'Buddies for inclusive cities and municipalities: lessons from local projects' - Inspiration day 15 december

15 december in Lamot Mechelen

9h-9h50: REGISTRATION & WELCOMING   

9h50-10h: WELCOMING SPEECH by Gabriella de Francesco, alderwoman City of Mechelen 

10h-10h50: INTRODUCTION by   

• Mr. George Ioakimidis, Mayor of Nikaia-Rentis (Greece) (focus on Orient 8) 
• Ms. Fiorenza Giambona, Councillor city council of Capaci (Italy) (focus on IncluCities)  

10h50-11h30: SETTING THE SCENE by providing a framework for mentoring  

• Social mentoring for migrant newcomers: context and lessons from the Orient8 project  
  Keynote by Peter De Cuyper (KU Leuven)  
  In this presentation, we first outline the origins of buddy collaborations for newcomers. Then we will consider what is important in setting up a buddy programme. Here, we draw on the lessons learned from Orient8 but also from other research on buddy work in Flanders and Europe. We have compiled these experiences in an inspiration guide for buddy cooperation, which we will briefly explain.
• City-to-city mentoring: A methodological guide 
  Keynote by Ceri Hutton (Migration Work CIC) 
  Mentoring is a powerful method to provide personalised, informal support to students, job seekers, young entrepreneurs or migrants. Mentoring has also been used in peer support of staff working for city administrations – it embodies the idea of inter-municipal solidarity, city networking and mutual learning between cities. As a legacy of the IncluCities project, Migration Work developed a guide to disseminate the practice of peer mentoring between cities and city networks in and beyond the area of integration policy and support its use as a tool for knowledge transfer and learning.

11h30 – 12h: NARRATIVE PART on the IncluCities & ORIENT8 experiences 
Format: Sofa talk with moderator (moderation by Ceri Hutton, Migration Work) 
Participants: Corinne Huybers (Mechelen), Carla Rey (AICCRE), Samet Coban (Beyond the Horizon)  
Language: ENGLISH 

12h-12u30: COFFEEBREAK  

12h30-13h30: Selection of different WORKSHOPS -Round 1.  

1. City-to-city mentoring: a topic in the ‘Flemish Action Plan Living Together/Plan Samenleven’  
   By Migration Work, VVSG and the city of Mechelen 
   With a contribution of Bart Vandenbussche (ABB, Flemish Government) (ENG/NL) 
   How can the Flemish government and the Association of Cities support cities and municipalities in taking up a mentoring role in the support of local integration policy. 
   We discuss the mentoring guidelines that Migration Work is developing for the CEMR's Inclucities project. We share the experience and lessons learned from Mechelen & VVSG. 
   Questions we will address: How can cities take up this mentoring role? What support is needed? Which actors can play a (supporting) role? How can we safeguard and unlock the knowledge and experience? What are the preconditions? How to deal with the great diversity of cities and towns in terms of capacity and resources? 
    
2. How to use digital tools in welcoming newcomers?
   by Sara Lanoye (city of Mechelen), Sofie Iserbyt (AgII) and Maria Lee (Beyond the Horizon) (ENG/NL) 
   How can digital tools support migrant newcomers in their first steps of their integration process? What advantages do such apps and websites offer? Where are the bottlenecks and what can be improved? In this session we zoom in on the welcome app of the City of Mechelen. With this smartphone app, you can quickly find information about leisure, healthcare, housing, learning and living in Mechelen in different languages. Beyond the Horizon showcases the smart matching tool developed to help buddy programs match buddies more quickly and easily based on commonalities. Integration and Inclusion Agency also explains what digital tools have been or will be developed to support newcomers. 
    
3. Buddying in small municipalities and inter-municipal collaborations: reflexions, challenges and recommendations  
   Experiences from Bocholt (Hilde Braeken), Capaci (Fiorenza Giambona) and de Noordwelzijnsregio (Goele Kerkhof (NL/Eng) 
   Also small municipalities organise mentoring projects for newcomers.  They often deal with a lack of capacity. In the Flemish pilots ‘Participation and networking’ small municipalities experimented with inter-municipal cooperation. In this workshop, we explicitly let the small municipalities have their say. How do these municipalities tackle three crucial aspects of successful buddying: the needs of the newcomers, the work and support of volunteers and the mutual expectations of the buddies. What kind of support do small municipalities need? Is inter-municipal collaborations a solution to deal with the capacity problem? 
    
4. How to measure the impact of buddy programs?
   By Peter De Cuyper and Jan Van Ongevalle (HIVA, KU Leuven) (NL/ENG) 
   In this workshop we will first discuss an evaluation framework developed for social mentoring programs taking the impact on both mentors and mentees into account. Then we will discuss which accessible and user-friendly tools can be used to evaluate social mentoring programs and give concrete examples. In the interactive part of the workshop the participants will have the opportunity to give feedback and discuss the applicability of the framework and other impact-measuring tools on their project.   

13h30-14h: LUNCHBREAK  

14h-14h10: Artistic Intermezzo by Lisette Ma Neza (slampoet) , Peter Somuah (trumpet player) and Orville Breeveld (guitarist) 

14h10-15h10: Selection of different WORKSHOPS-Round 2 

15h10-15h45: EXPERT REFLECTIONS – advice for the future  
Format: Sofa talk with moderator (moderation by Maria Grazia Montella, CEMR) ENG/NL 
Participants: Fatih Yilmaz (director of projects and partnerships, Beyond the Horizon ISSG), Sabine Van Cauwenberge (policy officer integration and civic integration, Flemish Association of Cities and Municipalities (VVSG), Angelique Petrits (policy officer, DG HOME), Cabinet Flemish Minister (Chloë Van Hoegaerden) 

15h45-15h50: CLOSING REMARKS by Chloë Van Hoegaerden, Officer of Cabinet Bart Somers (minister for integration, civic integration and equal opportunities

15h50: Artistic closure, slampoet Lisette Ma Neza (slampoet), Peter Somuah (trumpet player) and Orville Breeveld (guitarist) 

16h10-17h: RECEPTION