Periodic Reporting for period 1 - REFUGE-ED (Effective practices in education, mental health and psychosocial support for the integration of refugee children)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2021-01-01 do 2021-12-31
The number of people who are forcibly displaced increases every year, approximately half of them being below the age of 18. These children are facing many hazards that could be better prevented if the plight to quality education were fully accomplished. However, the reality is far from this benchmark. Figures indicate that children from these backgrounds participate in education at a substantially lower rate, they are much more likely to drop out and to underachieve than their peers. Many barriers hinder the proper access to quality education, from financial to legal, as well as social, cultural, and economic ones. The promotion of learning environments that are responsive to the mental health needs while providing a high-quality education is an urgent matter to guarantee the right to education of migrant and refugee children.
REFUGE-ED’s general objective is to create the Brokering Knowledge Platform of Effective Practices (BKP), which will host and promote innovative high-quality solutions tailored for the dynamic integration of migrant and refugee children in schools and more broadly in society. REFUGE-ED will identify, implement, and evaluate existing evidence-based practices in education and mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) that have been shown to promote educational success, well-being, and sense of belonging. The target group are children (0 to 18 years old - ISCED 0-3) from recent migration cohorts, including refugees and asylum seekers, and unaccompanied minors. 8 specific objectives have been set:
1. To map and identify best-practice tools and solutions in evidence-based MHPSS and education practices for formal, non-formal, and informal learning environments. Solutions should demonstrate a positive impact on the integration of children from recent migration cohorts, refugees and asylum seekers, and unaccompanied minors, with an emphasis on the promotion of academic success, well-being, and social belonging.
2. To engage all actors (including children and families, communities, civil society organizations, and local service providers, schools, and teaching staff–including school counsellors or other focal points focusing on MHPSS needs in the educational arena–and policymakers) in a dialogic consultation and co-creation process to identify needs and how these can be successfully met by piloting evidence-based practices.
3. To implement pilots of the co-created practices across the different migration stages and entry points in six European countries (i.e. reception identification centres, formal, non-formal, and informal social and learning environments, institutional care, schools).
4. To develop the outcome and process evaluation toolkit for use across the pilot action sites, and to develop the Data Management System and accompanying plan for use across the REFUGE-ED pilot action sites.
5. To monitor, document, and evaluate the consultation and co-creation process and its impact on children’s social belonging, educational outcomes, and well-being such that it can be scaled to other contexts.
6. To develop a BKP to broker the knowledge and solutions co-created by the REFUGE-ED community working groups to their wider communities (children and families, communities, civil society organizations, and local service providers; schools and teaching and counselling staff) in easy-to-use packages, and to leverage their co-created social capital to other (European) stakeholders including policymakers.
7. To maximize the reusability, scalability, and sustainability of the identified effective practices by means of exploiting the Brokering Knowledge Platform through different existing platforms.
8. To maximize the visibility, reach and impact of REFUGE-ED through the communication and dissemination of the project’s results and outcomes.
REFUGE-ED’s general objective is to create the Brokering Knowledge Platform of Effective Practices (BKP), which will host and promote innovative high-quality solutions tailored for the dynamic integration of migrant and refugee children in schools and more broadly in society. REFUGE-ED will identify, implement, and evaluate existing evidence-based practices in education and mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) that have been shown to promote educational success, well-being, and sense of belonging. The target group are children (0 to 18 years old - ISCED 0-3) from recent migration cohorts, including refugees and asylum seekers, and unaccompanied minors. 8 specific objectives have been set:
1. To map and identify best-practice tools and solutions in evidence-based MHPSS and education practices for formal, non-formal, and informal learning environments. Solutions should demonstrate a positive impact on the integration of children from recent migration cohorts, refugees and asylum seekers, and unaccompanied minors, with an emphasis on the promotion of academic success, well-being, and social belonging.
2. To engage all actors (including children and families, communities, civil society organizations, and local service providers, schools, and teaching staff–including school counsellors or other focal points focusing on MHPSS needs in the educational arena–and policymakers) in a dialogic consultation and co-creation process to identify needs and how these can be successfully met by piloting evidence-based practices.
3. To implement pilots of the co-created practices across the different migration stages and entry points in six European countries (i.e. reception identification centres, formal, non-formal, and informal social and learning environments, institutional care, schools).
4. To develop the outcome and process evaluation toolkit for use across the pilot action sites, and to develop the Data Management System and accompanying plan for use across the REFUGE-ED pilot action sites.
5. To monitor, document, and evaluate the consultation and co-creation process and its impact on children’s social belonging, educational outcomes, and well-being such that it can be scaled to other contexts.
6. To develop a BKP to broker the knowledge and solutions co-created by the REFUGE-ED community working groups to their wider communities (children and families, communities, civil society organizations, and local service providers; schools and teaching and counselling staff) in easy-to-use packages, and to leverage their co-created social capital to other (European) stakeholders including policymakers.
7. To maximize the reusability, scalability, and sustainability of the identified effective practices by means of exploiting the Brokering Knowledge Platform through different existing platforms.
8. To maximize the visibility, reach and impact of REFUGE-ED through the communication and dissemination of the project’s results and outcomes.
During this first year of the project, the consortium has focused on the mapping and analysis of effective practices in the field of education (in formal, non-formal, and informal settings) and mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS). Desk research on scientific literature and policy review has been performed in both fields. Qualitative fieldwork has also been conducted in two schools with large numbers of immigrant students who have obtained optimal results. As a result, a Catalogue of the effective and innovative practices for the integration of migrant and refugee children has been produced. In addition, the consortium has been working on the definition of the REFUGE-ED dialogic co-creation procedure (RDCP) in the different pilot settings. The necessary actions have been developed to prepare the ground to implement the pilot actions with families, professionals, children, youth and stakeholders. At this stage, it is expected to put the evidence collected during the first phase at the service of the different actors involved in each pilot to decide about which effective and innovative practices they want to develop. Ground preparation work within the consortium has been performed as well. This has consisted of setting up the development of trainers’ training and the organization of the curriculum. Throughout this process, the design, preparation, and implementation of the mechanisms to monitor and evaluate the pilot actions has been developed. This has involved the elaboration of the Compendium of measures, tools, and interview guides to assess MHPSS and education outcomes for children, the Guidelines for how to carry out the SPICE cycle approach and the Central data repository for outcome and process data collected across the pilot action sites. Particular plans for the communication, dissemination, and exploitation of REFUGE-ED’s results and outcomes have been developed. Furthermore, all the procedures aimed at ensuring the efficient implementation of all actions included in the project, as well as the design of measures to ensure that all the activities meet ethical criteria have been developed.
REFUGE-ED promotes actions targeted at enhancing education outcomes, well-being and social belonging, to ultimately foster the dynamic integration of children and families of arriving and receiving communities. REFUGE-ED will promote a virtuous synergy between Education and Mental Health and Psycho-social support. For doing so, a wide review of effective practices on both fields has already been conducted, and the results are being contrasted with a needs analysis with relevant end-users and stakeholders. This is being conducted through a co-creation procedure, which will establish the roadmap for the implementation of pilot actions with the involvement of end-users and stakeholders. This process will contribute to creating better opportunities for the participation and engagement in decision-making for very different stakeholders in 46 pilot sites in six countries. This will be possible through the development of the REFUGE-ED dialogic co-creation process. All the lessons learned in the pilots will be transferred into the Brokering Knowledge Platform.