GOOD PRACTICE DESCRIPTION

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "GOOD PRACTICE DESCRIPTION"

Theodora Phelps
5 years ago
Views:

BpE: Becoming a part of Europe project How youth work can support young migrants, refugees and asylum seekers Code 580420- EPP-1-2016-1-IT-EPPKA3-IPI-SOC-IN GOOD PRACTICE DESCRIPTION Project title

Are you involved in similar projects? How many years have you developed your activities in the youth work field? Has the project been cofunded with European funds?

1 BpE: Becoming a part of Europe project How youth work can support young migrants, refugees and asylum seekers Code EPP IT-EPPKA3-IPI-SOC-IN GOOD PRACTICE DESCRIPTION Project title Project duration Project team: how many persons took part in the implementation of the project? Project coordinator details: name and surname, Please shortly describe your organisation. Are you involved in similar projects? How many years have you developed your activities in the youth work field? Has the project been cofunded with European funds? PROJECT IDENTIFICATION Skåne Stadsmission May 2016 ongoing Four persons. One project manager, one lawyer and two field workers. All full-time except one field worker on part-time (50%). Klas Herrmansson, klas.herrmansson@skanestadsmission.se YOUR ORGANISATION Skåne Stadsmission is a non-profit organisation working for people living in vulnerability and exclusion in the region of south Sweden, Skåne. The organisation is part of the collaboration Young Forum where lawyers and social workers work together to provide support to children, families, young people and young adults. Our project is a partner to the relatively new project "No children will disappear" managed by the NGO Save the Children in Sweden. We also collaborate with the projects Baba and Habibi in Stockholm. We are also represented regionally in the Swedish County Administrative Board's cooperation group working with and named "Unaccompanied children disappearing". Young Forum has been actively working towards the target group unaccompanied children and youths who are outside the asylum process for one year but was started in April RESOURCES AND FUNDS No.

2 If yes, which programme did co-fund your project? If not, which organisation, donor, institution did support your project? Did you involve other partners in the implementation of the project? If yes, which ones? What was their role? If not, why? Are there any relationship between the project and the School system? In which context, have you realised the project? What were the initial needs for this kind of project? What were the interests and needs of the promoting institution and its partners? Please, specify the aims and objectives of the project PARTNERS Swedish fund Arvsfonden. - We cooperate with the Association for Unaccompanied Youth who run a social meeting place called Otto. The project conducts legal advice once a week. We also join in a regional cooperation network with, among others, the Swedish County Administrative Board, Save the Children, the police department, the Swedish Migration Agency, Public trustee office, the City of Malmö and Trelleborg Municipality. We collaborate with the School of Social Work in Lund regarding the evaluation of the project. We have also, with the support from a volunteer, begun providing our own education, as many in the target group have been considered being older than they are and thus are not entitled to schooling. CONTEXT There is an extensive demand for projects similar to ours, the target group increases as there were many unaccompanied youths who came in As the majority of our target group are considered aged 18 or older (e.g. adults), many rights (as they has as youths) disappear the day this becomes official. The target group grows to be more and more extensive every week, and we are contacted by young people, legal guardians and adults from all parts in Sweden. Skåne Stadsmission works perceptive and proactively with people in vulnerable situations, acute and long-term. We strive to defend diversity, make the injustice in society visible and engage individuals and organizations to act for change. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The main objective of the project is to legalize the target group's stay in Sweden. The project wants to guarantee support and include a group that is forced

3 to live as excluded from society. By offering legal advice/representation, open operation and workshops, we want to reduce the proportion of children and young people living in vulnerability and reduce the number of unaccompanied who disappears. What type of learning was fostered in the project, if any? Please shortly describe the main activities Which were the results you did achieve thanks to the implementation of the project? Which results you did not achieve and why? Did those results have an impact in the context in which the project was realised? If yes, how? If not, why? How far the community was involved? What was its contribution? Since the project and its field work are unique in Sweden, the most of what we do is based on "learning by doing". We develop and learn from our mistakes and work with a solution-focused approach where we focus on what works. MAIN ACTIVITIES Field work towards young people who risks living or already lives outside the asylum process Legal advice and dialogue towards this group Supportive work in applying for financial assistance and social services ACHIEVED RESULTS Through our lawyer, a number of enforcements of residence refusals have been hindered, which means that some out of the target groups have been given the opportunity to retrieve their refusal. Thus, their stay has been temporarily legalized. The project has contributed with knowledge as we are one of the few players who have access and talk with the target group Yes, we have been flexible in our work and always strive to develop the project. Our reference group's voices and stories are included in the National Commitment to Unaccompanied Children who Disappear and the Children's Ombudsman s forthcoming report on the subject. The City of Malmö is one of the members of the regional reference group mentioned earlier. The project's lawyer has conducted a legal lecture, for staff in the support residents for young migrants and

4 Please, identify the target groups, you involved in the project. Did you involve only migrants/refugees/asylum seekers? Were local youngsters involved? How many? What was their role in the project? Were the adults involved in the project? Which role did they play? Which methodology and methods were used in the implementation of the project activities? refugees in the City of Malmö, on new and temporary asylum legislation. All the legal guardians in the City of Malmö have also been given the opportunity to take part of the document we created with information about the first refusal of an unaccompanied child seeking asylum. TARGET GROUPS The target group is unaccompanied children and youths, which for various reasons is outside the asylum process. As part of our preventive work, we include young people who received a first refusal in their asylum process as they may also get a third refusal. We have only involved asylum seekers and young people up to 25 years old who are outside the asylum process. We have been in contact with approximately 160 young people, of whom about 40 are categorized as active. The target group controls the project. We always strive to realize their wishes regarding the operation. The reference group is important as their voices are used in impact work, debate articles, reporting and presentations of the project. During our first project year, four volunteers have been active. They have participated in our open operation, Swedish courses and planned for English courses in the spring. METHODOLOGY The project is based on a rights-based method where the target group's human rights strive to be fulfilled. When we have activities, they are usually requests from the youth themselves. It is important for us that the wishes and voices of target group are at the centre of our work, as they all have an extremely complicated existence in Sweden. The voices of young people are equally important when it comes to other activities such as workshops and the like. The seminar we organized is an example of our rights-based work, based on the Children's

5 Why and how Youth Workers and Youth work methodologies and approaches have been relevant to facilitate migrants inclusion? Were the used methodologies appropriate to work with young people and with young migrants? What kind of civic and citizen dimension is valued in the project? Do you feel that the differences were respected in this process? Were these differences enhanced to promote an intercultural Convention, which emphasizes both play and development as human rights. Since many in the target group are considered to be of age according to the Swedish state, though they claim they are not, we listen to the youth and try to implement the Children's Convention in our work. For us, it is natural to depart work out of the wishes of the target group. This rights-based approach aims to strengthen the youth and we are convinced that their wishes are an essential part of integration work. The rights-based method is a method that we consider to be well functioning. However, there is some problem using the method when many in the target group have been understood as 18 years of age, which means they lose many (youth) rights. However, we try to work rights-based, offering Swedish and English courses and with open activities. These examples are all based on the target market s demand and needs. In the second year, we want the solution-focused approach to become more applicable, based on the fact that we want to get more support with the target group. As we include a target group living illegally in Sweden with the aim of legalizing their stay, of course, the civil society perspective is strengthened. The project also works preventively from the fact that fewer unaccompanied people will disappear and live without identity documents, which also strengthens civil society and the non-profit sector. Today we see how Sweden's system does not work when people without identity documents end up in a form of limbo where they cannot live in Sweden legally but cannot be rejected. Differences are promoted based on the fact that we listen to the individual, for example, how we initially arranged reference group discussions in groups, and as from the second project year, these will be held

6 society/world? What has your project changed at local, or national or European level? Which criticisms, difficulties and obstacles have you met? How did you overcome them? Which elements of your project could be transferred individually. By listening to the individual, we believe that we increase our understanding of an intercultural society where we can, among other things, use the voices for opinion and influence. CHANGES The project is well established locally in Malmö, but also regionally. In , the project aims to reach more organizations and associations at a national level. We will also try to reach more people within the target group, especially more minors and more different nationalities. Today, as previously mentioned, our target group is homogeneous. In order to broaden the target group, we will continue to broaden our local and regional networks in the sense of presentations and collaborations. During the summer, a new field worker will be employed and we specifically search for female field workers, which may be a bridge to reach more girls. CHALLENGES One major challenge for us is to reach more girls, more minors and more nationalities. Unaccompanied people who disappear are at high risk of being exploited in various ways. Right now, our target group is homogeneous. The majority are Afghans, boys or young men and/or have gotten three (maximum) rejections. In order to extend the target group, we have, among other things, in a newsletter to all the legal guardians in the City of Malmö and informed about the project. We were specifically directed towards guardians whose youngsters are placed in an own support apartment. We also want to expand our outreach work by establishing new contacts with associations and organizations in Malmö, which we believe may come into contact with the target group. TRANSFERABILITY The project is based on voluntary forces. Since we are relatively unique in Sweden to the target group, I

7 in other contexts? Why and how? think many parts can be disseminated to other contexts. It is a target group that is likely to increase, but their visibility is closely connected to the (lack of) opportunity for them to tell their own stories. Many talk about the target group, but not many listen to them. Why you do think your project can be defined as a good practice? Why? Please mention at least 3 elements that define it as a good practice. Our legal guidance, field work and outreach work are additional examples that can be disseminated both nationally and at European level. GOOD PRACTICES The target group for the project is likely to increase in Sweden as well as in Europe. These parallel shadow communities bring an increased risk that children, young and young adults will be exploited and find themselves in vulnerable situations. Our project wants to legalize the stay for the target group; we also strive to include an excluded group to a social context where young people will be able to be young people. But above all we seek to give the target group a stronger voice in different contexts with the goal of creating debate and opinion regarding unaccompanied youths. ANY OTHER INFO Please, let us know any other details you believe interesting for the BpE project Thanks a lot for your contribution!

Terms of Reference YOUTH SEMINAR: HUMANITARIAN CONSEQUENCES OF FORCED MIGRATIONS. Italy, 2nd -6th May 2012

Terms of Reference YOUTH SEMINAR: HUMANITARIAN CONSEQUENCES OF FORCED MIGRATIONS Italy, 2nd -6th May 2012 Terms of Reference Humanitarian Consequences of Forced Migrations Rome (Italy), 2nd - 6th May 2012