The aim of this programme is to improve the social orientation of newcomers, promote exchanges between newcomers and the host society and improve transnational cooperation and knowledge among practitioners.

ORIENT8 comprises 4 steps which guarantee the quality of the programme and efficient coordination and co-creation between partners.

1. FRAME: A social mentoring programme frame is developed through an international co-creation approach, led by academic partner HIVA-KU Leuven and expert partner BtH (expert in training and digital platforms/AI), with the active participation of partner municipalities. Guidelines and critical success factors about different phases of social mentoring programmes are gathered based on literature and a quick scan of existing projects with focus on durability, efficiency and effectivity.
2. CONTENT: According to the frame and guidelines developed in the first step, city-specific contents are developed at the local level, again through international exchange via workshops, in order to keep learning from each other. Supporting digital tools are also developed at this stage.
3. IMPLEMENT: Implementation and testing of the mentoring programme and activities is carried out at the local level by municipalities. Learning from each other’s experiences and best practices is also ensured by quarterly reports and meetings.
4. EVALUATE & DISSEMINATE: During and after project implementation, evaulation was carried out by interviewing mentors, mentees, and programme coordinators, and by analysing data from quarterly reports.

The main output of ORIENT8 is an “effective, efficient and durable” smart social mentoring programme. To this end, a mentoring programme guideline for social mentoring projects, a social mentoring programme applicable to different social environments, mobile welcome applications for newcomers for each partner municipality, and a mentor-mentee smart matching tool were developed over the course of the project. More specifically, the project saw the following results:

• 3 mobile welcome applications for newcomers, with over 2 700 users, including https://orient8.eu/WelcomeApplication.html and https://www.mechelen.be/welkom-app.
• A mentor-mentee smart matching tool which led to 41 mentor-mentee matches.
• The 'Guidelines for Social Mentoring Programmes for Newcomers' handbook.
• The social mentoring programme.
• Engagement with over 1 200 people through 113 tailored events. 
• Over 17 000 website visits, 19 000 offline publication disseminations and 50 000 social media impressions/engagements.

Apart from technical evaluation carried out by the European Commission and impartial auditing bodies, a separate (internal) evaluation led by KU Leuven was conducted via a series of workshops.

ORIENT8’s primary target group is newly arrived (within the last 5 years) TCNs. Its secondary target group is the members of local communities. Practitioners are also among the beneficiaries who can make use of the mentoring programme and tools.

The project used AMIF funds for implementation over 2 years. Following project completion, municipalities continue to use the Welcome Application and cover its further development and maintenence using their own budgets. In addition to paid staff, volunteers were also involved in the project as mentors for newcomers. 

[Text for this article was provided by Beyond the Horizon ISSG]