Our partners know how to improve network exchanges!

From the 16th to the 19th of October the representatives of the Municipality of Thessaloniki went to Barcelona to meet a City delegation in the framework of a bilateral visit which took place as part of the activities foreseen in their Integrated Action Plan.

In November the Network seen our German partners very active in giving real mean to the exchange programme. First the representative of Dresden University (AC Network partner)  and later the representatives of Network IQ (ULG Member of Oldenburg) undertook bilateral visits respectively in Roquetas de Mar (AC Network Partner) and Vantaa (AC Network Partner).

On the 22nd of November Dr. Magdi Khalil participated in the 12th URBACT Local Support Group Meeting of the Municipality of Roquetas de Mar. During the meeting Dr. Khalil spoke about Dresden University’s experience in the Arrival Cities project and framed the migration experience of Dresden telling about the challenges faced by the public and third sector actors in developing local actions for the integration of migrants and to raise awareness about the migration phenomena among the local population. Indeed one of the main issues addressed by Dresden’s Action plan is how to improve the Community Cohesion in a context where nationalist movements become everyday more popular and hostile towards foreigners. The feedback of the audience was positive as well as the interaction on several topics that made the visit a real success for the  bilateral exchange initiative. 

Another exchange of experiences has involved the Cities of Vantaa and Oldenburg: the idea was born in September during the Transnational Workshop held in Oldenburg, there the representatives of the City of Vantaa and the Vantaa’s Russian Club (Member of the Vantaa’s LSG) met Peter Grünheid, representative of Network IQ  (Member of the Oldenburg’s ULG) and decided to organize a visit in order to share the Network IQ experience in developing training programmes for migrant’s integration in the labour market. In less than two months this desire become truth and on the 23rd of November  Mr. Johnny van Hove, from Network IQ presented the organization’s project and results during Vantaa’s National Dissemination Event; giving the possibility to more than 100 stakeholders, participating to the event, to learn about this very good practice and take inspiration from it to develop other projects and initiatives in Finland.