International Seminar on Needs Assessment in International Voluntary Projects as a Social Inclusion Tool for Young Refugees, Migrants and Asylum Seekers

Background

Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service (CCIVS) is happy to extend an invitation for international voluntary service (IVS) organisation who is working and/or interested to organise IVS project on social inclusion to attend session two online needs assessment on how IVS project enhances the integration of young refugees, migrants and asylum seekers. These online needs assessment aims to define the needs of international voluntary service organisation in working with young refugees, migrants and young refugees so that the voluntary projects are able to enhance the integration of the young refugees, migrants and asylum seekers. Furthermore, it aims also to define the needs of the young refugees, migrants and asylum seekers to get actively involved in international voluntary projects.

In July 2021, CCIVS organised the online Final Conference to conclude the project #IVS4Peace Inclusive Voluntary Service 4 Peace, a three-and-a-half year (2018-2021) project intended to favor the social inclusion process of young people with fewer opportunities, migrants and refugees, and showcased the project’ main outcomes including the Toolkit , the engaging MOOC with immersive scenarios , the Policy Recommendation paper and research data on the inclusion of young migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and youth from minority groups in the International Voluntary Service movement.

As the main partner of the project INVOLVE (INtegration of migrants as VOLunteers for the safeguarding of Vulnerable Environments), in September, CCIVS organised a training seminar on the role of intercultural voluntary projects in the process of inclusion and participation of young migrants and refugees under its annual campaign Raising Peace framework.

The first online needs assessment was successfully conducted in October as part of the Service Civic International (SCI)’s Exchange Platform Meeting (EPM) program. It was able to map resources and skills that IVS organisation and their youth workers need to be able to actively participate in the integration process of young migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. The assessment was also able to analyse how the IVS approach contributes to the integration process including its benefits and limitations.

Objectives

The second needs assessment will explore further on:

• The needs from the perspective of IVS organisations and young refugees for integration through IVS projects. Some examples of existing projects will be presented to be able to give ideas on how the needs and capacity assessment were conducted, how the contacts were developed and how the projects were tailored.
• Building strategies and recommendations for the IVS organisations to follow in terms of enlarging the target group or starting a new IVS project for inclusion.
• Creating future plans and cooperation, expectation and guidelines for the coming events.

Draft Agenda and Topics

��  Date: 31 January - 2 February 2022.    Time: 13:00 - 15:00 CET

��️  online Zoom meeting room

Monday, 31 January 2022 Review from the first session needs assessment (what are missing); best practices of IVS project to integrate young migrants, refugees and asylum seekers and its project cycle management and planning.

Tuesday, 1 February 2022 How can IVS organisation enlarge the target groups for social inclusion projects or start a new one.

Wednesday, 2 February 2022 Creating future plans and cooperation, expectation and guidelines for the coming events.

Because of the limited time that we will have online for each session, please expect some preparation activities such as an introduction to be conducted online prior to the seminar dates.

Participants’ Profile

The Seminar is proposed to the following target group:

• 1. staff member from an International Voluntary Service Organisation that organises or plan to organise a social inclusion project in the future.
• 2. volunteer or an individual that has the interest to create or volunteer for a social inclusion project involving young migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
• 3. individual or volunteer who has experience working with young migrants, refugees and asylum seekers and is eager to share your experiences.
• 4. stakeholder that is recommended by the international voluntary service organisation to attend the online seminar to understand how IVS can contribute to the inclusion process of the young migrants, refugees and asylum seekers and to network.

The Seminar will be carried out in English. As such the participants need to understand English to follow and contribute to the discussion actively.

Seminar Facilitator

Pujiarti (call her Puji) started her international voluntary service adventure by volunteering in an international work camp in 1999. Through volunteering, she believes that young people could contribute actively to the wider community while learning and gaining various skills and knowledge from real-life experiences.

She is involved in different training projects funded by the Asia Europe Foundation (ASEF), European Commission, and BMZ the Federal Ministry of Development and Economic Cooperation Germany. Her last position was as training manager of the US Peace Corps Indonesia (2017) before she moved to Germany to pursue her master's degree. Now Puji is a Ph.D. candidate at Goethe University researching gender role attitudes, integration and professional achievement of female immigrants from Southeast Asian countries in Germany.