Migrant children and youth are especially vulnerable to social exclusion. Through the MINT project, Terre des hommes and its partners aimed at empowering refugee and migrant children - as well as European youth - to engage in new integration activities. By using an innovative mentoring programme, the project contributed to building more inclusive societies in Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia.

The project was an action learning and innovation programme, of which a contextualised, adapted, and tested mentoring model was an important output. This complex programme provided newly arrived migrant children with support, advice, and friendship in the form of mentors, in order to facilitate easier integration. Additionally, it contributed to the improvement of their linguistic and social skills and amplified their voices to communicate their needs (to stakeholders such as their local peers, teachers, and local and national authorities).

The project helped to translate EU integration policy into concrete results at both the individual and community level, by providing early support to recently arrived children and promoting their active participation and social inclusion. At the same time it supported MS governments, local authorities and civil society organisations engaged in the complex process of fostering integration.

The MINT project has also contributed to creating a culture of openness towards migrants - particularly children – within the EU (albeit at a local level), and to increasing awareness around migration and the role that TCNs can play in EU societies.

The main beneficiaries of the MINT project were third-country national children and local youth. The host communities in the project countries as well as local and national authorities were also targeted with the advocacy activities.

Through a wide dissemination of project outputs, most importantly the Mentoring Methodological Framework, local, national and European NGOs, IOs and EU agencies were also among the secondary beneficiaries.  

As a first step, a 'Mentoring Methodological Framework' was developed by experts at Child to Child UK which built on good practices, tested models and provided new approaches to support migrant children and local youth volunteers. Over the course of the project, two mentoring cycles were implemented in the project countries (the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, and Slovenia), each lasting six to nine months. As a result of the recruitment campaigns, 134 local youth volunteers were trained and paired with 150 migrant children during the two mentoring cycles.

The mentoring programme also organised indoor and outdoor group activities: museum visits, trips to the countryside, art workshops and sports activities. Individual, one-to-one meetings were organised to strengthen the bond between mentors and mentees and to better support the children, who all were enrolled in school, with homework, practicing the local language, and getting to know the local environment. During the second cycle, most activities were held online due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Base- and end-line surveys were conducted with children and local youth in each mentoring cycle, with the dual purpose of 1) documenting the benefits that participation in the mentoring programme can bring to migrant children and local youth mentors, and 2) collecting relevant information on how the framework could be improved. Children assessed the benefits of participating in the programme on a five-point scale, with results ranging between 3.9 and 4.4. Similarly, mentors assessed their overall experience as 4.5 on the five-point scale.

At the end of the project, the Mentoring Methodological Framework was revised based on lessons learnt and by adding practical tips and testimonies from participants of the programme. The document is a useful resource for any organisation setting up a mentoring programme aimed at enhancing integration of migrant children and is available in 5 languages (English, Czech, Polish, Romanian and Slovene).

Linguistic and socio-cultural knowledge is essential for newly arrived TCN children to successfully integrate into the host society. Accordingly, in each project country, child-friendly videos were produced to present the national cultural and social specificities of the host societies (Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovenia). The videos, which have been viewed more than 800 times, are available in the main languages (e.g. Arabic, Russian, etc.) spoken by migrant children.

The project also offered free online language learning via apps for migrant children and adults. Although the apps are a good way to learn a new language when the user is motivated enough, project partners faced challenges in successfully promoting them. Thus, in three countries (Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia) small-scale in-person language courses were also organised for migrant children and adults.

Finally, the project ran child-led advocacy initiatives involving migrant children and local youth mentors. These aimed at countering stereotypes and fostering acceptance, through raising awareness on children’s rights, lived realities and the enormous benefits for both host communities and the EU at large.

These initiatives included:

• the preparation of advocacy strategies, in which children and youth identified the main topic(s) of the advocacy needed (e.g. overcoming barriers; migrant children’s access to education);
• the creation of advocacy videos (eight in total);
• the organisation of local events, where migrant children and youth could meet members of the host communities and their families could meet their teachers;
• national advocacy conferences to inform local and national stakeholders about the advocacy initiatives.

Several mentors and mentees also participated in the final international dissemination event, at which they discussed their experience in the project.

According to data collected from migrant children, their families and local youth, the mentoring programme has had a positive impact on children’s self-esteem. Furthermore, the improvement of language skills seems to be a key benefit (as reported by children as well as their families).

The advocacy initiatives provided a platform for children’s voices to be heard outside their own communities. Through a series of advocacy workshops, they learnt how to convey their messages via videos and theatre performances, and how to share their experiences as newly arrived migrant children in the host countries with local and national stakeholders.

As a result of the project:

• 150 newly arrived TCN children were supported by 134 trained, local youth volunteer mentors over two mentoring cycles;
• Over 700 migrant children and adults benefitted from various language learning opportunities;
• 284 children and youth were empowered through actively participating in awareness-raising and advocacy activities;
• 1 tested 'Mentoring Methodological Framework' is now a useful resource available to any organisation willing to set up a mentoring programme with a view to ensuring the effective integration of migrant children. It is available in English, Czech, Polish, Romanian and Slovene;
• 2 mentoring cycles were organised in each project country, each lasting 6-9 months;
• 4 child-friendly videos about national and cultural specificities of the host countries are now available in English, Arabic, Czech, Polish, Russian, Slovene;
• 10 child- and youth-led awareness-raising videos contributed to raising awareness of the general public on the realities – be they positive or challenging - lived by migrant children and youth;
• 11 local events were organised to build more cohesive local communities;
• 4 national advocacy conferences were organised to positively influence local and national policies;
• 1 final international dissemination event was organised, for dissemination of the project results and tools.

The wide dissemination of the Mentoring Methodological Framework and other project outputs during and after project completion has ensured that this tested, adaptable and innovative mentoring model reaches NGOs, IOs, local and national authorities all over Europe and benefits migrant children and local youth in other country contexts as well.

According to the external evaluation of the project, the MINT project showed remarkably positive achievements in fostering the integration of children in the host communities targeted. The key component that is deemed to have contributed to the attainment of such an outcome is the mentoring programme and related methodological framework.

Despite the noticeable limitations brought about by the COVID-19 crisis, child-led advocacy and awareness raising activities have been proven to contribute to children’s empowerment, self-esteem and integration.

The only area in which the project did not deliver results according to plan is the language training. This evaluation concluded that the use of a language training app – and the use of online language courses more generally – was overly relied upon.

The MINT project was co-funded by the European Union’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund in the total amount of 435,187.56 EUR.