Digital Welcome

Digital Welcome grew out of the ALL DIGITAL (then Telecentre-Europe) network, whose idea for a 'WELCOME' IT-courses programme for migrants and refugees was born at the 2016 Telecentre Europe General Assembly in Amsterdam, against the backdrop of over 1 million EU asylum applications in 2015 and the increasing need to support the integration of highly diverse immigrant youth.

To exchange best practices between organisations specialised in digital inclusion of disadvantaged groups and, from that exchange, develop and pilot a methodology for the social inclusion of third-country nationals through educational, social, cultural, volunteering and digital-creation activities, equipping young refugees and migrants with digital, pedagogical and soft skills.

A 60-hour training programme with four modules (introduction to coding, digital storytelling, digital journalism, and soft skills and communication) was delivered to young refugees and asylum seekers; participants also learned to animate workshops on those topics and then ran their own IT workshops for local people or other refugees.

Over the project's two years, 9 training actions were carried out in 5 different countries, with 12 trainers training 120 young third-country nationals; more than 20 workshops were animated by the young participants themselves, and in total more than 720 hours of training were delivered.

The final programme and other project outputs were disseminated to key stakeholders to stimulate adoption of the methodology and raise awareness of the need for practices inclusive of third-country nationals.