Good Practice Criteria
Inclusivity & Participation
Does the practice ensure that its services are accessible and responsive to diverse groups?
KIDEAK promotes the development of egalitarian relationships based on respect and good treatment. The programme focuses on issues relevant to its young (mostly male) participants in the prevention of sexist behaviour and aggression towards women, addressing among other topics the construction of new masculinities, diversity and equality, and egalitarian relationships. For young women participants, programme activities are designed to promote personal empowerment in the face of sexist behaviour and aggression. Intervention plans are tailored according to the needs and experiences of individual 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 programme’s social mentoring activities are beneficial for the volunteer mentors – who are often members of the receiving society – in that through their participation they improve their communication and intercultural skills, increase their awareness of the reality of young migrants, and question the stereotypes they hold. The mentor-mentee relationship also encourages greater sensitivity towards the “other”, which promotes the young participants’ autonomy and contributes to greater mutual recognition between the receiving and migrant communities.
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?
Beneficiaries are involved in most of the programme development process, and their feedback is vital to its well-functioning. Mentoring is carried out in a cross-cutting manner during the 6-month matching phase, with face-to-face meetings being held once a week between the mentor and the mentee. Volunteers are trained in social mentoring awareness workshops.
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?
This practice addresses the needs of young migrants as they work to secure full autonomy under equal conditions within the receiving society. It employs an integral approach and personalised intervention plans to achieve this, aiming to fill gaps in integration support through its mentoring activities.
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 idea behind the programme is that an initially artificial relationship, formed through the mentoring activities, will over time become an effective relationship outside the constraints of the programme. This develops broader “affective galaxies” for the young migrant participants. Through mentoring the practice increases migrant engagement with the local community, thereby strengthening their autonomy and promoting their long-term integration.
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 entire practice was designed in line with international, national and local guidelines on integration.
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 practice is well-designed and thoroughly planned. It has achieved observable outcomes in young migrants, who have developed self-confidence and self-esteem, as well as observable outcomes – in terms of improvements to linguistic and cultural competence – on the part of both young migrants and the host society.
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 programme strategy includes an evaluation and monitoring system, and uses results from this to carry out necessary adaptation. Further evaluation and monitoring is carried out as part of reporting associated with receipt of both EU and national funds.
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.