UNITES – Urban Integration Strategies through Co-design

Cities are at the forefront of welcoming and guiding newco mers and making integration policies more effective and impactful. Going even further in its efforts for integration, the local level is working on building a systematic collaboration with partners outside the municipality from a “whole society approach”. Citizens and the local community, social partners, together with migrants themselves, have increasingly become protagonists in co-designing integration measures. By becoming actors rather than passive beneficiaries in this area, migrants are empowered and faster integrated into the local society.

This is why UNITES will use co-design methods to improve integration strategies and decrease societal polarisation.

About

Led by Eurocities, UNITES (UrbaN InTEgration Strategies through co-design) trains and accompanies local authorities to co-design integration strategies with other stakeholders and migrants.

In a first stage, UNITES will develop training on co-designing integration strategies, incorporating research on best practices across Europe. A pilot version of the training will be conducted with staff from the 8 cities participating in the project. The training will then be developed into an open access online course (MOOC) for integration practitioners outside the project.

In a second stage, the 8 city partners will receive a 20.000€ grant to set up a new mechanism for stakeholder consultation and develop their local integration strategy through co-design with stakeholders and migrants. In planning and implementing their actions, they will receive guidance from colleagues from other cities and migrant organisations in peer workshops and peer-visits to each city.

Objectives

1. Improve integration outcomes by co-designing integration strategies with stakeholders, citizens and vulnerable migrants

2. Train integration practitioners in managing co-design processes through different forms of learning and exchange of good practices

3. Foster the participation of citizens, including migrants but also vulnerable migrants in the co-design of integration strategy

4. Raise awareness on the advantages of a “whole of society approach” to integration

NWC in UNITES

Advisory role in the research and training phase as well as the peer support programme

NWC and UNITEE will support our partners Eurocities and MigrationWorks in the creation and implementation of the training and delivery of these sessions on co- design with women and (migrant) businesses.

The training serves to prepare the city practitioners to design effective stakeholder coordination mechanisms and citizen engagement to develop integration strategies, which will be translated into an online training and a comprehensive multi-media How-to-Guide on co-design in a more compact and accessible format.

NWC is responsible for guaranteeing the quality of the intervention and ensuring that it fits the needs of the migrant communities, including women, LGBTQIA and other marginalized groups, in order for it to be as applicable as possible in the different contexts.

NWC will be an integral part of the implementation and evaluation of the pilot programmeand will provide an expert intervention on meaningful participation, perspective and lived experiences of migrants and refugees in policy design.

NWC will then help apply the knowledge provided by the training to specific actions and local contexts, through the creation of a supportive community of practice during online-workshops and field visits to each city.

Partners

Expert Partners

Eurocities: Leader of this project, Eurocities is the network of major European cities, with over 200 member cities in 38 countries. Working to improve the quality of urban life, Eurocities strives for a Europe where cities are genuine partners with the EU to create a better future. Eurocities has long-standing experience in developing impactful methodologies for deep transnational learning among cities, especially in migration and integration.

MigrationWork is a non-profit consultancy supporting communities, practitioners and policymakers to respond to migration in ways that ensure its benefit to both migrant and established residents. The organisation has more than a decade of experience supporting cities in developing integration strategies, including through co-design processes.

UNITEE is the only organisation in Europe representing entrepreneurs and professionals with a migrant background. Together with its members in 19 EU member states, UNITEE works towards an economically strong Europe, which is sustainable, social, and smart, drawing its strength from the diversity of its citizens.

Partner cities

Athens

Bologna

Dusseldorf

Grenoble Alpes Métropoles Oulu Prague Zagreb Zaragoza

Find some more information here