Since 2015, more than 1.5 million Third-Country Nationals aged 18-35 have entered the European Union and have made the region their permanent home – about 46% of this group is women. 

Momentum of Cooperation is an initiative focused on reducing barriers faced by migrant and refugee women undergoing the process of socio-economic integration. By taking a multi-stakeholder and whole-of-government approach, the programme aims to build a more inclusive, accessible, and equal society for all.

Momentum is a 24-months programme, implemented from January 2022 to December 2023, and funded by the European Union’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). In partnership with local stakeholders in five EU countries, the programme is taking place in Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Hungary.

The programme’s full name, “Breaking silos, promoting young TCN women’s access to targeted vocational training and labour market opportunities through social economy – MOMENTUM of Cooperation” gives a direct overview of the main goals of this ambitious initiative.

Momentum brings together diverse stakeholders such as Civil Society Organizations, Public Employment Services, Vocational Trainer Providers, and actors from the social economy and social entrepreneurial sector to design innovative and impactful ways to support refugee and migrant women to access vocational training opportunities and job market in their hosting countries.

Led by Euricse, one of the project’s first key steps was to identify the barriers young refugee and migrant women face when accessing vocational training and the labour market. We conducted in-depth research, explored collaboration among key stakeholders, and  successfully published a Research Findings Report. Data was collected in the five project partner countries: Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Hungary. 

These findings inform future project activities involving stakeholders in each country to develop and test a collaborative framework. The collaboration framework is a document that frames and defines the collaboration among the different stakeholders that can facilitate and improve access to training opportunities and the job market for migrant women. 

Participating stakeholders come from the project’s main target groups, such as Vocational Training Providers, organizations and associations working with migrants and refugees, Public Employment Services, and Social Economy and Social Entrepreneurship actors.

In fact, between October and January 2023, a series of multi-stakeholders activities will occur in the five program countries.

• An info session to introduce to a broad audience of interested and relevant actors the immediate and long-term goals of the project
• 5 Participatory Labs where diverse key actors will finalize the Integrated Collaboration Framework based on a draft provided by the project’s partners. The participating actors will act together to mitigate and solve the barriers and obstacles that third-country nationals women face in the five countries of the project.

The main objective of these actions is to provide a multi-stakeholder frame of collaboration and input to develop and pilot to be launched in spring 2023. This includes a tailored Vocational Training program that will offer a unique and impactful experience to the beneficiary TCN women aged 18 to 35.

“Now MOMENTUM goes really into action,” says the Project Coordinator “inviting stakeholders to draw the paths of collaboration adapted to each national context, but also transferable to other European countries. The added value of the collaboration framework.”

To learn more about the project and to access the contact of the Project Coordinators in different countries, please visit momentumproject.eu

Contact Person: Marina Sarli | [email protected]