each learner will gain badges following micro-validation. O4 On-line network - Community of Practice On-line platform for networking of project users, developing new learning resources and exchange of information in an attractive and exciting manner, using possibilities of new IC Technologies. C1 Learning activity of partners’ staff on CLIL and digital storytelling Additional activities preview are: 5 transnational project meetings, 6 multiplier events, management, reporting, quality assurance, evaluation and a plenty of dissemination and networking activities. Quantitative targets are as following: • case studies collected (40) • institutions, apart from partners, mobilised (30) • beneficiaries involved (900) • local participants (150) • volunteers mobilised (100) • participants in multiplier events (190) • Number of organisations recipients of information (target 2.000). CREATIVE PRISMA project comes in a subtle, not demanding excessive time or efforts way to introduce refugees to the economic reality, language and legislation of the hosting country. It allows peer learning at ease. It gives them the attributes and tools to escape exclusion and to be gradually integrated becoming an asset to the local regional and national economy and society, passing the message of democracy and gender equality. This will have a relieving effect at local, regional, national, European level and international level. Results will be available in FR, EN, AR, IT, GR, ES. Partners commit to maintain the project results for 5 years.
The CREATIVE PRISMA project addresses the issue of the large amounts of migrant and asylum seekers. The employment of refugees is vital for their survival and for their integration into the society in which they will settle and to fight against the marginalisation of these populations. The fashion and creative industry, as well as the reuse and reorientation of textiles and clothing, is a solution facilitating dialogue between different cultures and contributing to the integration of migrants. The CREATIVE PRISMA project brought together partners from different domains with multiple skills: Boréal Innovation, a local development and business support cooperative in France, the Club for Unesco of Piraeus and the Piraeus Islands, a major cultural actor, active in the setting up of structures, humanitarian aid to support disadvantaged people and refugees, IDEC, a certified Greek vocational training centre, a consulting and software development company, CESIE, an Italian association supporting migrants and developing countries, FAMYLIAS, a social initiative cooperative and PADIL, a Tunisian development agency aiming at the development of an inclusive society. The different profiles of the project partners, their competences and their knowledge of the subject dealt with made it possible to meet the project's major objective: to support refugees by developing their entrepreneurial profile and specific skills in fashion and creativity. In the long term, the target groups will have to be financially independent and included in local societies. The project followed a logical path to reach its objectives: - The collection of good practices: The project partners conducted a total of 40 interviews in France, Spain, Greece and Italy with immigrants from outside the EU who have created a fashion or design business. In total, 26 countries of origin were represented and a very large number of activities (graphic designers, dressmakers, designers, shoemakers, painters, jewellers). Through these interviews, trends and good practices common to all the life stories were highlighted and served as a basis for future work of the project. - Individual training and learning: Thanks to good practices identified during field surveys and existing research on this subject, the CREATIVE PRISMA partnership has set up a training course for newcomers, refugees or people settling in a new country. The CREATIVE PRISMA training has therefore been divided into two separate chapters: entrepreneurship and fashion/creation. Each of the chapters is itself made up of 10 learning units. This organisation offers learners a complete look at managing an activity with units on the business model, negotiation or networking, but also on design and fashion with units on colours, fabrics or the use of social networks in fashion. The units aim to provide basic knowledge but also a fresh look at the European specificities identified by the good practice guide. - An App and an e-learning platform The main objective of the CREATIVE PRISMA project was to make the learning content available: this has been achieved with the CREATIVE PRISMA application and platform. Indeed, the partners have developed a mobile application that can be downloaded on Android and an online platform. These tools allow any creator, designer or newcomer to a European country to learn by himself. The application and the platform allow the monitoring of all the activities developed previously, access to additional reading, monitoring of progress, validation of skills through quizzes and the delivery of badges. During the 24 months of the project, the partners have continuously developed links with refugee support associations, social enterprises and creative people in order to communicate the project's achievements as effectively as possible. Many of these actors have participated in the project or in the testing of digital tools. The achievements of the project, available until 2025, are today intended to be used by the greatest number of people, as anyone interested in fashion or entrepreneurship can find useful information for these needs. The local partners will continue to bring the project to life through information events and training resulting from the project's research. The subject of welcoming migrants and their integration into society remains a key issue for European success.