The integration of migrants into host societies is one of the biggest challenges and priorities of Member States of the European Union. The rapidly growing inflow of refugees from war-ravaged countries over the last decade has exacerbated the integration and inclusion challenges for most of EU member states, and has tested the capacity of local infrastructures and service provision agencies. There is growing fear from hosting countries that the situation is out of control, while mistrust and animosity between host society and third country nationals is on the rise. Partner organizations, operating in local communities, providing services to immigrants and refugees have recognized the need to develop a project that can act as a catalyst for sensitizing local communities and migrant/refugee communities to remove prejudice and mistrust and open opportunities for intercultural exchange, cooperation and interaction. Project’s specific objectives are to: • Build capacity of educators, professionals and volunteers in the field of integration migrant/refugee in local communities through exchanging of best practices from partner regions. • Develop and pilot sensitization methods and tools across partner regions • Organize events and forums to build awareness on immigrants/refuges inclusion process in each participating country, invite migrant and refugee community members. It is expected that the project will provide direct involvement and training for at least 60 educators, facilitators and professional involved in migrant/refugee inclusion actions at the local level. As such, the activities to be undertaken include: • Developing and piloting sensitization methods and tools in the participating countries: Training activities for partner staff and volunteers, to transfer knowledge, new sensitization methods, learning tools. Embed them in partner’s educational practice. • Organizing events and forums to build awareness on immigrants/refuges inclusion process in each participating country, inviting migrant and refugees. The methodological choices of the partnership reflect the project’s multidimensional character and its innovation seeking component, particularly: a) employee an “action research” methodology accompanied by piloting and evaluation of outcomes, b) motivating and empowerment-oriented methods for professional in the field of migrant/refugee integration, c) learn as you go, present and share knowledge, tools and good practice at the training sessions and public forums. Results envisaged by project implementation include: • Compilation of reviews of best practices and methodologies from participating regions, addressing sensitization of local community on inclusion issues of immigrants and refugees. • Develop and pilot sensitization methods and tools in the participating partner regions • Exchange of good practices on sensitization of local community on immigrant and refugees’ inclusion to the hosting society during transnational meetings, training events, site visits and forums. Forums and study visits will include migrant and refuges. Diffusion of project scope, activities and outputs, reaching out to target groups and stakeholders, through local events but also utilizing the projects’ website, as well as links to partner websites and other peer organizations. Project implementation is expected to have positive impact in the following areas: • Empowerment of educators who will participate in training sessions with valuable skills to sensitize local community • Sensitization of local host communities as well as migrant and refugees on inclusion processes e.g. accept cultural diversity, understanding needs, provision of services etc. • Sensitization of stakeholders that may promote outputs and results of SENCIT project and or replicate such action on their own.
The integration of migrants into host societies is one of the greatest challenges and priorities of EU Member States. The rapidly growing influx of refugees from war-torn countries over the past decade has exacerbated integration and inclusion challenges in most EU Member States and tested the capacity of local infrastructure and service delivery agencies. There is a growing fear in host countries that the situation is getting out of control, while mistrust and hostility between the host society and third-country nationals is increasing. Community-based partner organisations providing services to migrants and refugees saw the need for a project that could act as a catalyst to sensitise local and migrant/refugee communities to remove prejudice and mistrust and create opportunities for intercultural exchange, cooperation and interaction. The specific objectives of the project were: - Capacity building of educators, professionals and volunteers in the field of migrant/refugee integration in local communities through exchange of best practices from partner regions. - Development and piloting of sensitisation methods and tools in the partner regions. - Organising events and forums to build awareness of the migrant/refugee integration process in each participating country, inviting members of migrant and refugee communities. The project provided direct engagement and training for at least 60 educators, facilitators and professionals involved in migrant/refugee integration activities at local level. The activities that were undertaken were: - Development and piloting of sensitisation methods and tools in participating countries: Training activities for partner staff and volunteers to transfer knowledge, new sensitisation methods, learning tools. Integrating them into the partner's educational practice. - Organising events and forums to build awareness about the integration process of migrants/refugees in each participating country, inviting migrants and refugees. The methodological choices of the partnership reflected the multidimensional nature of the project and its innovation-seeking component, in particular: a) an "action research" methodology accompanied by piloting and evaluation of results, b) motivating and empowerment-oriented methods for professionals in the field of migrant/refugee integration, c) ongoing learning, presenting and sharing knowledge, tools and good practices during training sessions and public forums. The results produced by the project implementation are: - Review of best practices and methodologies from the participating regions on community sensitisation on integration of immigrants and refugees. - Development and piloting of sensitisation methods and tools in the project partner regions. - Exchange of good practices on community sensitisation on integration of immigrants and refugees in the host society during international meetings, trainings, study visits and forums. The forums and study visits included migrants and refugees. The results were compiled in a guide entitled: "SEN-CIT. Inspirational Guide', available on the project website: https://www.sencitproject.eu/ Link to download the guide: https://www.sencitproject.eu/assets/files/SEN-CIT-inspirationalguide-3.pdf The dissemination of the project scope, activities and products consisted in reaching out to target groups and stakeholders, through local events, but also through the use of the project website, as well as links to the websites of partners and other partner organisations. The project implementation had a positive impact in the following areas: - Empowering the educators who attended the training sessions with valuable community sensitisation skills - Sensitisation of local host communities as well as migrants and refugees on inclusion processes, e.g. acceptance of cultural diversity, understanding of needs, service provision, etc. - To sensitise stakeholders who can promote the products and results of the SENCIT project or replicate such activities on their own.