Description
Groep Intro is a non-profit organisation committed to working towards an inclusive society. It works across towns and cities in Flanders working on projects in the labour market, in schools, in the justice system, in communities and in leisure activities. Groep Intro engages Youth Workers who work with young people at risk of social exclusion, including those in the Secondary School OKAN classes (reception classes for foreign-speaking newcomers) both in schools and in the communities. An example of a project is CHILLweek in Mechelen aimed specifically at children from migrant backgrounds. In the Spring break of 2019, forty young people, between 12 and 18 years old from the various OKAN classes, were introduced to Mechelen leisure activities. CHILLweek was an initiative of the municipality of Mechelen, in collaboration with the Agentschap Integratie & Inburgering and Groep Intro. Groep Intro also works on projects in part-time and apprenticeship education, including dual-learning, and offers individual coaching and initial training and work experience for young people, providing access and information for accessing the local labour market. The financing comes from within. Sometimes, there are additional local subsidies to enable project extensions.
- Access to compulsory education
- Children complete compulsory education
- Children maintain their cultural identity while adopting new cultural values and intercultural competences
- Children remain in (formal) education beyond compulsory levels / Access to (formal) non-compulsory education
- Children's academic skills
- Children's competence in host language
- Children's life satisfaction / happiness
- Children's sense of belonging
- Friends and peers (bridges)
- Friends and peers (support)
- Institutions
- Teachers
- Types & levels of (formal) non-compulsory education attended
Evaluation ex post
In addition to permanent evaluation with the participants (they help determine the content of the offer), project evaluations are conducted with the clients every year. This results in later adjustments to content, announcement, offer, timing, location, etc. The general satisfaction of both participants and clients scores high.
Projects’ deliverables
Facebook (to young people), WhatsApp (to young people), mail and presentations (supervisors), flyers (to hand out at schools), and in some regions also newsletters.
Reproducibility
The project has been replicated internally in several cities. Depending on the demand for available resources, it is also possible to replicate it in other cities. Often local accents are still placed on the demand of young people. The OKAN NA SCHOOL project and other similar activities within Group INTRO annually involve more than 600 young newcomers of various central cities in Flanders (Ostend, Bruges, Kortrijk, Ghent, Sint-Niklaas, Aalst, Dendermonde, Mechelen, Hasselt, Genk, Diest, Anderlecht, ...).
Motivation for the submission
We met and interviewed Youth Workers working in OKAN classes in Mechelen City who outlined various activities that their organisation is involved in with the aim of making access to work more inclusive via educational and cultural integration initiatives.
