Building on the foundations of a previous Erasmus+ project, MAV (2017-1-DE02-KA204-004284, the creation of a blended learning “learning toolkit” for training volunteers to be mentors to newly arrived migrants and assist with their integration into society and the workplace), MentorNET will focus on the following: - Re-using and adapting the MAV outputs relating to a mentoring training course and make them available as a MOOC that is available worldwide and that is sensitive to the distinct needs of the country of first contact for migrants and the country in which they finally settle. - Researching good practice for mentoring and mentoring organisations. - Working across and beyond the partner organisations’ countries to establish a network of migrant organisations and the mentors they are supporting and provide the technological means for them to communicate with each other to share good practice, success stories and failures. - Establishing an overarching and self-sustaining structure to coordinate mentoring activities and build on the good practices identified and learn from each other’s successes and failures. The project needs to be carried out transnationally to deliver an effective result and to maximise the impact of the project’s aims. Migrant organisations and their volunteers work in the local communities they serve but migration is a trans-national issue and there is a positive benefit to these organisations and volunteers in sharing their learning with and learning from migrant organisations and volunteers across Europe. In this way good practice can be spread and an effective and empowered self-sustaining international community of migrant volunteers created. The desired outcome of the project is to: - Identify best practice for organizing and delivering mentoring - Establish a dynamic international network of adult volunteers who, having successfully completed the mentoring MOOC with support from their migrant association, are able to act as mentors to migrants - A self-sustaining, coordinated volunteer-based network that identifies and learns from good practice and failures in mentoring migrants and acts to actively promote the benefits of volunteering. - A mentoring process that is sensitive to the differing needs of migrants from their first point of contact in a new country and when they find a country to permanently settle in. A1 Preparation (Months 1-4) Leader E-MEL / Collaboration: ALL PARTNERS A2 Management (Months 1-24) Leader E-MEL / Collaboration: ALL PARTNERS A3 Implementation (Months 5-20) Leader JANUS / Collaboration: ALL PARTNERS A4 Quality monitoring (Months 2-23) Leader SYNTHESIS / Collaboration: ALL PARTNERS A5 Evaluation (Months 19-23) Leader RIEP / Collaboration: ALL PARTNERS A5 Dissemination (Months 2-23) Leader MRC / Collaboration: ALL PARTNERS Outputs O1 The MENTORnet training package (Months 5-11) Leader: MRC / Collaboration: ALL PARTNERS O2 The MENTORnet strategy (Months 11-14) Leader: RIEP / Collaboration: E-MEL, JANUS, SYNTHESIS O3 The MENTORnet network (Months 15-20) Leader: SYNTHESIS / Collaboration: ALL PARTNERS National multiplier events E1 Raising awareness event in Marlow (United Kingdom), organized by E-MEL at Month 13 E2 Raising awareness event in Bologna (Italy), organized by JANUS at Month 13 E3 Raising awareness event in Gdansk (Poland), organized by RIEP at Month 13 E4 Raising awareness event in Stuttgart (Germany), organized by IFA at Month 14 E5 Raising awareness event in London (United Kingdom), organized by MRC at Month 14 E6 Raising awareness event in Nicosia (Cyprus), organized by SYNTHESIS at Month 16 Conferences E7 Mid-term international in Gdansk (Poland), organized by RIEP at month 10 E8 International final conference in London (United Kingdom), organized by MRC at month 22 The MENTORNET transnational project meetings (TPM) will be: Kick-off meeting (KoM), organized by EMEL in Marlow (United Kingdom), at Month 2 TPM2, organized by SYNTHESIS in Nicosia (Cyprus), at Month 6 TPM3, organized by IFA in Stuttgart (Germany), at Month 10 TPM4, organized by RIEP in Gdansk (Poland), at Month 16 TPM5 organized by MRC in London (United Kingdom), at Month 22
The main overall objective of the project is that the MOOC, Strategy and App are used to create networks of mentors to assist migrants to settle and integrate into their new country. To be successful, the mentorNET project needs the outputs to be used by organisations and people that have this aim. The specific objectives of the mentorNET project are as follows: - To research good practice concerning the development of MOOCs and the establishment of self-sustaining networks. - To develop a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) that can be used to educate would-be mentors of migrants. The MOOC to be available in the languages of the project partners – English, German, Greek, Italian and Polish. - To develop a strategy that guides organisations or individuals on how to establish self-sustaining networks of mentors who can mentor migrants with the aim of accelerating their integration into their new country of residence. - To develop an App that can be used by networks of mentors as a communications tool to provide mutual support and exchange information. - To Identify mentor focused organisations and networks in the partner countries and provide them with the project outputs and tools to promote mentoring.
The context of the project was viewed against the continuing challenges set by migration to the EU and other countries by those either escaping war, famine and disasters or those economic migrants seeking a better life in another country. Together with this migration come a number of challenges relating to integrating the migrants into the society and workplaces of their new host countries. To do this requires innovation and resources; our project ("mentorNET") aimed to address this need by developing tools to train mentors to assist migrants in settling into their new homes, set out a guide or "blueprint" for establishing networks of mentors, provide useful resources to help both mentors and their migrant mentees and an innovative support tool. The project built on the work carried out in a previous project (2017-1-DE02-KA204-004284, "MAV") which created a "toolkit" of resources for migrants and mentors to use. The mentorNET project built on this past work to develop new, innovative resources and tools to help create networks of skilled mentors able to understand the needs of migrants and help them successfully navigate the challenges of settling into a new country, culture, language and lifestyle.