Booster the emotional dimension of social inclusion for immigrant mothers and children

The current migration crisis has become a highly sensitive political issue and has prompted the need for an urgent EU and Member State level response. The challenges that migration numbers present are manifold, with the settlement distribution of individuals and families a priority, alongside the need to ensure their longer-term integration into society.The BONDS project aimed to design and develop a specific training/education programme for immigrant mothers and children, focusing on the acquisition of key competences for social inclusion and well-being through the methodology of Collaborative Comics Storytelling. Specifically, the programme aimed at the acquisition of soft skills and language/cultural/ICT/social and civic competences, with a focus on socio-emotional dimensions.Illustrative storytelling is an important instrument to explore stories about difficult, complex issues from a person’s own perspective and visually depict their past and present experiences. When it comes to telling refugees’ stories, this form of storytelling can make it easier for receiving communities to empathize with the experiences of an individual refugee presented as the central character in a comic. The educational model aimed at supporting mothers/caregivers and children to develop a mix of soft skills, as well as language/cultural/social and civic competences. The main methodology of Collaborative Comics Storytelling applies the following key concepts:•Comics is a narrative form that combines two other forms of expression: words and pictures.•Comics creation is a co-creation process.•Comics storytelling is a tool to foster collaboration, teamwork and creativity.All activities that were planned to achieve the project´s objectives have been realized:1.IO1- BONDS survey framework and report. A survey framework was developed by the partners to define the main contextual factors that affect socio-emotional dimensions for immigrant women and children and hinder their social inclusion. Based on this survey questions were formulated, which subsequently were discussed with immigrant mothers and children (for the children a more creative format was used) in the countries were later workshops were to take place. Based on the results specific needs for key competences and soft skills were defined, which formed the basis for the Educational Model developed under IO2..2. After the Educational Model was completed (which included clear instructions for trainers/workshopleaders), and the Training of Trainers in The Netherlands took place, partners in Spain, Slovenia, Italy and Greece started implementing Collaborative Comics Storytelling workshops with target groups. The model supported migrant mothers and children in acquiring soft skills and language/cultural/social and civic competences3 BONDS activities impact has been evaluated, using feedback from the target groups and other stakeholders. An impact evaluation report was drafted and translated in different EU country languages, and shared via the project website, partner organization´s websites and social media. The method itself was disseminated further via different multiplier events that all the partners organized in their own countries.4. Recommendations. Based on all the experiences a recommendations document was drafted, in which clear advice to policymakers and other stakeholders on how to apply Collaborative Comic Storytelling as an (additional) approach that can be used to support integration and well-being of immigrant women and children.