Strengthening Accommodation Programmes for Refugees Welcome Organisations
Unity in Integration (N° 2024-1-IT02-KA210-ADU-000249107) is a European Erasmus+ project coordinated by Refugees Welcome Italia, developed together with partner organisations in Poland and Czechia to strengthen community-based accommodation programmes for refugees and people with a migration background.
The project was created from a shared need across the Refugees Welcome network: improving the quality, inclusiveness, and sustainability of training and support programmes for hosts, volunteers, facilitators, and hosted people. While Refugees Welcome chapters across Europe work toward the same goal — promoting inclusion through community-based housing — they often operate with different methodologies, tools, and organisational models.
Project objectives
The project focused on three main objectives:
improving the competences of hosts, volunteers, and facilitators involved in accommodation programmes;
strengthening European cooperation and knowledge exchange among Refugees Welcome chapters;
promoting community-based accommodation as a concrete alternative to institutional reception systems.
A key cross-cutting element of the project was the active involvement of people with lived migration experience in the design and evaluation of accommodation programmes and training activities.
Partnership
The project brought together organisations working in refugee inclusion and accommodation across Europe:
Refugees Welcome Italia (Italy) – project coordinator
Fundacja Ocalenie / Refugees Welcome Polska (Poland)
Association for Integration and Migration – SIMI / Refugees Welcome Czechia (Czechia)
Each organisation contributed specific expertise in volunteer training, refugee inclusion, community engagement, and programme design.
Main activities
The project was implemented through five main phases:
Mapping existing training programmes across partner organisations;
Thematic focus groups with hosts, volunteers, and hosted people in Italy, Poland, and Czechia;
Development of the Guidelines for Designing Inclusive Refugees Accommodation Programmes;
Creation of the Refugee Welcome Canvas, a visual tool to support programme design and dissemination;
Local and international dissemination activities, including events, workshops, online campaigns, and presentations within the wider Refugees Welcome International network.
Project outputs
The project produced several practical tools and resources designed to support organisations working in refugee accommodation and adult education:
a comparative report on volunteer training programmes;
a consolidated report based on focus groups with hosts and hosted people;
the Guidelines for Designing Inclusive Refugees Accommodation Programmes;
dissemination and communication materials shared across the European network.
The Guidelines provide practical recommendations on topics such as intercultural communication, trauma-informed approaches, conflict prevention, expectation management, safeguarding, and volunteer support.
Impact
The project strengthened cooperation among Refugees Welcome chapters and contributed to the development of more coherent, inclusive, and transferable accommodation programmes across Europe. It also increased the visibility of community-based accommodation practices and fostered dialogue among NGOs, volunteers, local communities, and institutional stakeholders.
All project outputs were developed as open-access resources and shared through European dissemination platforms, including EPALE and the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform, to support long-term accessibility and reuse by other organisations.
Strengthening Accommodation Programmes for Refugees Welcome Organisations
Unity in Integration is a European Erasmus+ project coordinated by Refugees Welcome Italia, developed together with partner organisations in Poland and Czechia to strengthen community-based accommodation programmes for refugees and people with a migration background.
The project was created from a shared need across the Refugees Welcome network: improving the quality, inclusiveness, and sustainability of training and support programmes for hosts, volunteers, facilitators, and hosted people. While Refugees Welcome chapters across Europe work toward the same goal — promoting inclusion through community-based housing — they often operate with different methodologies, tools, and organisational models.
Project objectives
The project focused on three main objectives:
improving the competences of hosts, volunteers, and facilitators involved in accommodation programmes;
strengthening European cooperation and knowledge exchange among Refugees Welcome chapters;
promoting community-based accommodation as a concrete alternative to institutional reception systems.
A key cross-cutting element of the project was the active involvement of people with lived migration experience in the design and evaluation of accommodation programmes and training activities.
Partnership
The project brought together organisations working in refugee inclusion and accommodation across Europe:
Refugees Welcome Italia (Italy) – project coordinator
Fundacja Ocalenie / Refugees Welcome Polska (Poland)
Association for Integration and Migration – SIMI / Refugees Welcome Czechia (Czechia)
Each organisation contributed specific expertise in volunteer training, refugee inclusion, community engagement, and programme design.
Main activities
The project was implemented through five main phases:
Mapping existing training programmes across partner organisations;
Thematic focus groups with hosts, volunteers, and hosted people in Italy, Poland, and Czechia;
Development of the Guidelines for Designing Inclusive Refugees Accommodation Programmes;
Creation of the Refugee Welcome Canvas, a visual tool to support programme design and dissemination;
Local and international dissemination activities, including events, workshops, online campaigns, and presentations within the wider Refugees Welcome International network.
Project outputs
The project produced several practical tools and resources designed to support organisations working in refugee accommodation and adult education:
a comparative report on volunteer training programmes;
a consolidated report based on focus groups with hosts and hosted people;
the Guidelines for Designing Inclusive Refugees Accommodation Programmes;
dissemination and communication materials shared across the European network.
The Guidelines provide practical recommendations on topics such as intercultural communication, trauma-informed approaches, conflict prevention, expectation management, safeguarding, and volunteer support.
Impact
The project strengthened cooperation among Refugees Welcome chapters and contributed to the development of more coherent, inclusive, and transferable accommodation programmes across Europe. It also increased the visibility of community-based accommodation practices and fostered dialogue among NGOs, volunteers, local communities, and institutional stakeholders.
All project outputs were developed as open-access resources and shared through European dissemination platforms, including EPALE and the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform, to support long-term accessibility and reuse by other organisations.
Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union,
