Good Practice Criteria
Inclusivity & Participation
Does the practice ensure that its services are accessible and responsive to diverse groups?
The Centre for Foreigners provides comprehensive integration services in the Ústí nad Labem Region, combining standardised services provided by all regional integration centres with additional, local-level activities. The centre’s services are easily accessible. Relevant information is made available online in several languages, in printed format via leaflets distributed at institutions that handle foreigners’ issues, and verbally through active community outreach work. Services are personalised to meet the individual needs of participants.
Good practice checklist
✓ Adopt a participatory, gender mainstreaming, age sensitive, inclusive approach and secure equal opportunities for beneficiaries.
✓ Make sure to provide precise and accessible information on how to access services in different languages, formats and through different communication channels
✓ Ensure that equality and diversity are an essential part of how services are delivered, taking into consideration different needs and capacities.
✓ Make reasonable adjustments to service delivery in order to take into account particular needs of the target group.
Does the practice involve the active participation of the receiving society?
The integration centres offer a wide range of activities to both migrants (social and legal counselling; Czech language courses; adaptation and integration courses) and the receiving society (a regional advisory platform; monitoring of the situation of foreigners). The Centre for Foreigners also actively responds to the needs of local institutional actors (methodological and advisory support to schools; support with increasing the intercultural competences of public administration institutions) and involves host society volunteers in its activities (tutoring of foreign children; advice on grants processes to migrant associations).
Inspiring tools:
Inspiring tools: Advisory and educational activities for public institutions in the region.
Good practice checklist
✓ Consider integration as a two-way process, and aim for change on the side of the receiving society.
✓ Foresee an active role for the receiving society in the design and implementation stages of the practice, and involve actions that encourage native communities and beneficiaries to work together.
Does the practice consult its beneficiaries and involve them in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the action?
Migrant integration is coordinated at the regional level by regional advisory platforms involving institutional actors and migrant representatives. The Centre for Foreigners also maintains regular contact with representatives of migrant associations. Individual service users are consulted as much as possible on the content of services (e.g. the design of leisure activities and the focus of specific language courses) and on their quality.
Good practice checklist
✓ Organise consultation activities with migrant beneficiaries in order to co-create actions where possible and secure their feedback on the design and evaluation of the action.
✓ Provide appropriate feedback mechanisms by which beneficiaries can safely express their opinions on service quality.
– Use flexible and interculturally-adapted formats and compensate participants for their contribution.
Relevance & Complementarity
Are the objectives of the practice relevant to the needs of the migrants?
The relevance of the integration centres’ services and their complexity is positively evaluated by other service providers, the NGO sector, individual users and external evaluators. The services are personalised for their users according to a mapping of each client’s needs carried out during their initial interview.
Good practice checklist
✓ Identify and analyse the needs of the relevant migrants and prioritise methods which directly ask them about their needs.
✓ Identify and analyse gaps in integration support and design actions to fill these gaps.
✓ Aim for systemic improvement, satisfying the needs of the majority of target groups in the target area.
Is the practice relevant to the empowerment of migrants, the strengthening of their autonomy and the support of their long-term integration?
The integration centres provide social counselling to migrants on the basis of an individual plan, the implementation of which requires the support of the service provider, and the effects of which promote migrants’ long-term integration and strengthen their autonomy. Migrants are also involved in regional advisory platforms, which allows them to develop their networks and promotes their social inclusion.
Good practice checklist
✓ Devise actions with the overarching goal of providing positive feedback and making migrants more confident, autonomous and independent.
✓ Contribute to migrants’ engagement with the community for the common good.
✓ Ensure that services contribute to the strengthening of the capacities of migrants/migrant communities.
✓ Include (or create the preconditions for) actions that facilitate long-term integration.
✓ Address discrimination and information gaps as obstacles to long-term integration.
Does the practice align with the priorities, strategic goals and policies of other relevant stakeholders, and contribute to the wider integration framework?
The regional advisory platforms, organised by the integration centres, are a tool (in line with national integration policy) for identifying systemic solutions to gaps in the integration infrastructure at regional level. In addition, the Foreigners’ Centre responds to the specific needs of local actors in different areas of integration, especially in education.
Good practice checklist
✓ Ensure that all actions are in line with international and European human rights standards.
✓ Employ regional/local, national and EU/international level integration-related guidelines and tools.
✓ Make sure that the services offered contribute to the strengthening of the capacities of relevant institutions to support future development.
Effectiveness
Is the practice adequately planned and based on a comprehensive design?
The services of the regional integration centres (including the Centre for Foreigners) are provided as comprehensively-designed one-year projects. They are built around the state integration policy, and their success is measured by internal, quantitative indicators. Complementary services provided by the Centre for Foreigners respond to the local context, and are again measured according to quantitative indicators. Service impact is monitored at the individual level, for example through evaluation with individuals receiving social counselling. The Centre for Foreigners also monitors the effectiveness of the Czech language courses by means of an entrance and exit exam and course attendance, and conducts its own internal evaluation of course implementation. Training is organised annually for new employees of the integration centres.
Good practice checklist
✓ Aim for actions that achieve observable outcomes among the target group or contribute to changes during the implementation of the action.
✓ Make sure that the objectives and planned results of the activity are feasible and clear.
– Develop a communications strategy during the design phase of the action and pay attention to communication with host communities and local authorities.
✓ Develop a staff management plan to identify team members with the right skills to work with beneficiaries, and their needs for training and further qualification.
Does the practice regularly monitor implementation and evaluate its results?
The activities of the integration centres (including the Centre for Foreigners) are regularly monitored and evaluated, and feedback is requested from beneficiaries. External evaluations that assess beneficiaries’ satisfaction with the services have had positive results, and the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic found that the practice meets state integration policy objectives.
Good practice checklist
✓ Ensure regular monitoring of action implementation and compare actual performance to goals set during the design phase.
− Anticipate obstacles that might occur and plan alternative scenarios during the design phase of the action.
✓ Ensure achievement of intended outputs / outcomes.
✓ Determine whether practice outcomes are considered successful by beneficiaries, the host and practitioner communities, funders, and policymakers.
✓ Assess whether interventions contribute to long-term sustainable change.
Sustainability
Is the practice prepared to sustain its positive effects after completion?
The network of integration centres is designed to be run on a long-term basis. Its operation has been secured since 2020 by the national act on the residence of foreigners.
Good practice checklist
✓ During the design phase, anticipate opportunities to continue the intervention after completion.
✓ Prepare and apply a well-defined sustainability plan to ensure the continuation of positive effects / outcomes.
– Devote resources to building capacities during the implementation phase, in order to ensure that the necessary human resources, expertise and infrastructure are in place to sustain the services upon completion of the action.
Does the practice attract structural funding and support from new sponsors and individuals, or have the potential to develop a business model to generate its own resources?
10 of the 14 integration centres in the Czech Republic are financed by the state budget. The remaining 4, including the Centre for Foreigners, are financed by annual AMIF projects. Additional activities run by the Foreigners’ Centre are funded on an ad hoc basis by available EU, national, regional or corporate resources.
Good practice checklist
✓ Develop partnerships and relations with relevant stakeholders at the early stage of the action to ensure that the practice has strong support and potential partners for after the primary funding terminates.
✓ Identify new EU and national funding opportunities for long-term integration (e.g., shifting from project-based initiatives that are limited in time or dependent on one (external) donor to a comprehensive, multi-year strategy based on secured funding or diverse funding opportunities).
– Diversify funding opportunities and identify options for self-financing through business activities or social entrepreneurship.
Partnership & Collaboration
Does the practice establish communication and coordination with other relevant actors to foster the integration of migrants? (e.g., migrants, civil society, public authorities, businesses)
The key partner and creator of the integration centres concept is the Ministry of the Interior (which is responsible for the implementation of state integration policy). From the beginning, integration centres have been developing relationships with local actors dealing with foreigners’ issues, as well as with local governments, labour offices and schools within the framework of regional advisory platforms. The staff stability of the Centre for Foreigners allows for the development of long-term personal, informal relationships with key individuals within migrant communities.
Good practice checklist
✓ Ensure the involvement and participation of key stakeholders in the development phase and create strategies to involve them in the action.
✓ Include multi-stakeholder consultation with professionals, institutions, and citizens, in order to promote the meaningful participation of refuges and migrants and support a joint sense of ownership of decisions and actions.
Does the practice contribute to discussion on the improvement of integration support policies?
Some integration centres have been involved in the development of regional/local integration strategies. In addition to organising regional advisory platforms, the Centre for Foreigners participates in other professional platforms in the region (such as one for community planning).
Good practice checklist
✓ Seize opportunities to contribute to the development of comprehensive integration strategies involving EU-level/national/regional/local authorities, service providers and civil society.
✓ Work with relevant partners to jointly review operations, practices, services, and integration outcomes.