CONNECTION
“CONNEcting Cities Towards Integration actiON”
ASYLUM, MIGRATION and INTEGRATION FUND (AMIF)
Coordinated by EUROCITIES (the network of major European cities), with expert support from MigrationWork, CONNECTION (CONNEcting Cities Towards Integration actiON) promotes learning on how to think and do integration policies in a context of transnational learning.
It works through 4 thematic communities of practice bringing together 22 cities from 12 member states with complementary needs and experiences to work on
- How to develop a strategic approach to integration, participation and interaction;
- How to build a gender dimension into integration policies;
- How to build pathways to employment for migrants;
- How to design one-stop-shops as an integrated response to integration needs.
It supports 7 smaller and less experienced cities and provides them with mentoring support and implementation grants that lead to new policies and services which will make a difference to immigrants and refugees.
It will build capacity in further cities that are not partners in the project by inviting 8 to join the communities of practice; by providing peer-training to 80 more cities; and by developing policy guidelines and how to videos covering the four themes, which will be used by another 200 practitioners and will help to improve integration support to many more immigrants and refugees.
Project partners
- EUROCITIES ASBL Belgium
- MIGRATIONWORK CIC United Kingdom
- GOTEBORGS KOMMUN Sweden
- GEMEENTE ROTTERDAM Netherlands
- COMUNE DI TORINO Italy
- COMMUNE DE PARIS France
- HELSINGIN KAUPUNKI Finland
- STAD ANTWERPEN Belgium
- TAMPEREEN KAUPUNKI Finland
- DIMOS ATHINAION Greece
- ANATOLIKI S.A. Greece
- GRAD ZAGREB Croatia
- MIASTO STOLECZNE WARSZAWA Poland
- AGENCIA PARA EL EMPLEO DE MADRID Spain
- ASSOTSIATSIA ZA RAZVITIE NA SOFIA Bulgaria
- STADT DORTMUND Germany
Main deliverables
In addition to city visits, staff exchanges, partners meetings and workshops, main deliverables of the project will be:
- Four Final policy guidelines (one for each axis)
- Four How-to videos
- “Integration champions” training (training the trainers)
- Peer-trainings
- Technical proposal for a permanent mechanism for peer-to-peer technical assistance
ANATOLIKI’s contribution
ANATOLIKI will mainly contribute in the elaboration of axis 1 (how to develop a strategic approach to integration, participation and interaction of refugees with existing population). Capitalizing the participation in the project CONNECTION and, furthermore, in an existing European project of hospitalization of refugees under the auspices of municipality of Thessaloniki and other municipal authorities of the city complex of Thessaloniki, will facilitate the participation of additional smaller municipalities, which would otherwise not have the administrative capacity to participate in an EU project. Being mentored by their neighboring metropolitan city Thessaloniki, these municipalities add a dimension of intra-regional knowledge transfer to the project.
Project budget: 1.876.431,50 €
ANATOLIKI S.A. budget: 43.980,21 €
Started: 1/1/2020 Duration: 36 months
Website: https://integratingcities.eu/projects/connection/
