The project aims to face two problems: firstly to solve the lack of opportunities for foreign residents in the town to practice the official languages outside of the formal classes. Secondly, to establish mechanisms to promote mutual understanding of the different cultures in the city to eliminate prejudices and stereotypes.

The main objectives are:

• Improve the language skills of foreign residents in Eibar.
• Facilitate the creation of relations between immigrants and the native population, by creating meeting points between them.
• Promote mutual understanding between cultures (so that local neighbours get to know in person the migratory projects, the cultures of origin, etc. of the immigrant people. And so that the new neighbours learn the culture and history of Eibar from their neighbours while practicing the local languages).
• Remove any existing prejudices, through mutual knowledge and understanding.

This project targets the whole population: both foreigners and native people. In the pilot it involved 15 couples (30 people), but since then the number of potential participants has doubled due to the good results. It is expected that from now on 30 couples (60 people) will participate.

• Selection of participants: During the year, the professionals in the department (particularly the technicians on immigration) recruit foreign people interested in participating in the program. Furthermore, they attend the Spanish classes for foreigners in the Permanente Centre for Adult Education, where they explain the program and try to recruit more people. The recruitment of native people is more complicated, it is done through: mailing lists, advertising in newspapers and social media, and sending out information leaflets.
• Then interviews with interested people are carried out. A form is filled out with personal data, interests, tastes, hobbies. To facilitate that the pairs are compatible in terms of tastes and schedule availability.
• One session with all the participants is carried out to create awareness on issues such as: cultural diversity, intercultural competencies, and cultural issues.
• The pairs are then introduced to each other: the immigration technician carries out the process of choosing pairs and of presenting the two participants.
• The project is put in place: the pairs meet and each one will establish when it is best for them to see each other for an hour and a half, once a week, for 15 weeks.
• Evaluation meeting: an evaluation of the program is carried out with all the participants

As a pilot experience, the project involved 15 couples (30 people), which showed a high degree of satisfaction. Local people indicated that they had gained better knowledge of their partner’s cultures and had removed several prejudices. Foreigners did not particularly improve their language level skills (in part due to the added language difficulty of learning Basque, but also because it is simply a practice exercise that needs to keep going to have better results) but they gained experience (less embarrassment...), but mostly they felt happy to have a local person of reference, who had taught them history of their new location and had created a friendship bond with them (many couples continued meeting up even after the program finished). Local people committed to discussing the benefits of participating in Berriketan with their closest friends and circles and to encouraging them to join.

• Type of assessment: an evaluation is done at the end of the program with the participants. They list the changes that could be made for future editions, those aspects to be maintained and those to improve. In these evaluations it has been highlighted that it is necessary to include a mandatory awareness talk before the program begins.
• Resources available: the budget for the immigration area has suffered important cuts, so the resources used are minimal, especially human resources.
• The project is considered a success and will be maintained because of all the benefits that it entails.
• Two side effects: because of the budget limitations, it is the immigration technician who creates, executes and manages the program without any subcontracting. Some local people exceeded the program goal (assist in the practice of language) and wanted to help in more ways. Risk of "paternalism".
• Recommendations: It is interesting to make a speech at the beginning of the awareness program, clarifying the purpose of the program for the participants. In various assessments the idea of giving ideas and pointers on the themes for the conversations has been suggested.

The pilot project had no separate human resources costs (it was carried out by the immigration technician with support from a social worker). In the next edition an advertising leaflet to send to households was published (€ 940.77 in total, funded by the City Council, covered in part by the Basque Government grants that fund activities that promote multiculturalism). It's a program that does not require much economic effort even if it does require a lot of time.