SMART Volunteering_Learner Pack- Business Organisations

4 The Project: SMART Volunteering olunteering as an integration method has been proven to be highly beneficial to any participant and the receiving society. However, there is a lack of knowledge and data about migrant volunteering in European countries. As a multi-agency cooperation project, SMART Volunteering aims to fill this gap by exploring understanding of volunteering among migrant women and the crucial roles of civil society organizations and business actors in creating the conditions conducive to social integration. The research has been working on broadening the traditional concept of volunteering by highlighting its more strategic aspects. SMART Volunteering for Female Migrants is a cooperation project between civil society, business community and migrant women in five European states, designed to promote better integration and active participation of Third Country National (TCN) females in socio-economic life of European societies. Based on the empirical evidence of the barriers to integration faced by migrant women, the project builds on the innovative practices and tools developed in the business, promotion and civil advocacy sectors adjusting them to the grass root needs of TCN females, with an aim to create a structured corridor for up-scaling and transfer of migrant women’s skills between the two sectors. SMART uses highly successful certified methods of Circles TM, narrative empowerment and digital advocacy, fine-tuned for the profiles of female migrants, NGOs and business professionals, to help the three target groups co-create a constructive space within which TCN women are able to explore their motivations, potentials and skills, aimed at increasing SMART socio-economic outcomes for themselves and the communities in which they live. SMART project is an inclusive inter-sectoral model that considers the existing gap between labour and social integration, offering a fresh method of increasing socio-economic participation found in one of the fastest growing sectors of EU – social economy –where business and civil society meet. By bridging the two integration areas it aims to address the problem of TCN female’s under-employment, considering the empirical evidence of their high rates of over-qualifications in Europe. It does so through a thorough assessment of needs, creating a multi-agency knowledge framework, fostering structured dialogue between the target groups and delivering a comprehensive set of practical, goal-oriented exercises in group, one-to-one and digital form. It includes the training of trainers among NGOs and businesses, the capacity-building techniques V