National Society: Implementation Plan Florence Call for Action

Transcription

1 (IFRC) National Society: Implementation Plan Florence Call for Action Activities of the Norwegian Red Cross In the field of Migration 1) a) Activity: Psychosocial Support unit The establishment of a psychosocial support unit (professional delegates and experienced volunteers) during the period when there were increased numbers of immigrants arriving in Europe, which also included increased awareness creation and training re. psychosocial skills of volunteers working in the migration field. Many of the newly arrived immigrants were clearly traumatized from their experiences, for example from experiences of war and loss, and/or the harrowing journeys through to and through Europe. The increased number of immigrants arriving into Norway in 2015 made it clear that work on migration issues in a Red Cross context also required: - considerable knowledge and insight into psychosocial first aid - cultural sensitivity - relevant language skills - strong negotiation skills between the Red Cross and the authorities, humanitarian diplomacy In order to respond to the needs in 2015, NorCross established a national psychosocial support unit inspired by the ERU framework. This was meant to complement local volunteers' assistance activities in dedicated sites where many unmet needs were identified. This model was operational approx. 6 months until the arrivals dropped. Yet, the experiences from such work continues to inform both the migration field and the preparedness work on the national society in general. In total the unit registered more than meetings with those newly arrived to the country. b) Target group: Vulnerable migrants who just had arrived in the country. c) Tools The professional delegate programme was based largely on tools already present in the organization relating to the international delegate programme. Tools from the movement work on psychosocial assistance were reference points for the work undertaken (PFA and Child friendly spaces). d) New / scaling up / intensity efforts: The establishment of the new temporary professional team to respond to immediate needs at critical entry points represented a new development within NorCross. 1

2 2 I Guidance note for new activities on Migration, Social Aspects, Volunteering / ISG / 1 st October ) a) Activity: Refugee Buddy and Family Friend/supporter New activities launched aimed at unaccompanied minors and young refugees, combined with increasing advocacy work for the rights of unaccompanied minors. In 2015 Norway received a considerable number of asylum applications from unaccompanied minors a total of persons arrived. This was a historical high number which caused NorCross to develop new activities for this group as well as strengthen existing initiatives. The NorCross Youth branch launched the project "RefugeeBuddy" (Flyktningkompis) which aimed at creating "buddy groups" consisting of local youth and newly arrived refugee youth. The aim is to foster social inclusion, build bridges between different youth groups locally as well as assist those newly arrived to settle in to their new homes. Research has shown that many newly arrived young refugees (especially those coming without family) feel alone and isolated after being settled in Norway. Another initiative providing adult pastoral support has also been rolled out in recent years; "Familyfriend/Supporter" (Vennefamilie/Støttespiller) this is an initiative which aims at linking unaccompanied young refugees to local families or adult resource persons who can help them navigate their new life in Norway. In addition to the new activities, NorCross has also scaled up its advocacy work for the rights of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers. This has been the response to legislative and changes in practice on behalf of the government we see an increasingly hostile policy environment that affects unaccompanied minors negatively. For instance, there has been a steep increase in the use of temporary permits and forced returns of many young asylum seekers a policy shift which in turn has led to increase in self-harm and disappearances from asylum centres. NorCross has initiated meetings with top government officials as well as launched public seminars on topics to raise awareness and influence government policy and practice in a more humanitarian direction. b) Target group: Unaccompanied minor asylum seekers and young settled refugees c) Tools: To develop the new activities aimed at young settled refugees, NorCross has used tools and experience from previous work. Both programmes are developed based on feedback from many local members and volunteers as well as municipalities requesting Red Cross involvement to improve the lives of young settled refugees. Many of the tools are developed from existing Red Cross initiatives such as RefugeeGuide programmes (where settled refugees receive a local guide for the first period in their new home). The tools used in the advocacy work are taken largely from the existing tools that are available to NorCross through the Humanitarian Diplomacy framework provided by the IFRC. d) New/scaling up/intensity efforts: The activities and advocacy work described above represent largely a new initiative which still must be considered in its initial stages.

3 3 I Guidance note for new activities on Migration, Social Aspects, Volunteering / ISG / 1 st October ) a) Activity: Increased presence in asylum centres. NorCross has a long history of providing activities and psychosocial support to residents in asylum centres dating back to the early 2000s (prior to this the organization itself was running asylum centres). When the number of asylum seekers increased sharply in 2015, both local, regional and national leaders mobilized to ensure that there would be an increased Red Cross presence in asylum centres across the country. In 2016 Red Cross presence in asylum centres, increased from being present in 46% of all centres at the beginning of the year, to 80% coverage at the end of the year. Volunteers provided a wide range of activities based on local interest and volunteer expertise; many focused on physical activity, language learning, social and cultural exchange, children and family activities as well as mediation and first-aid courses for adolescents and adults. b) Target group: Residents at asylum centres (asylum seekers, persons with rejected asylum claims as well as accepted refugees waiting to be settled in a municipality) c) Tools: The increased presence in asylum centres, has been a result of strong collaboration between local branches, regional offices as well as HQ. One tool has been regular coordination meeting between staff at national and regional level, as well as top leadership focus on obtaining the strategic goals that have been set. A second tool has been the updated and revised migration training course which all volunteers undertake. This is also complemented by a one-hour e-learning module to get volunteers quickly acquainted with migration issues and the Red Cross approach. Finally, it must be acknowledged that the increased presence and activity level in asylum centres is also due to generous financial support by Norwegian authorities, who have expanded their grants for volunteer activities in asylum centres in recent years. Furthermore, NorCross has received many generous donations from the private sector in this field in 2015 and d) New / scaling up / intensity efforts: The efforts represent a scaling up and intensification of existing work, as described above. File holder - Contact details Name: Karin Afeef Position: Head of Migration karin.afeef@redcross.no

4 4 I Guidance note for new activities on Migration, Social Aspects, Volunteering / ISG / 1 st October 2015 In the field of Social Aspects 1) a) Activity: Joint Venture (Fellesverket) The Norwegian Red Cross has for years worked for and with youth in their local communities. Both in Youth-led activities and youth centers led by the Red Cross Youth and the Social Health and Care Department. Through our presence locally we have discovered an unmet need for meeting places where youth can be youth. A private donation received in 2016, enabled us to realize a national commitment to meet the need for local youth venues. The initiative has been named Fellesverket (Joint Venture). The aim of Fellesverket is to empower the youth and fosters stories about mastering and collective efficacy, and for volunteers to facilitate learning and inspiring activities for and with youth. Fellesverket brings together activities for local youth under one roof and becomes a strong voice for the target group, and in the community at large. The experience so far shows that the Fellesverket attracts many different youths and the feedback from, amongst others, Police and social services are that the access to youth venues affects the youth environment in the city positively. We also see that Fellesverket enables networking, and that friendship occurs between the youth, also across cultural and socio-economic backgrounds Fellesverket help to counteract marginalization by creating a safe, social and inclusive environment where everyone is welcome and where the youth themselves are keen to include, and take care of each other. In addition, the youth meet volunteers who are facilitators and good role models. The activities offered build competencies and gives a feeling of mastering and collective efficacy. 11 such places have been established so far in the project. Fellesverket is also a joint venture in the way that it is a collaboration between the Red Cross Youth, with its peer-to-peer approach, and the Care Department. The houses also become venues for intergenerational cooperation, and becomes a joint venture for the Local branches. b) Target group: Youth in local communities In major cities in Norway. c) Tools: Profile guide, logo, set-up guide: To ensure quality, usability and a unified expression of all activity houses, we cooperated with a communication and design agency to develop a national concept. They helped us with positioning and identity, name, visual identity as well as a guide for the guiding principles and the physical design of premises. The guide is partly evident in how we talk to the target group, with a focus on youth primarily as youth, and not primarily vulnerable, lonely, migrants or otherwise. Activities: Fellesverket gives great importance to local content that meets the local humanitarian needs of the youth. However, there are four standard activities that should always be part of a Fellesverket: 1) social meeting space - where it is allowed to just hang out, 2) access to Homework assistance, 3) courses in Street Mediation, and 4) opportunity for job training. d) New / scaling up / intensity efforts

5 5 I Guidance note for new activities on Migration, Social Aspects, Volunteering / ISG / 1 st October 2015 From Official launch august of the 11 house has excited as Resource Centers for Youth in Oslo since early Name: Synnøve Karlsen Position: Project manager Fellesverket, Department of Care, The Norwegian Red Cross synnove.karlsen@redcross.no 2) a) Activity: Digital Senior Digital Senior is program that aims to alleviate the digital exclusion, and often subsequent loneliness, experienced by the older generations. The increase in public and social digital services has led to dramatic increase in skills necessary to be and act as a fully competent member of the society. This gap drives forth the need to address the vulnerable groups that do not possess the expected level of skill to receive the services that are available to them. Digital Senior is a method that invites the senior to participate in a ten-week learning program where they, with the help of their own volunteer, work through 19 lessons. The volunteers receive a special training aimed especially at the pedagogical needs of the target group. Digital Senior is built to encompass both social and digital training. The aim is to: o Build confidence o Strengthen social networks o Reduce anxiety for use of tablets and smart phones amongst seniors b) Target group: Seniors (outside the workforce) that want to engage in the digital world. c) Tools Personal follow up and tutoring is the most central tool in Digital Senior. Seniors and volunteers meet two times every week, one meeting where they are all together in the locale of the Red Cross and the second meeting is a one-to-one meeting that takes place on a time and place organised by the senior/volunteer couple. Each meeting follows a planned lesson (1-19), that are available in physical pamphlets, and builds the basic know-how on everything from online norms and anonymity, ergonomical adjustments to and selfies. The group meeting facilitates social training as well as the digital aspect and the volunteers are trained in including friends and family of the senior where possible. Digital Senior meets the need of seniors that have no knowledge prior to the course and lends android tablets during the course to participants that need it. d) New / scaling up / intensity efforts The project was initiated and piloted from January 2016

6 6 I Guidance note for new activities on Migration, Social Aspects, Volunteering / ISG / 1 st October 2015 File holder - Contact details Name: Einar Grøndalen Position: Head of Social Inclusion, Department of Care, The Norwegian Red Cross Einar.grondalen@redcross.no 1) 1. Activity: Digital Volunteer In the field of Volunteering The long-term goal of the project is that volunteers have access to - and use - IT tools that simplify their voluntary work and support the volunteers' work processes. Through the use of these tools, volunteers and staff will also gain access to important statistics from volunteer activities. One of the goal is therefore to ensure that we provide useful tools for managing the volunteer activity at the local level, so that relevant management data is generated from the daily activities The solution should: - Be a single sign-on solution - Provide volunteers and organizers with an easy way to administer volunteers and activities in the local branches. - Provide volunteers with easy access to training. The background was a need for a better overview of all volunteer activities in the local branches of Norwegian Red Cross. The project focus has been to recommend IT-tools that will support the activities and the volunteers in their daily work, and this, in turn, will enable us to extract good and secure statistics from the activities. Currently there are many different systems used nationally and locally to record activities. These systems are not integrated and cannot be used confidently as complete sources for this kind of information. 2. Target group: Volunteers in various activities, organizers of volunteer activities, elected boards and governing structures on all levels and employees. 3. Tools: Development of a single sign-on system for: Simple volunteering: Digital solutions should make it easy to become and be a volunteer. Common digital/it solution: The solutions should be used across functions and activities. User-friendly systems: Systems must be accessible and intuitive. Mobile solutions: The solutions should be available where the activity is happening and contribute to simpler processes that reduce the need for PC-usage. Information Sharing: Data that is registered in one system should be reusable in other systems and processes that need the same information.

7 7 I Guidance note for new activities on Migration, Social Aspects, Volunteering / ISG / 1 st October 2015 Processes before systems: The system development must be based on volunteers' comprehensive work processes, rather than on the perspective of the individual system. File holder - Contact details Name: Eli Merethe Hageberg Position: Project Manager, Digital volunteering Eli.Hageberg@redcross.no 2) a) Activity: Volunteer Survey 2016/2017 The nature of volunteering has been changing over the last decades. Long-term volunteering is no longer common, there is a growing demand for empowering volunteers, there is a desire amongst volunteers to access more opportunities and to be involved in direct action. According to conventional wisdom, today's volunteers are ad-hoc and unfaithful. They ''shop'' around to find a tempting activity and pay less attention to which organization offers the activity. Combined, this means we need to rethink how to approach new and potential new volunteers. The Norwegian Red Cross is the largest humanitarian organization in the Norway, with volunteers. Why do people new and old choose to volunteer for the Norwegian Red Cross? How satisfied are our volunteers? To find out, we conducted a large national survey in 2016/2017. It was sent to volunteers, and 5204 answered, a response rate of 23 percent. In spite of a relatively low response rate, it is large enough to generate meaningful statistical findings. The survey gives us an indication of who our volunteers are, and what motivates them to join and to stay. Our findings confirm the generalised picture of today's ad-hoc volunteerism, but also that it should be modified. According to our survey, our volunteers choose the Red Cross because they are attracted by the organisation's values and ideology, as well as by the specific activities offered. According to the survey, our mandate as the state's foremost auxiliary in crisis situations, in war or peace, is an important motivating factor for those who choose to become Red Cross volunteers. In other words, Red Cross volunteers are both concerned with our activities, and with the organization's values and ideology. On the basis of these findings, we can shape our humanitarian policy and support functions for the volunteers. With 150 years of presence in Norway we find that the Red Cross still enjoys considerable support and respect in the Norwegian society. We believe there is room for a broad, general welfare organization like the Red Cross also when the nature of volunteering is changing. b) Target group: All volunteers c) Tools Response 23%, over 5000 answers. Population: more than volunteers Main finding: 8 out of 10 Norwegian Red Cross volunteers are either satisfied or very satisfied The main motivations for being a volunteer are:

8 8 I Guidance note for new activities on Migration, Social Aspects, Volunteering / ISG / 1 st October Helping others who are less fortunate - I can do something for a cause that is important to me. - I can learn more about the cause for which I am working We found that volunteers are less motivated by social and career related gains, then what we expected. The exception is young people. A significant part of young respondents are volunteers to enhance their working career. d) New / scaling up / intensity efforts: Similar surveys were done in 2013 and Name: Eldrid Mageli Position: eldrid.magelig@redcross.no 3) a) Activity: Red Cross Assessment The Red Cross assessment is a method for making local needs assessments. We also see that the tool is useful for the volunteers, for them to see and realise how and why the activity they are involved in helps to meet local humanitarian needs, but also how and why it is an activity for the Red Cross. The Red Cross assessment is a step-by-step process introduced in In 2017 the assessment is followed by a short video, and digital tool/poster that are used in trainings. Both trainings at activity level and for governing bodies. The video goes through the assessment step-by-step: The steps in the Red Cross assessment: 1. There should be an unmet need among vulnerable people. A local humanitarian need. 2. The activity arises naturally from our mandate and is in accordance with our values and fundamental principles. 3. The need is not covered by other parties with better expertise or who would more naturally play a role. 4. The Red Cross has the expertise and resources required for this. b) Target group: Volunteers and decision makers at all levels: activity leaders, youth boards, local branches, governing structures. c) Tools Video: (in Norwegian, only English translation not available at this point)

9 9 I Guidance note for new activities on Migration, Social Aspects, Volunteering / ISG / 1 st October 2015 Digital tool/poster: d) New / scaling up / intensity efforts File holder - Contact details Name: Siri Skranefjell Position: Advisor, digital learning siri.skranefjell@redcross.no