Good Practice Criteria
Inclusivity & Participation
Does the practice ensure that its services are accessible and responsive to diverse groups?
Participation is considered the basis of the entire project, which is designed to be accessible to all, with individual focal points set through activity selection. Services and activities are open to everyone, including hotel guests, residents, asylum seekers, volunteers, locals and internationals. The restaurant is the main meeting point of the project, and works to bring people together against a backdrop of different cultures and related foods. The project’s framework and activities are flexible and can be easily adapted to the needs of the target group.
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 receiving society can participate in the project – in so doing benefiting from the cultural exchange – if desired: it is open to everyone and offers many opportunities for (passive) participation. Both building residents and guests can contribute creative ideas to further develop the project.
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?
The project is designed to encourage strong collaboration between and input from asylum seekers, hotel guests, neighbours, and volunteers. The active participation of all those staying at the hotels is explicitly welcomed.
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
Is the practice relevant to the empowerment of migrants, the strengthening of their autonomy and the support of their long-term integration?
The practice strengthens the autonomy of its migrant participants through early integration measures such as language courses and support with the search for accommodation. The involvement of migrant participants in the design of the project and its services also serves to empower them, as well as reducing the costs involved for the government in maintaining accommodation.
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 practice aligns with common integration measures and strategies and contributes to the wider integration framework. It collaborates with the migrant counselling service of welfare organisation Diakonie, for example, as well as the government of Swabia, and offers practical support with key integration-related issues such as housing and language. The practice is well-known in the integration environment: it has received much media coverage and has been granted various awards.
Good practice checklist
✓ Make sure that the services offered contribute to the strengthening of the capacities of relevant institutions to support future development.
✓ Employ regional/local, national and EU/international level integration-related guidelines and tools.
Effectiveness
Is the practice adequately planned and based on a comprehensive design?
The practice was planned via a comprehensive design process involving many actors. It aims to promote new ways of cohabitation and to bring together different parts of society, including through collaboration with local authorities. At the project’s inception, the local community was engaged in discussion around its design and objectives.
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.
– Ensure the practice is based on indicators that are measurable, achievable, and relevant.
− 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?
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
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?
According to the available information there is no structural funding, but the practice receives project funding and generates its own income through the hotel/hostel, the restaurant, the kiosk and its (online) shop. It also receives support though its long-term cooperation with the local government and Diakonie, although this does not finance the activities and services of the Cosmopolis Grandhotel.
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.