Inter
Aktion

The Friends we Share Project aims to develop a mentorship methodology to connect new asylum seekers and successfully integrated refugees in order to foster a sense of belonging, self-reliance, and wellbeing. To achieve sustainable progress in providing mental health protection solutions to refugees, the project also aims to qualify Adult Educators and Policy Makers involved in their social inclusion, to transform systems and professionals into facilitators of self-fulfillment. This project's purpose is to produce the following concrete results:
 

• the “Friends we Share Connection Programme”, an intervention methodology to promote mentorships between successfully integrated refugees and new asylum seekers to foster a sense of belonging, wellbeing, motivation and increase self-esteem;

• the “Friends we Share Training Programme” to train and qualify agents involved in the inclusion of refugees and  

• “Refugee Identified Wellbeing and Inclusion Good Practices” Report to promote sustainable development of refugee inclusion policies.

The Friends we Share Project aims to achieve the following objectives: - Connect new asylum seekers and successfully integrated refugees in European countries, to boost cooperation, peer learning and exchange of experiences between individuals, to create and promote learning opportunities among cultures, citizens and generations. With this objective in mind, participants will be paired in mentoring groups during WP2 in “Friends we Share Connection Cafes”.
 

• Promote awareness on the correlation between refugees’ exclusion and specific sociocultural circumstances by mapping the experiences, knowledge, skills, and human capital developed by successfully integrated refugees, to improve the competences and range of action of adult education staff. So, the “Friends we Share Training Programme” will be informed by the data collected by the consortium in WP2. 

• Develop learning tools informed by the specific needs and contexts of refugees for Adult Educators and Community Social Workers, focusing on how to include mentors and role models in their intervention with new asylum seekers and what is the core knowledge, skills and competences that allowed successfully integrated refugees to thrive, and how can they promote those skills in their intervention with new asylum seekers. 

• Train and qualify agents involved in the inclusion of refugees, to transform professionals into facilitators of integration. With, the main result of WP3 “Friends we Share Training Programme”, an eBook will be compiled, and national training events and an LTTA will be conducted by the consortium to pilot the materials and directly intervene with adult educators still during the progress of the project. 

• Raise awareness at local/national/European levels for the importance of the development of sustainable refugee inclusion action plans, with the main results of WP4, social media and e-Newsletters, the Refugee Identified Wellbeing and Inclusion Good Practices” Report and the "Friends we Share" Seminars. 

• Overall, foster agency, empowerment, build confidence and promote the resilience and wellbeing of new asylum seekers by creating a support network between them and successfully integrated refugees, by enhancing Adult Educators and Community Social Workers capacity to promote inclusion and diversity in education and training settings and by encouraging the involvement of policy makers in refugees’ inclusion and wellbeing protection.