DREAMM toolkit 1 : toolkit for trainers and organisations to prepare lead-mentors

Abstract

As part of the “Develop and Realise Empowering Actions for Mentoring Migrants” (DREAMM) European Union funded project, three toolkits are formulated to assist and facilitate the integration process of newly arrived migrants, especially migrants with a Third-Country background. The toolkits are meant for trainers and organisations to prepare Lead-Mentors, for Lead-Mentors to prepare Mentors, and for Mentors to prepare migrants; an accessible resource to adopt and/or adapt should target users wish to replicate the experience. In fact, the toolkits propose a mix of field-tested primary tools, methods, strategies, activities, and materials; the implementation of which aims to generate positive and inclusive learning spaces for both newly arrived migrants and their new country/communities in full respect of migrant human rights and agentic voice. As such, the development of the toolkits is based on inclusive values and principles of equity and equality, where migrants are perceived as valued individuals whose needs, rights and obligations are welcomed and well-catered for within their new society. The integration process becomes a two-way learning operation through which both migrants and their new country/communities can benefit. Hence, the integration process emerges from the consideration of culture as a constructive and transformative process, where culture is perceived as developing from the active doing and not limited to the passive having of cultural categories. Inclusion and culture become values integration as an intrinsic transformative activity emerging from intercultural encounters and communication. [excerpt]