SOFIE: Supporting families of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in the process of social inclusion

How to promote the social inclusion of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees?

How to support their families in their social inclusion process?

SOFIE is a new project aimed at contributing to the social inclusion of newly arrived migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, on the one hand through training for women and children, and on the other with courses for educators and volunteers to prepare them for the needs of target groups.

In particular, SOFIE aims to:

promote the professional, social and cultural inclusion of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers;
create a holistic set of tools, best practice guides and curricula for training courses in order to support the process of inclusion of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in the most effective way;
support the interaction between mother and child for the process of learning the second language (L2, the language of the host country) and the knowledge of the host society;
increase the preparation of trainers and volunteers working with target groups.

During the first project partnership meeting, held in Innsbruck from 19^th to 20^th October 2017, we discussed the main activities that will be developed during the 30 months of the project, which include:

the development of Guidelines for the Good Practice of Inclusion based on the analysis of the needs of refugee families;
the creation of training for mothers and children focused on the promotion of language skills and the integration of refugee families;
the creation of the SOFIE online tool;
preparation of a training course for educators, language teachers, social workers and trainers working with target groups;
the implementation of a good practice guide for buddying / mentoring;
online training for buddying / mentoring.

With the development of these resources, the project will contribute to the improvement of tailor-made learning opportunities for individuals working in the field of migration.