In the last 2 years the Business Foundation for Education, Associate member of the European Association for the Education of Adults has been representing Bulgaria in Info4Migrants, UK/13/LLP-LdV/TOI-615 – a Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation project funded with the support of the European Commission.
The project has been successfully implemented by a consortium coordinated by Careers Europe (part of Aspire-i) from the United Kingdom and with the active involvement of 4 other partners: BEST Institut für berufsbezogene Weiterbildung und Personaltraining GmbH from Austria, Folkuniversitetet Kristianstad from Sweden, Inveslan from Spain and Learnmera Oy from Finland.
The main output of the project is the I4M online resource www.info4migrants.com – a ‘one-stop shop’ of information relating to the rights and needs of migrants, as well as a bank of tools and resources specifically designed for advisers working with incoming migrants. The site aims to support integration of migrants in the host country whatever their background and status.
The exciting new website is a bank of useful information, signposting users to the most up-to-date and reliable information across multiple sectors – from health and education, living and working in theit new country, legal status and rights. Users have described it as ‘diverse and interesting’, ‘a much needed resource’ that provides ‘easy to access all the right information’.
To make it easier for the migrants with different background and status every participating country translated the content into the most wide-spread languages among the migrants in the respective country – for Bulgaria these are English, French, Russian, Turkish and Arabic.
On the 3rd, September, 2015, in Leeds, UK, the project consortium launched the Info4Migrants online resource for migrants and their support workers. The free event gathered over 70 professionals and volunteers in the region, offering a unique opportunity to network, share and learn about the latest developments in services for migrants.
Workshops ranged from advice on health screening to new ‘Right to Rent’ laws that will mean significant changes to the housing rights of migrants. NARIC gave an overview of the services for comparing qualifications from other countries, Barca Leeds explored the varying cultural identites of Eastern European migrants and Careers Europe demonstrated the I4M website.
Ultimately the overall benefit of the resource is that users save time – instead of trawling the internet for answers on different topics, everything is right there in one place. The same principle applied to the launch event, where regional and national organisations formed a diverse exhibition including Migration Yorkshire, the UK NARIC and Europass centre, The Children’s Society, The National Careers Service, PATH Yorkshire and Leeds Community Healthcare.
Feedback from attendees showed enthusiasm for all aspects of the event and website. One comment really sums up what the I4M team set out to achieve, stating „I’ve managed to make many contacts to help me do my work better“
Here’s what else they had to say: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=197&v=lN1xqRPD4Hk