MISP follows a pilot-phase (June 2009 / December 2011), centred on the presence of intercultural mediators in public services, during which the intercultural mediator profile and a training programme on intercultural mediation was created. In the pilot-phase, there were 28 intercultural mediators, placed in 25 public services after a process where migrant organizations were the ones that primarily identified the services where intercultural mediation was needed and proposed them to be part in the project.

MISP had scientific counselling from University Autonomous of Madrid, through IMEDES , that in the 1990s was responsible for a team of intercultural mediators in the municipality of Madrid. 

By the end of the pilot phase, since sustainability was one of the major concerns, a second generation of MISP started on 2nd January 2012, having, as public services partners, municipalities that participated in the pilot phase.

There were created 4 municipal intercultural teams, in Amadora, Cascais, Loures and Setúbal, through which the project will show that intercultural mediation is a win-win strategy for social cohesion, full integration of migrant communities and intercultural dialogue and coexistence.

After a period of needs assessment in the municipality regarding not only migrant but also native communities’ needs, each intercultural team drew up a strategic action plan, based upon criteria provided by the project. Issues like the knowledge of the communities but, also, the deep knowledge of each territory, the existing networks, functioning or not, was the first step in order to identify priorities for the project. These priorities are thematic (for instance Health and Community Intervention areas) and territorial, namely certain neighborhoods that need intercultural mediation. MISP is structured in three intervention axes:  

1. Supporting professionals and institutions (building bridges): Supporting professionals and institutions embedded in the community, enhancing the lines of communication and understanding between professionals and citizens (answers, verbal or written; needs guidance on performance in each case; translation and interpretation between people with different cultural baggage).
2. Social and citizen participation: Aims to promote, enhance and increase the presence and participation of immigrants in social and public life of the areas where they live, developing lines of action from the individual to the collective.
3. Intercultural coexistence: Promote cooperation between the different actors committed to the local territory, creating a network of inclusive relations of proximity between culturally differentiated populations, aimed at creating, strengthening the positive connections and solving / managing conflicts in order to promote social cohesion in the community and in society.

Since two of the teams started in May and the other two in September, they have just drawn up their action plan that integrates, also, the support to persons/migrants that have difficulties in accessing public and private organizations. This support is given by going with the person to those services and addresses all the issues involved, aiming not only to empower those people buts also to sensitize the person providing the service to better deal with diversity. 

MISP intercultural mediators are already known and seen as a very useful resource not only by immigrants  but also by other vulnerable people and also by the services’ professionals. They are seen as peace builders and intercultural dialogue agents.

MISP has an on-going monitoring and evaluation system, based upon process indicators, drawn upon the feedback given by the intercultural teams and mediators to the coordination team. An external evaluation is being prepared, an impact evaluation to be implemented in the beginning of 2013. 

In the pilot phase, the project failed in integrating the intercultural mediators in the services after the end of the project. Due to financial obstacles that wasn’t achieved.

In this second phase, the public services partners are municipalities, which has the effect of raising MISP expectations in terms of sustainability.

The migrant and native populations are the targets of the project, since it aims to contribute to social cohesion and the improvement of the municipalities’ population quality of life.

MISP benefits from European funding, namely from the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Countries National (75%). The current budget, from 02/01/2012 until 31/05/2013, is of 692.660,82 €.

For the phase 01/06/2013 until 30/4/2014, a new proposal will be presented.

The project involves 24 persons: 4 in the coordination team, and 20 in the 4 intercultural teams. Intercultural mediators must have a certain profile, developed in the pilot phase and upon which the selection of the persons, proposed by the immigrant organizations, was made.