ECO-IN contributes to social innovation for the inclusion of refugees

A face-to-face meeting was held in the town of Aguilar de Segarra, one of the 20 Micro Towns (Micro Pobles) of Catalonia that will host refugee families from September 2021, in a plan organized by Micro Pobles with the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

The meeting held this June 14 allowed to talk about the criteria on which the towns will be selected to qualify for the subsidies and criteria to determine which would be the most suitable people (profiles of people and families) that could be welcomed in the context social of each town according to its particularities.

The meeting was attended by Mario Urrea, president of the Micro Pobles de Catalunya association; Xavi Camps Vice-president of Acció Social; Montserrat Isern i Vivancos, Councilor of Aguilar de la Segarra; Jordi Virgili and Elisenda Estany from the Department of the Secretary of Equality, Migration and Citizenship of the Generalitat de Catalunya, the journalist expert on refugees Joaquim Vila; Oriol Amorós Technician of the Mentoring program of the Generalitat and Robert Roche of the ECO-IN Project

The meeting addressed, among other aspects, the contribution that the ECO-IN project can give from the Trust Centers for the incorporation of prosociality and holistic inclusion to the current Mentoring program for the reception of refugee people and families.

Robert Roche from ECO-IN presented the guidelines linked to the attitudes and motivations of people and groups that could participate in this program, presenting Prosociality as a theoretical and applicative model that through the Prosocial Trust Center can generate genuine motivation in the receiving and host population, promote a model of relationship between the host recipients, as well as on the part of the actors involved to avoid care or paternalistic experiences, but rather promote relations of equality.

The objective is to generate synergies between the ECO-IN trust centers with this host program to work on awareness and training for those interested who want self-training and, based on the experience of the trust center, generate more creativity and cooperation, new ideas or opportunities for holistic inclusion in these micro towns