Do you work on the topic of Vulnerable groups and want to know more about Inclusion strategies for vulnerable people among the forcibly displaced?

Then you should not miss the RAISD project, Reshaping Attention and Inclusion Strategies for Distinctively vulnerable people among the forcibly displaced.

The project offers innovative and research-based approaches towards vulnerability and inclusion, and may contribute to your professional development throught the online training course developed by UNIMED in the framework of the project implementation.

Context of the course

In the framework of the RAISD project, co-funded by the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Union, partners are committed to identify vulnerable groups, their specific challenges and needs, and ultimately to define tailored strategies of inclusion. In order to do so, Tailored Attention and Inclusion Strategies (TAIS) have been designed to identify and draft innovative and effective practices for a given context, to tackle vulnerable needs and support inclusion.

TAIS are implemented by multidisciplinary groups, set in each partner city, called ARUs: Action Research Units. ARUs are distributed throughout Central-Eastern (Hungary), Southern (Spain and Italy) and Northern parts of Europe (Finland), Eastern Europe from Asia (Turkey) and Middle East (Jordan, Lebanon). Each single ARU covers a territorial scope and focus on national vulnerability contexts and groups: ARUs are in charge for selecting, adapting, implementing and evaluate the impact of each TAIS, contributing to set up and test the innovative strategies in each own context. ARUs are composed of project partners and of a number of external stakeholders representatives for the civil society, decision-makers and local authorities, organizations and include also vulnerables groups since the early stages.

To perform at their best, ARUs members have attended an online training held from November 2020 to February 2021, organised by UNIMED, to gain knowledge and skills on a wide range of topics, needed to conduct the ARU activities and the TAIS. The training meant to support ARU’s staff in their path towards innovative attention and inclusion strategies, tailored upon the vulnerability context in which they operate, therefore the training has been designed to build capacity of the staff working at the ARUs, the stakeholders involved and eventually newcomers to the groups.

The training was planned to be in presence but has been replanned to be performed online, because of the COVID-19 pandemic which has prevented or hindered traveling across borders. This has in turn widen the scope of the training and offered the possibility of training other ARU members and stakeholders also at a later stage.

Contents of the course

Organised by UNIMED, with the support of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and with the contribution of external experts, during the live sessions learners met, exchanged inputs, get informed by the training content and promoted a peer-support system.

The course was composed by 7 Modules focusing on the following topics:

– Participatory Approach and Inclusive Communication skills;

– Applying Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) Principles;

– Adaptation to COVID-19;

– Gender Issues in the Mediterranean Area;

– TAIS Evaluation Procedures;

– Funding Instruments for projects of vulnerable groups;

– Psychological Support and Trauma Management.

Through this course, trainees:

• Developed an advanced expertise in a wide number of Horizontal and Specific topics to allow ARU to effectively analyse specific challenges and needs of the targeted vulnerable groups;
• Updated their skills to implement suitable and evidence-based strategies to promote the involvement and inclusion of the vulnerable groups;
• Learned how to make their TAIS effective and the ARUs performing in a meaningful, long-lasting, sustainable and cooperative way, with constructive monitoring and evaluation of activities;
• Shared experiences and productively discussed about positive solutions with both peers and experts;
• Improved the use of digital tools for virtual collaboration and a participatory approach.

Where to find the course?

The course is available on the UNIMED Moodle platform and participants can access the content anytime. Here you can download the brochure with the trainings list and the instructions to enter the course.

What’s next?

To stay informed on the project developments, you can consult the project website here.