More information
Description
The project is implemented in partnership with the Primary School in Grupa near Grudziądz, attended by children living in the nearby Centre for Foreigners. The aim of the project is to provide foreigners with legal assistance in matters related to the refugee procedure and to develop the competences of the public administration staff related to servicing clients from abroad. Activities supporting this process will be addressed to school environments and the host society. The project responds to the following problems: the low percentage of people receiving international protection, the lack of interest on the part of decision-makers in educating children with migration experience, the lack of support for public administration staff in dealing with migrants, and insufficient activities promoting human rights in the context of migration and multiculturalism at the regional level. Within the project we provide legal counselling, employ an intercultural assistant at school, conduct training on multiculturalism for offices having contact with people with migration experience. We also undertake advocacy activities lobbying for changes in procedures concerning the organisation of life of people with migration experience. We will also carry out three networking panels for multicultural schools. The special groups in the project are people living in the Centre for Foreigners in Grupa and youth attending the Primary School in Grupa. Some activities have a supra-regional range. The project is implemented between December 2021 and September 2023.
Summary of project results
The project was addressed to migrants from third countries and Polish society. The aim of the project was to strengthen the legal representation of people in the refugee procedure and to develop the competences of admin employees. public in the area of foreign customer service. Actions
supporting this process also included school environments and the host society. As part of the activities carried out, we provided comprehensive legal advice (including in the Guarded Center for Foreigners in Lesznowola and the Center for Foreigners in the Group), we carried out advocacy for individual cases of foreigners and systemic challenges, we also conducted training for 10 institutions in the region, improving their professional competences and intercultural. The project also included an educational component - three intercultural assistants were employed to help children and parents with refugee experience. For 1 year in the project, we networked schools attended by children in the refugee procedure, and the result of the meetings was a request to the Ministry of Education and Science regarding the creation of a working group for multicultural schools. As part of these and the above activities, we cooperated with the Office for Foreigners. As part of our information activities, people cooperating with us wrote 10 articles addressed to the Polish society, in which we presented the challenges of migrants in our region and disseminated knowledge about good integration practices. As part of the project, we improved our website and developed institutionally: strengthening our intercultural competences and training in the promotion of our activities, fundraising and establishing partnerships. Thanks to the involvement of people from the foundation''s management board, we have established cooperation with international organizations and public institutions.
The project was implemented in the face of the escalation of the war in Ukraine and had a huge impact on cooperation with institutions, the profile of migrants involved in the project and the dynamics of the project.
As part of the project, we implemented:
1. Ongoing legal counseling was provided in the Guarded Center for Foreigners in Kętrzyn (1 time), the Guarded Center for Foreigners in Lesznowola (8 times) and the Center for Foreigners in the Group (24 shifts). Additionally, stationary, telephone and online advice was provided from the office in Bydgoszcz. 186 people benefited from the support of a lawyer.
2. Ongoing counseling for the institution was provided on a 1/8-time basis by a lawyer and the project coordinator.
3. 17 letters were written addressed to public institutions that touched on individual problems (e.g. regarding the exemption from fees for Polish language courses), regional problems (on prolonged stay legalization procedures) or national problems (e.g. honoring TZTC at Polish post offices or payment money from Western Union). The letters were intended to provide information, explanations and interventions. We have not received answers to all of them.
4. We conducted 10 stationary training sessions for public institutions on working with foreign clients
119 employees of the above-mentioned companies took part in the training. institution.
5. We provided comprehensive support to children and parents with migration experience in 3 schools by employing 3 intercultural assistants. A total of 101 children with migration experience benefited from the assistants'' long-term support.
6. We conducted 2 training sessions for 24 teachers.
7. We organized three panels networking multicultural schools, attended by a total of 33 people.
8. We created 10 articles presenting the challenges of migrants and promoting openness. Half of the articles were written by people with migration experience. Each text (depending on the topic) was displayed on the website a total of 1,252 times and on Facebook up to 46,000 times.
9. 1 super vision/evaluation meeting was held at the end of the project.
As part of the project, we created conditions so that people in the refugee procedure could exercise their rights. The services provided (employing a lawyer) and support for refugees in other areas (the work of the coordinator consisting of contacts with institutions, organizing material and social assistance, cooperation with other organizations for the benefit of, e.g. residents of the center in a group) helped to solve the individual problems of specific people, these are not however, systemic results.
We know that by employing assistants in schools in Toruń, the entire school environment of these schools changed, especially the approach of the teaching staff, who, by receiving linguistic support, better understood students with migration experience.
Advocacy activities carried out mainly in measures No. 2, 3 and 5 influenced the quality of support provided by public institutions. Employees of the institution filling out evaluation questionnaires after the training, answering questions, indicated:
• The training improved my soft skills in working with foreign clients: 49% agree, 35% completely agree
• The training improved my knowledge of the challenges faced by people with migration experience in Poland - 56% - I agree, 36% - I completely agree
• The training drew my attention to a situation/topics that I had not thought about before: 29% - I agree, 46% I completely agree.
The escalation of the war in Ukraine and the entry into Poland of international organizations that financed activities in institutions (supporting the entire school system, employing translators in municipal offices) had a huge impact on the implementation of the project. The Poles'' narrative about refugees (those from Ukraine) also changed and the approach of institutions towards organizations, which largely sought contact with NGOs as those that had been working with migrants for years, therefore, advocacy activities consisted more in consultation and cooperation than in guarding activities.