UNITES

Cities are at the forefront of welcoming newcomers and making integration policies more effective and impactful. 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. That is what the project UNITES is working towards.

​

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

​

​

​

The partner cities involved in this project are: 

​

• Athen, Greece

• Bologna, Italy

• Dusseldorf, Germany

• Grenoble Alpes Métropoles, France

• Oulu, Finland

• Prague, Czech Republic 

• Zagreb, Croatia

• Zaragoza, Spain

 

​

 

New Women Connectors holds an advisory role in the project:

we are responsible for holding the city practitioners accountable

concerning meaningful participation, both in the training phase but also the peer-to-peer city visits.

 

During the whole project, we are 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.

​

Phase one: Trainings on co-designing integration strategies 

​

In the first stage of the project, UNITES develops training on co-designing integration strategies, based on research on best practices across Europe.  A pilot version of the training is conducted with staff from the 8 cities participating in the project, to prepare them to design effective stakeholder coordination mechanisms and citizen engagement to develop integration strategies. The training is then developed into an open access online course (MOOC) for integration practitioners outside the project. In this phase, New Women Connectors supports the project partners in the creation of the training. 

 

New Women Connectors is also an integral part of the implementation and evaluation of the pilot programme. Through a workshop on co-designing strategies, we provide an expert intervention on meaningful participation, perspective and lived experiences of migrants and refugees in policy design.

​

 

Phase two: Development of local integration strategy through co-designing

 

In the second stage, the 8 city partners 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 receive guidance from colleagues from other cities and migrant organizations, such as New Women Connectors, in peer workshops and peer-visits to each city.

 

In this phase, New Women Connectors helps apply the knowledge provided in 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.

 

objectives

 

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

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

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

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

​

Are you interested in this project or have questions about it? Please reach out to our Project Lead Razan Ismail or to our Communication Officer Julz Natri.

​

UNITES is a project running from 2021 to 2024. It is led by Eurocities, with the support of New Women Connectors, MigrationWork and UNITEE

​