MIraGE partners’ meeting, October 2021

Face to face and online, to discuss best practices and lessons learned

The final meeting gathering the partners of MIraGE was held on Friday 15 October 2021, in a hybrid mode: while some partners’ representatives met face to face in Cyprus, in the headquarters of the Center of Social Innovation, other partners joined online.

During the meeting, the partners discussed operational and management issues: final steps of the project, reports and deadlines, dissemination activities. The meeting provided also a precious occasion to assess the project activities, especially the trainings addressed to TCNs and employers undertaken by the project partners.

A good part of the discussion focused on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular on the training format: most partners, due to the limitations of the last months, needed to switch the trainings from face to face, as they were initially planned, to online environment. If this was initially perceived as a challenge, and demanded a rethinking of the methodologies applied, all the partners expressed satisfaction with the final results. The online format, in some cases, even gave the possibility to maximise the participation, providing the possibility to attend the courses without geographical limitations.

Among the best practices and lessons learned, the partners mentioned the fact that the trainings for TCNs often provided safe space to discuss about other issues, not included in the modules, such as sharing experiences of racism and discrimination. Regarding the employers’ training, the need to break stereotypes was highlighted by several partners, together with the importance to display good practices of diversity management. Finally, it was also underlined how the project’s results can be used to do advocacy for migrants’ rights.