The project aims to:
- build the intercultural capacities of the specialists working with third country nationals, and in particular with families where at least one parent is a third country national ; ~
- implement general core principles of European Union immigration policy;
- foster the successful integration of migrants and their descendants.

1) Creating special training programme on how to work with third country nationals and mixed families undergoing crises or divorces. The training is based on the methodology created during the implementation of the project “Towards understanding” (implemented by IOM Vilnius, funded by European Integration Fund, 2009).

2) Building capacities of the specialists working with third country nationals and mixed families undergoing crises or divorces. Workshops for the specialists included theoretical informational lectures prepared on the basis of the training programme and practical sessions. Workshops also created networking platforms for the specialists working in the field. The personnel of fifty municipalities in Lithuania were provided with a specialized publication on the specificity of the assistance for migrant families. The partner of the project - Institution of the Ombudsman for Children Rights of the Republic of Lithuania –prepared recommendations on the practical use of the publication and disseminated these recommendations.

3) Based on project activities, a special guidebook on consultations for mixed families and children from immigrant families was published and distributed to 60 municipalities in Lithuania. It was also published on the websites of IOM Vilnius and the Ombudsman for Children Rights, and sent out to the largest Lithuanian libraries and relevant educational institutions.

The results of the project were publicized in the regional press (10 articles). The final conference of the project (approx. 40 participants from different governmental and non-governmental organizations) was organized in Vilnius to present the project results, the lessons learned, recommendations for the future activities, and the most problematic issues.

- Production of a tutorial for specialists working with families of third country nationals and mixed families  undergoing crises and divorces;

- 10 two-day workshops for the specialists working in the municipalities;

- Publication of the Guidebook on consultations for mixed families and children from immigrant families;

- 10 pressa articles on the results of the project in the regional press;

- Final conference.

The core aspect of the project – the training programme – contributed to improve the quality of work with foreign children and their families as follow:
- specialists working in the field of children’s rights protection and third country nationals gained more theoretical and practical knowledge on how to work with immigrant families and their children;
- specialists developed and improved their intercultural thinking, behaviour, and their competence to provide qualified assistance to different ethnic groups;
-As a result, the successful integration of immigrant families and their children became more easily achievable.

After the training, IOM distributed questionnaires for professionals to evaluate how they use the programme in their daily work. Based on their feedback, one of the partner of the project, the Ombudsman for Children Rights, included this specialized training into the training programs for civil servants.

Beneficiaries of this project are not only listed specialists, but also third country nationals, who form the target audience of these specialists. Project’s activities directly influenced specialists’ work with the families of third country nationals.

The project “Assistance to children and their families: building specialists’ intercultural competence” was implemented under the European Integration Fund (RF) 2011 Annual Programme and covered the period from January 2012 to June 2013