mistra – migrant inclusion strategies in european...

Executive Agency, Education, Audiovisual and Culture

531325-LLP-1-2012-1-IT-KA4MP

MiStra – Migrant Inclusion Strategies in European Cities Progress Report Public Part

MiStra – Migrant Inclusion Strategies in European Cities

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Project information

Project acronym: MiStra

Project title: Migrant Inclusion Strategies in European Cities

Project number:

Grant agreement number:

531325-LLP-1-2012-1-IT-KA4MP

2012-3679

Sub-programme or KA: KA4

Project website: http://www.mistraproject.eu/

Reporting period: From 01/10/12

To 30/09/13

Report version: 1 Progress report

Date of preparation: 18/10/13

Beneficiary organisation: CIOFS-Formazione Professionale

Project coordinator: Angela Elicio

Project coordinator organisation: CIOFS-Formazione Professionale

Project coordinator telephone

number:

0039 06 5729911

Project coordinator email address: [email protected]

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. © 2008 Copyright Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency.


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The document may be freely copied and distributed provided that no modifications are made, that the source is acknowledged and that this copyright notice is included.


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Executive Summary

MiStra wants to maximise the impact of effective existing practices at European level on migrants and minorities’ inclusion in cities in need, involving policy makers, VET stakeholders and civil society and migrant communities as key actors.

The project involved particularly decision makers, local authorities, public and private stakeholders of the projects identified as European good practices for the social inclusion of Roma and migrants to:

• improve the competences and know-how of local development partnerships composed by policy makers, public authorities, NGOs, civil society organisations, trade unions and so on, to identify and carry out policy for Roma and migrants, in conjunction with the welfare system, policies and programmes;

• develop a better political framework to support the initiatives taken by local governments for minorities and migrant people;

• develop strong operative networks at local level to co-operate on migration and anti-discrimination issues;

In order to stimulate active participation of final beneficiary of policy and programme on intercultural and migration issues, Roma and migrant people are involved at local level and in the transfer process.

The partnership responsible for the implementation of the project (involving public and private entities) was organised based on specific competencies related to the social inclusion of Roma and migrants as well as any necessary skills to manage and implement project-related activities.

In this regard at the beginning were identified many different good practices (from Bologna, Dublin, Vienna and Berlin) on Roma and migrants social inclusion within the project partnership, to be transferred respectively in four target cities (Burgas, Prague, Taranto and Budapest) already identified as well and for which has been provided a need analysis related to Roma and migrants issues. During a matching seminar held in Vienna the target cities chose the fitted good practices according to own needs and a transfer process in each local context of target cities started from here, and in this regard three local workshops are arranged to support and guide the transfer process.

The MiStra project bases its action upon a multi-stakeholder methodology, responding to the need of acting at various levels on (1) identifying all relevant information on the actual state of implementation; (2) involving in each stage the appropriate actors in the process of discussing and negotiating policy orientation and relevant practices to share; (3) assuring the initiation of a shared and deep process, taking into account the specific needs of each context; (4) assure the widest visibility of project topics at all levels.

In parallel study visits will be organised in the transferring cities to further support the transfer process and for exploitation activity, in which will participate organisations external to the partnership, selected through a public call, which are interested in Roma and migration issues.

In addition to the researches on good practices and need-analysis many other outcomes will be available to give information about transfer processes, networking, involvement of many different public and private stakeholders, implementation of good practices at European level, as: a good practices database, a Toolkit for policy makers on migrant and minorities integration and VET planning and a European Conference in Brussels involving representatives of EU Agencies, public and private organisations, both local and European, that are interested in migration, social inclusion in Europe on all levels.

For more information about the project and any related documents, please visit http://www.mistraproject.eu/

http://www.mistraproject.eu/


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Table of Contents

1. PROJECT OBJECTIVES .............................................................................................. 7

2. PROJECT APPROACH ................................................................................................ 9

3. PROJECT OUTCOMES & RESULTS ........................................................................... 9

4. PARTNERSHIPS .........................................................................................................16

5. PLANS FOR THE FUTURE .........................................................................................18

6. CONTRIBUTION TO EU POLICIES .............................................................................19

7. EXTRA HEADING/SECTION .......................................................................................20


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1. Project Objectives

MiStra is a mainstreaming project which wants to maximise the impact of effective existing practices at European level on migrants and minorities’ inclusion in cities in need, involving policy makers, VET stakeholders and civil society and migrant communities as key actors.

The Operational objectives are:

Exploit education and vocational training measures as means to facilitate social inclusion and job placement of migrant people, including marginalized cultural minorities and Roma people;

Facilitate and systematize the further exchanges between local welfare systems;

Mainstream the issues linked to integration, social inclusion and VET quality in cities’ political agendas;

Sharing and disseminating knowledge and competences on migrant and minorities’ social inclusion;

Preventing and contrasting racism and marginalisation phenomena at different levels, namely in policy, on the job and in daily life.

From the beginning of its activities (as associated partners) and during the overall lifecycle (with local workshops, study visits and other public events) the project involves political decision-makers, local authorities, public and private stakeholders of the projects identified as European good practices for the social inclusion of migrants, with the following operational goals:

-To improve the ability of local development partnerships to identify and carry out training actions for migrants, in conjunction with other public policies and programmes

-To disseminate information about successful experiences involving migrants, thereby offering the necessary feedback

- To develop a better political framework to support the initiatives taken by local governments

- To distribute public financial resources to support the aforementioned experiences

- To raise awareness on migration and intercultural issues to prevent and contrast discrimination and racism. In this regard also training sessions are arranging.

The involvement in the project of public authorities, policy-makers, representatives of the civil society, Roma and migrant people, helps the creation of a strong network in each target city (Budapest, Burgas, Prague and Taranto) where the transfer of good practices from other European cities takes place, in order to: a) become familiar with local experiences that have proven to be successful as regards the fulfilment of Roma and migrants’ needs; b) acquire skills for lifelong learning policies, based on the efficiency and the equity of a combined vision integrating specific policies developed for other areas; c) prevent and contrast many kinds of racism in different levels (e.g. institutional and in daily life).

With the dissemination of an integration model between vocational training, adult training and social services at a local level, addresses to Roma and migrants as well, the project impacts on the systems and the practices adopted in European cities, thereby changing them.

The direct goal are to guarantee methodological support to local partnerships, helping them adopt a successful model, whereas the indirect goal consists in involving and supporting the European networks.

Potential impact of the project can certainly refer to:

- the establishment of local partnerships and networks composed by local authorities, Roma and migrants communities and organisations, NGOs and so on, to provide and develop new projects and co-operations at local and European level.


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- the enhanced participation of Roma migrants in the development of local migratory policies through the local networks set up for the integration of training actions with the welfare system in general, along with the ability to work out local plans aimed at integrating different measures.


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2. Project Approach

Taking into account the experience of a previous KA4 project on transferring of good practices developed, titled LeCiM, MiStra started from the following remarks:

• a holistic approach, which considers job insertion, training, participation and right to citizenship of migrants as equally important, laying stress on several plans that may affect the life and well-being of people. Since we believe that the social inclusion of migrants, along with any problems associated with migration, including racism, pose a few questions the host society should come to terms with, we have stressed the importance of the prevention of discrimination on all levels, being it the foundation of each civil society;

• the need to involve migrants in participation processes and active citizenship, in order to engage them in the debate as well, thereby encouraging their contribution as active and self-determined people to the economic, cultural and political development of the societies they belong to, and contributing to their wealth and pluralism;

• services addressed to migrants are not always effective to solve the problems affecting host societies. They can lead to perceived discrimination on the part of the needy who are excluded for not being migrants themselves. Besides, it could be inferred that migration is a synonym for exclusion and poverty. For this reason, the actions scheduled by the project do not focus only on the social inclusion of migrants, but they aim to encourage a wider participation of the public suiting their different needs;

• to be migrant does not mean to be disadvantaged, but it can happen if the host society is not really “hosting”;

• awareness and cultural activities are important to remove racism, stereotypes and prejudices on migrants and migration issues, involving every level of society.

MiStra is structured with an overall coordination provided by CIOFS-FP. In each target city there is a partner referent for the local activity. The country referent organisation is therefore responsible for the implementation of local workshop and transfer process, building of local networks, and the dissemination activities in its country and its networks.

Local networks contribute 1) in transferring contexts with the aim of providing multi-stakeholders co-operation, knowledge, experience and support, 2) in receiving contexts, to induce policy framework improvements, prevent many kinds of discrimination at different levels and defining a fitted allocation of public fund responding to emerging needs. Local networks are composed by policy makers, public authorities, NGOs, Chambers of Commerce, Trade Unions, Roma and migrants’ representations and associations.

Being a mainstreaming project, special attention is paid to the involvement of public and private stakeholders in Europe (public authorities, communities of migrants, training centres, International bodies, European agencies, research centres, etc.) and in each country involved, in order to guarantee the best transfer of good practices, dissemination and enhancement.

At local level the project implements a participative multi-stakeholders approach involving also Roma and migrant people and/or communities in order to facilitate their direct participation in definition of policy, social intervention and local activities on intercultural and migration issues.

At local level have been provided researches (desk and interviews) on good practices where available and need analysis in target cities.

The research was carried out based on interviews with privileged stakeholders from the four target cities, in order to define their basic features and specific needs, as well as criticalities when it comes to Roma and migrants. The very same study was also focussing on the four cities transferring the good practices, so as to identify transferrable elements, models and innovation.


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Information was collected in specific templates and summarized for the Matching Seminar held in Vienna to identify, along with the partners offering good practices to transfer, risks and opportunities. The Matching seminar provided the following results: The good practices of Berlin, Dublin, Bologna and Vienna will transfer respectively to Budapest, Prague, Burgas and Taranto.

From a methodological standpoint, it was agreed that the transfer should not concern good practices as a whole, but just a few of their specific components that had the twofold characteristic of suiting the specific needs of the target city and were transferrable based on current conditions. Project resources and, above all, timeline did not allow for a fully-fledged transfer of good practices, since they refer to complex and deeply rooted processes that might require a medium-to-long planning to set up the necessary conditions for adjustment.

In this regard should be useful to consider that also same parts of the good practices can be fitted to the needs of the target city, and/or the good practices can inspire interventions to be adapted at local level according to their features and needs.

The project is also useful in identifying useful key elements and remarks on the transferring process of good practices, which could be adapted, transferred and/or tested also in other contexts.

As exploitation activities a public call for study visit was announced and participants selected, three for each transferring city where will be held. Through the study visits, as exploitation activity, MiStra offers to interested European networks, public authorities and organisations the possibility to collect information about the transfer processes of integrated action models for the social inclusion of Roma and migrants, as encouraged by the project. This initiative meet the twofold requirement of broadening the scope of the actions and involving more cities in the adoption of good practices for the social inclusion of Roma and migrants, therefore enhancing the sustainability of the initiatives promoted by the project.

MiStra foresees an internal evaluation in charge of a skilled partner who submits to participants, stakeholders and project partners evaluation questionnaires in paper copy during every project event at local and European level. Evaluation sessions using http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Mistra are foreseen in every quarter, involving the overall partnership on the project development, the Management Boarding meetings and so on.

Since the beginning the project foresees an external evaluation, in order to have a different viewpoint compared with the stakeholders directly involved

The task of the evaluation of Mistra is to register and assess the project’s processes and processes, with two main goals:

i) giving an ongoing feedback to the partnership on the project process (monitoring)

ii) implementing a quality assurance and independent evaluation on the project’s performance and impact (evaluation).

The quality and evaluation team is made up (Ballymun Job Centre (internal), Hermanns Consultancy (external) & CIOFS-FP).

(A) Internal Evaluation

(1) Evaluation of the Mistra Partner Meetings

After every Mistra meeting (Rome, Burgas and Brussels) the partners are sent a link to an online questionnaire with a mix of open and closed questions, assessing the different parts of the programme, the organisation and logistics of the meetings. The questionnaire captures partners’ individual opinions of the meetings (positive and negative aspects) as well as allowing for additional comments and suggestions for improvements to be made for future meetings. The same questions included in each partner meeting evaluation questionnaire are the same each time which allow for the quality of the meetings to be compared against each other.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Mistra


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(2) Quarterly Reporting

Alongside the evaluation of the Mistra partner meetings all partner organisations complete a short online questionnaire (one per organisations representing the opinions of all employees involved in the project) containing questions relating to activities undertaken, problems encountered, as well as organisations and stakeholders contacted. The questionnaire are divided into each work package. The Ballymun Job Centre then compiles a report on the findings of these questionnaires. The results of this monitoring are used for the following specific purposes: i) basic information for the project management, as early warning and risk management tool; ii) source of information for the external evaluator; iii) accounting project’s achievements in real time, against the set quantitative and qualitative indicators. Again the same questions are used for each quarter to allow for comparability.

So far the first 3 (out of 8) quarterly reports are available – 4th quarter 2012, 1st and 2nd quarter 2013.

(3) Matching Seminar

The matching seminar held in Vienna in April 2013 was also evaluated using a short paper based evaluation questionnaire developed to capture partners’ and local stakeholders opinions on the logistics, relevance, appropriateness of the matching, communication interaction between participants, effectiveness and overall success of the matching seminar.

The Matching Seminar Report is available as of May 2013.

(4) Local Workshops

The participants of the local workshops held between June 2013- April 2014 were asked to complete a hard copy evaluation questionnaire evaluation questionnaire developed to capture participants’ opinions on the logistics, communication/interaction between participants, relevance, appropriateness of the transfer method, effectiveness, willingness to adapt, and overall success of the local workshops and transfer process. Each partner creates a country report of the feedback from their country reports and submit to the BJC. The BJC then creates an overall synthesis report of the local workshops.

A first set of 4 Partner Country Reports from the Local Empowerment Workshops are available as of July 2013.

(5) Final Conference

The participants (partners, local stakeholders etc.) of the final conference to be held in Brussels in September 2014 will also be asked to complete a short paper based questionnaire to evaluate the success of the final conference. This questionnaire will seek to gauge participants’ opinions on the relevance, effectiveness and overall success of the final conference.

(Internal) Evaluation Report of the Final Conference is scheduled shortly after the final meeting in Brussels in September 2014.

(B) External Evaluation

The aim of the external evaluations is in fact to give a qualified and independent feedback on the impact of local actions in the target and transferring cities, both beneficiaries’ and at system level, as well as the contribution specifically provided by the transnational cooperation in this context.

(1) Midterm evaluation + Midterm evaluation report

At the end of the first year, Hermanns Consultancy will be in charge of assessing the project’s progresses, according to the standard criteria of relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability. It will be in line with the ToR provided by the partnership, and it will provide a set of 5-6 clear evaluation questions able to cover the criteria and indicators established in the M&E plan. The evaluation will present the main results, strengths and weaknesses of the project’s process and it will give an external and qualified feedback to the


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management board. A specific focus will be dedicated to the intended and actual impacts of the activities on VET and public policies within target and transferring cities. It will highlight specific recommendations to partners, stakeholders and beneficiaries.

All available reports (Kick-off meeting, 3 Quarterly reports, Matching Seminar Report, first set of LEW reports) have been taken into account in this Midterm Evaluation Report.

(2) Final evaluation + Final evaluation report

At the end of the project, Hermanns Consultancy will be in charge of assessing the project’s progresses, according to the standard criteria of relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability. The evaluation will present the main results, strengths and weaknesses of the project’s process and it will give an external and qualified feedback to the management board. A specific focus will be dedicated to the actual impacts of the activities on VET and public policies within target and transferring cities, as well as on the sustainability perspectives. It will highlight specific recommendations to partners, stakeholders and beneficiaries.

Special attention is paid to the transfer process and their specific contents, and taking into account the experience of LeCiM, MiStra started from the following remarks:

• Close comparability of two places is not a necessary pre-requisite for successfully transferring of good practice;

• The comparability of the problem situation influences only if the model of the good practice shall be transferred one to one. When only a part of a model shall be transferred to meet local needs and a certain attention is given on the specificities, no disturbing effects could be observed;

• The matching of the role model with the target location’s needs is of high importance for the success of the transfer process.

• The willingness to adapt of the target cities institutions to test successful models from other locations is the most important underlying factor for the success of the transfer process;

• The transfer process can be improved by active involvement of institutions from the role model city.

Results of the internal evaluation Overall results: The project is regarded as being on track by all of the partners, with so far none of the meetings and Workshops being delayed or postponed (substantially). All meetings and workshops have so far been attended by a representative group of the partnership, the first series of 4 local empowerment workshops mainly focusing on the individual partnerships of model (host of the first workshop) and target cities.

From the quarterly reports: All partner organisations agree that the Mistra project is progressing well and that the work package leaders are managing their respective work packages effectively. Furthermore, there was unanimous agreement that the meetings have been of benefit to assisting the achievement of the stated objectives of the project and that partners are cooperating well both during the meetings and during the intervening times. The quarterly reporting system is considered to be clear and useful by all but one partner organisation, this also applies to the monitoring and evaluation. Regarding the transfer process some partner noted that there might be a problem in that there will not be always the same facilitator for the transfer as in the project LeCiM, where a dedicated partner had this function.


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The dissemination activities of the project include: o Creation of a dedicated website http://www.mistraproject.eu/ and a facebook page o Web videos to be uploaded on You Tube o Information provided at many International seminars and conferences o Contacts to (additional) stakeholders through the media o Providing materials for the webpage and social networks profile o Education. Information. Research for and contacting local authorities and other

partners, also for the web page. o Published information about MiStra on the own website, translating the project

information. From the LEW reports (and the report on the matching seminar): After the matching seminar in Vienna in April, attended by 11 participants, the first series of 4 workshops was organised throughout June 2013, linking a (hosting) model city to a visiting target city, with a variable number of participants.

A vast majority of participants (over 85% on average, 40% to a very high/high extent) was positive, agreeing that the workshops fulfilled the project and workshop objections (the matching seminar largely showing similar results):

• The (intercultural) communication between the workshop participants was excellent, with a positive atmosphere, a good chance to meet and cooperate with others working in the same field, offering fair (equal) chances to participate and exchange for each participant.

• Follow-up steps for the project/workshops were agreed upon – mutual interaction through Skype meetings were strongly recommended after the matching seminar!

• A large majority sees their expectations met and is planning to visit the second workshop

In a broader sense the European learning experience and the mainstreaming and dissemination will guarantee that the positive results are spread beyond the project participants. The EEIG MetropolisNet is a consolidated reality at EU level and it has amongst its principal scope of action the promotion of learning experiences on VET, labour market and social inclusion in metropolitan European contexts. This is guaranteeing adequate attention to the further learning process that this project can generate in target and non-target countries.

Project Outcomes & Results The MiStra project plans to deliver tools, products and dissemination activities on migrants and minorities’ inclusion able to conjugate the European objectives social inclusion and employment with local action plans to be designed and implemented at city level.

In order to reach the objective, the European cooperation dimension is essential:

- it supports local actors (VET representatives, NGOs, migrants and minorities’ representations) in participating and sharing their views and needs toward local policy makers;



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- it supports local governments in institutionalising and mainstreaming their policies as well, by helping cities in overcoming the difficulties linked to the transitory character of projects and measures adopted;

- EU cooperation fosters the possibilities to compare different city models in a deep and practical way, by collecting, analysing and giving a feedback both on needs of the cities and on the possible response and on their effectiveness on the solutions adopted in other European contexts.

In regard to project strategy and objectives, the most important outcomes achieved in the first project year are the research reports, the Matching seminar, the local workshops with transferring activities, local networks involving private and public organisations. The most important outcomes to be achieved in the second project year will be the bilateral visits, the study visits, the Best practices database and compendium on migrant and minorities integration and VET, the Toolkit for policy makers on migrant and minorities integration and VET planning, the Web videos and the final Conference in Brussels on September 2014.

Research activity proved to be useful and necessary, not only for information collection and analysis, but also for exchange and comparison, which made each partner within the partnership focus on one specific good practice. The report resulting from that has been a tool aimed at defining transfer processes for good practices, in order to disseminate information about them with the stakeholders of target cities as well as any other operator in the field of intercultural and migration issues and socio-cultural inclusion of Roma and migrants.

The target groups and beneficiaries of the project activities and outcomes are:

- Migrants and minorities’ representations and communities

- VET institutions mangers and representatives

- NGOs working with migrants and minorities’

- Local cities’ governments

- European stakeholders

By virtue of their mission and daily activities the project partners are directly representing, or are closely related with the potential beneficiaries of the project; they are committed in contacting and involving them in the process since the beginning of the project. The first event where they will be directly present is the Matching Seminar, in order to assure that the policies and practices exchanged and transferred are selected taking into account their specific indications and needs and assuring the project’s ownership. This is true receiving contexts, but for transferring partners as well: the mentoring model (on the good practices), planning and effective exchange between cities’ representations, will see direct communication and assistance between partner cities; it is therefore important that the people involved as transferring agents are fully acquainted and aware of the expected inputs in target cities.

Main changes expected for these groups are: raised awareness on specific needs of social services, training, education and labour insertion measures at local level; improved knowledge and capacity to adapt to their contexts European best practices; improved capacity to interact with other beneficiaries groups in own contexts. A range of specific products will serve at the purpose and support sustained change, namely the exchange matrix; the stakeholders’ databases; the best practices compendium and toolkit for local administrators; the website. All the named products are planned in all project’s languages to ease their use.

Stakeholders in target countries and in other countries than the ones involved:

- Other VET providers,

- social partners, Trade unions, Job centres, Chamber of Commerce,


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- migrants and citizens Councils, local committees

All of these be consulted and informed by the project’s partners. Their participation is planned in all significant events of the project, i.e. local workshops, transnational events (study visits and European Conference). The involvement of MetropolisNet as leader of the Exploitation activity serves to guide the exploitation process within and beyond partner countries involved: in virtue of its specific transnational scope and range of action, it will be able to support the exploitation at least in three other countries than the ones involved through promoting the participation of stakeholders to the study visits and promoting the use of project’s results beyond its borders.

The direct and strong involvement of policy makers, local stakeholders and public authorities into the matching and transfer process (within the research activities, Matching seminar, LEWs, bilateral and study visits and so on), guarantees the actual and long-term engagement of local networks in each target city, relevant also for the exploitation, dissemination and sustainability of the project during and after its life-cycle.

Project’s products are thought to be practically exploited beyond the project’s borders and beyond the project’s lifetime. The participatory way they are built, the practical experiences and guidance they provide, as well as their availability in 5 European languages supports this view.

The project outcomes and products are available on http://www.mistraproject.eu/

For additional information please contact 0039 (0)6 5729911 [email protected] or [email protected];


mailto:[email protected]


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3. Partnerships

CIOFS-FP (lead partner) is a non-profit organization which covers a number of activities in the fields of vocational training, orientating and social inclusion and provides services to local enterprises and people with particular needs. It is member of national and transnational networks and it carries out research activities as well as national and European projects. www.ciofs-fp.org - [email protected] MetropolisNet EEIG is a European Network of urban organizations and partnerships involved in social inclusion and labour market strategies at local level in large European cities. Its members consider the promotion of employment and social inclusion to be essential for the sustainable economic growth of urban areas. www.metropolisnet.eu - [email protected] The gsub-Projektegesellschaft mbH was created in 1991 in support of the State of Berlin’s labour market agency activities and has developed as a service agency for public contracts for several clients. The organisation is active in: Employment, education, enterprise development, youth and integration policies. www.gsub.de - [email protected] The Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI) is a scientific institute, actively engaged in research, network co-ordination, education and policy advice. One of its key activities is to facilitate social, cultural and economic integration in Europe by means of scientific competence and support of relevant practices. www.zsi.at - [email protected] The Ballymun Job Centre (BJC) is a community-based non-profit making organisation, which provides services to local unemployed people to enable them to overcome the barriers affecting their entry into the labour market. It delivers services under three main headings: Client Services, Employer Support and Innovative Projects and Research. www.bmunjob.ie - [email protected] EUROPARTNERS 2007 Foundation is a no-profit organization, active in two fields: life-long learning of teachers and conflict management training. www.europartners2007.org - [email protected] People in Need (PIN)- Migration Awareness Programme - is a foundation working in the Czech Republic since 2001. Its aim is to facilitate the dialogue between migrants, media and the general public, providing informational service for journalists as well as organizing media trainings for migrants. www.migration4media.net - [email protected] The Refugee Ministry is a part of the Reformed Mission Centre, the mission arm of the Reformed Church in Hungary. Its main aim is to receive and provide comfort to recognized refugees. Main activities: housing, schooling, mentoring and community development. www.rmk.hu/menekultmisszio - [email protected] The Don Bosco Nővérek Háza Alapítvány is a non-profit Voluntary Foundation providing services in education sector. It aims at promoting social inclusion of disadvantaged young people – among which young Roma – who live in difficult economic, social and emotional situations. www.donbosconoverek.hu - [email protected] Associate partners are: the Municipal Government of Bologna, which through the Personal service Agency “Poveri Vergognosi” transferred good welfare practices for the social inclusion of migrants to Burgas, given its skills in the field of migration and poverty; the Provincial Government of Taranto, directly involved in the transfer and responsible for the pilot concerning the transfer of the good practice from Vienna; Senate of Berlin supporting GSUB in the transferring process to Budapest, Inspectorate of Education of Burgas engaged






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in the transfer process from Bologna, MetropolisNet, European Economic Interest Group involved in project dissemination and enhancement activities, thanks to its strong European network. The partnership, organised during planning based on specific skills and effectiveness, confirmed its ability as well as theoretical and practical expertise in regard to the issues dealt with and the methodologies adopted. Moreover, as estimated, other public and private partners, which had already joined the local networks of the partnership, contributed to the transfer of good practices and/or participated in meetings and workshops for the presentation of project results and outcomes.

The need to involve different geographical areas in Europe was considered when choosing the partners, and for this reason the project partners included organisations from North-Central Europe (Ireland, Austria and Germany) for their long-term experience on migration issues, Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary and Bulgaria) as new destination of migration flows and for the strong presence of Roma people in this area, and Southern Europe (Italy) as important European gate of migration routes.

Through the study visits the number of participants from other countries (Poland, Spain and Finland will be increased, with a view to sharing approaches and instruments belonging to difference cultures and historic-political traditions with regard to social inclusion, acceptance and exploitation of differences and migratory policies.

Along with the sharing of good practices transferred, such a broad partnership offered the opportunity to share and disseminate information about project methodologies and unplanned activities. As a result, a few of the actions taken had no precedents at all, but were equally interesting and fruitful for the territory.


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4. Plans for the Future

Between October 2013 and April 2014 the second and the third rounds of local workshops will be organised in each target city. The second rounds of workshops will be aimed at supporting and monitoring current activities, whereas the third rounds will be focussing on final evaluation. From the very beginning, it was the workshops responsibility to assess the sustainability of implemented actions and good practices transferred to target cities. The important involvement of policy-makers and public authorities, along with a search for financing (and self-financing, if possible) on the part of public and private partners alike (such as banks and foundations), as well as attempts at making profits out of the activities proposed (if possible), aim to guarantee the future (economic and social) sustainability of actions, as already explained in the planning phase.

To further encourage the success of transfer and pilot activities, the project offers other target cities the opportunity to verify in situ the feasibility of the good practices that might be transferred, through any bilateral visits in transferring contexts. A representative from each target city will be given the opportunity to spend one or two days in the city transferring the good practice and to observe it more closely, verifying its transferability. All expenses will be incurred by the project.

In order to encourage and enhance dissemination and exploitation activities, 12 organisations (public authorities, NGOs, Universities, Roma associations, and so on) have been selected through the public call launched by MiStra in order to participate in study visits to the transferring cities owner of good practices.

The main goals are:

- to show them the good practices selected by the project;

- to collect useful information to transfer or test good practices or methodologies suiting own needs;

- to enlarge European networks and partnership.

Besides MiStra will support third organisations (involved in study visits or new contacts), which might express their interest in transferring and/or testing methodologies and good practices made available by the project. A support will guarantee assistance also after the end of the project, offering suggestions and advice to European, public and private organisations showing interest in social inclusion, Roma and migration issues. We will offer theoretical and methodological inputs for research on these topics and shall contribute identify good practices at a European level along with related indicators.

The final Conference of MiStra project will be held in Brussels in September 2014. On that occasion project results and outcomes will be officially presented.

MiStra has already produced some spin-offs, like new partnerships in Taranto involved in social inclusion and the fight against poverty which have benefited from the interim results of the project.


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5. Contribution to EU policies

MiStra project promotes the development of policies for the integration between public social protection systems and education systems, in order to suit the needs of migrants in line with the specific necessities of the reference areas.

The project dealt with the issue of efficiency and equity of training and education systems, thereby contributing to the fourth strategic challenge, i.e. "promoting equality and active citizenship", as reinforced in the document titled “An updated strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training” (COM(2008) 865), concerning the adoption of a joint policy across all systems. This contribution was guaranteed by the active participation and direct involvement of migrants in the planning and programming of the good practices to be transferred. As already mentioned, the focus is on education and training.

MiStra provided for the exchange of good practices, as well as learning tools available at a European level, thereby contributing to the bottom-up process for the enhancement of the interaction between social services, adult training and welfare addressed to migrants, based on the strategic objectives ET2020 aimed at achieving quality and efficacy of training and education systems for eased access to any other system.

The project relied on a model consisting of an inter-sector approach of vocational training and adult training actions, addressed to migrants, integrating them with supplementary policies envisaged by public welfare systems (housing, socio-occupational services, cultural mediation, etc.).

MiStra also contributed to the development of lifelong learning policies, taking into account a combined view of efficiency and equity, as an integration of specific policies concerning other areas.

It promotes an awareness to combat racism, prejudice and xenophobia because the project approach is based on a clear practice evidence, resulting in a policy statement which is the base of the whole action: social exclusion and poverty are often linked with racism, prejudice and xenophobia phenomena. This is the basis upon which the partnership is together and through the action we are actively promoting this view, reaching in depth local contexts.

In this regard it contributes to combating all forms of discrimination based on “racial or ethnic” origin because the approach combining LLL and social inclusion (i.e. housing and anti-discrimination) is linking the daily life of citizens in cities and the evident advantages of building inclusive and multi-cultural neighbourhoods. This view is supported by the examples coming from the transfer cities, confronted with the needs detected in receiving context. By including all relevant stakeholders, we promote at institutional and citizens’ level this view and support it with evidence-based practices.

MiStra is also linked to Education and Training 2020 Work Programme because employment and social inclusion objectives on a more skilled workforce make it apparent the need of intervening continuously on migrant and minorities’ issues, both to boost the “potential of intra-EU mobility and of third-country migrant inflows” and to work concretely on promoting equity, social cohesion and active citizenship by fostering further learning, active citizenship and intercultural dialogue.


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