The MigrantVoicesHeard capacity-building trainings represent a process by which migrants and migrants-led organizations obtain, improve, and retain the skills, knowledge, tools, and other resources needed to ease their integration process and strengthen their participation in the decision-making process.
The Romanian Peace Institute – PATRIR, under the project MigrantVoicesHeard, delivered a package of fundamental and holistic training sessions to empower and equip international citizens with the preliminary and necessary skills for setting up and leading the local Migrant Council. Additionally, the trainings aimed to facilitate interaction and collaboration between migrant communities and the identified relevant stakeholders.
Several community meetings were held with the international citizens in Cluj prior to the implementation of the trainings. These community meetings led to the creation of a community action plan and needs assessment to encourage the participation and mobilization of international communities. Furthermore,
the contents of the training sessions were designed around topics identified as important, including How to organize Participatory Community Action Planning; Familiarization with the Host Country Legal System and Policy Development Process; Advocacy: how to identify and formulate policy goals and develop policy
proposals; Anti-Racism and Gender Equality; and Strategic Communication.
The training sessions benefited more than 15 participants/session and improved the participants knowledge regarding the Romanian context in terms of migration, participation, advocating for their basic and civic rights, decision-making, policy development process, and enabled them to write their own plans for setting up the migrant council in the fields of needs assessment, conflict and problem resolution,
communication, and advocacy.
About the Migrant Voices Heard project
The Migrant Voices Heard project aims to support the setting up and strengthening of migrant councils at local and regional level in six EU countries in close collaboration with public administrations, to promote the exchange of experiences between local and regional public authorities about the involvement of migrants in the design and implementation of integration policies, and to enhance the capacity of local and regional authorities to effectively consult migrants on policies that directly affect them. It is funded with the support of the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) of the European Union and is implemented in Austria, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy and Romania, by the following organizations: WCIF (BG), Südwind (AU), Mission Wings (BG), Groupe SOS Solidarites (FR), KMOP – Social action and Innovation Centre (GR), ActionAid (IT), Szjubektiv (HU) and PATRIR (RO). Local and regional governments – the Municipality of Stara Zagora in Bulgaria, the Municipality of Neapolis-Sykeon in Greece and the Regional Government of Campania in Italy – are also involved in the initiative.
For further information about the MigrantVoicesHeard project and our next actions please contact us at [alis.costescu@patrir.eu|.