Concentus

Aspire was one of four Transnational partners in a partnership called Concentus. Our partnership comprised of Aspire (UK), Bridge (Germany), Inclusion Refugees Network, (Italy) and Cultural Adaptation Centre (Poland).

Aims and Objectives

The aim of the transnational partnership was to explore and develop new initiatives that foster more effective integration of asylum seekers by focusing on:

• Support services for asylum seekers
• Empowerment
• Raising awareness/ tackling stereotypes
• Joint study developing indicators for integration.
  

The principal methods of collaboration between transnational partners were through workshops hosted by each country on the above themes. Each country also organised study and project visits on joint working initiatives.

The partnership explored different ways of developing joint transnational outcomes and products. The thematically focused workshops have offered great scope to work innovatively and creatively with our transnational partners.

Projects Developed

An exciting range of work has been developed including:

• A "Welcome Pack", offering practical advice and support for asylum seekers including a personal hand-held record
• Joint study developing indicators to measure integration
• Empowerment toolkit to improve the sustainability of organisations working with asylum seekers
• DVD/sound track featuring asylum seekers and their stories.
• Practice development report highlighting the benefit of Transnational exchanges around the field of psychological and therapeutic support.
  

Policy Work

Another important element of our transnational work has been the policy work pursued by INLOGOV at the University of Birmingham. This links the outcomes of transnational work to policy at different levels eg local, regional, national and European.

Concentus aimed to achieve maximum impact and visibility in line with EU employment guidelines and the Lisbon objectives. This has been a crucial element of our mainstreaming and dissemination drive.

Find out more by downloading the Concentus final report