BREAKING Project holds its first co-creation event

On Friday 19 April, the BREAKING R&D Project, funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation together with the European Union (ERDF) and the State Research Agency, held its first online co-creation event with professionals working directly with migrants and refugees. The project is aimed at breaking the vicious circle of hostility between the host society and migrants, aims to generate practical tools and proposals for professionals and will also develop policy recommendations aimed at breaking this circle.

The event was attended by professionals from a variety of backgrounds working in different fields, including reception, counselling or specialised care for migrants, health, education, social and public administration.

The aim of the event was to explore the main challenges faced by these professionals in their work with migrant populations, and to identify proposals for improvement. All of this was carried out through a co-creation methodology in which the protagonists were the professionals themselves. This way of working tries to put at the centre the experience and knowledge of the professionals based on their professional practice, as no one knows better than them where the challenges and difficulties lie.

To carry out this work, the professionals were divided into small multi-disciplinary groups that allowed for different views on the same challenge. Each group was assigned one of the six main challenges identified through the survey of professionals. These challenges were: 1) Social emergencies arising from administrative status; 2) Legal and administrative issues; 3) Job and/or economic insecurity; 4) Language/communication barriers and/or cultural differences; 5) Lack of resources for care or follow-up; lack of access and/or referral to other services; and 6) Impact of the migration process on mental health.

A report with the conclusions reached during the event will be shared soon.

Stay tuned!