Building Bridges
ABOUT
BUILDING
BRIDGES
Since SCI’s beginning, working on migration topics and the inclusion of refugees is an integral part of the movement seeking for a peaceful society. Many SCI branches and partners have achieved strong, wide and long-term expertise in the implementation of international and local high quality voluntary projects and activities in the field.
Hence, the SCI movement acknowledges the need of continuing to promote peace, to raise awareness and to stimulate reflection about the migration situation in general and specifically forced migration, especially in the times where promoting peace, understanding and integration between newcomers and locals is increasingly becoming challenging.
The current Building Bridges programme serves to inspire and to support everyone willing to organise projects and activities with and for refugees and asylum seekers as well as raising awareness on the topic of forced migration.
Therefore, Building Bridges provides guidance on their development and on how to join the programme, by sharing the throughout the years collected experiences and know-how. On this page you find valuable information on the different possibilities to participate in Building Bridges. Get inspired and check out how to get involved!
ACTIVITIES
Depending on the activity you would like to organise, there are different approaches to make them happen. Get inspired from the different activities and projects that have been organised on the topic of refugees and asylum seekers in the past, learn how to implement your own ideas and start building bridges.
TOOLKIT
What it is
The aim of the Toolkit is to share and transfer know-how on voluntary projects involving asylum seekers and refugees as well as raising awareness on forced migration in general. The Toolkit is a compilation throughout the years of practical guidelines, methods and case studies to use before, during and after the implementation of your own projects with the target group.
How to start
If you are looking for case studies as inspiration and you need to develop own ideas from scratch you can check out the Building Bridges Toolkit, where you can find a huge amount of useful information for the different phases of your project.
How to contribute: upload and share
After ending your project, you are invited to share your experience, observations, tips and tricks, pictures etc. by uploading for instance a method or a case study to the Building Bridges Toolkit. It is important to keep the information up-to date as migration issues and the work with refugees and asylum seekers is constantly developing.Â
WORKCAMPS
What it is
SCI organises short term voluntary projects (2-3 weeks), commonly known as workcamps. The Building Bridges workcamps aim to react in the most pragmatic, realistic and powerful modality of our movement to the actual worldwide migration issues. They are organised by SCI branches and partner organisations, who cooperate with local communities. A workcamp is a unique form of volunteering, bringing together people from different countries, cultures and backgrounds to live and work together with the local target group. During the Building Bridges workcamp the volunteers learn about forced migration and do activities with refugees and asylum seekers.
How to label
If you want to learn how to implement a Building Bridges workcamp focusing on the topic of forced migration, planning activities with refugees and asylum seekers or integrating refugees in any other workcamp, you can find the labeling guidelines to facilitate the organisation here.
Future and past Building Bridges workcamps
Check out the different future or past Building Bridges workcamp formats that are and have been implemented by our Branches and partners on our Online Placement System database here, by filtering your search.
SEMINARS AND TRAININGS
What it is
Seminars and trainings serve as education on the topic of forced migration, as experience and skills sharing from the work with asylum seekers and those seeking refuge, as well as opportunity to create a common understanding of the migration situation in order to improve further projects.
How to organise
If you want to learn how to organise seminars or trainings on migration issues, you can find different guidelines, methods and ressources to be used in the Building Bridges Toolkit.
Archive
SCI has been organising several educational opportunities on working with asylum seekers and refugees during the Building Bridges campaign, that aimed to raise awareness and stimulate reflection about the crisis situation and forced migration in general. If you want to have a look at past seminars and trainings, you find them here.
REFUGEE FUND
What it is
The Refugee Microgrants provides micro-funds to SCI Branches and official working groups to enable volunteers to carry out projects and activities at the local, national or international level that support work with refugees and asylum seekers, lowering barriers to connect with locals and promoting mutual understanding.
How to donate
You can donate to the fund in order to allow projects with and for refugees to be supported! See all info here.
Past projects supported by the Refugee Fund
Have a look at the report of the Refugee Fund Microgrants here.
BUILDING BRIDGES
PROJECTS
Here are both of SCI’s international projects that have been implemented under the Building Bridges campaign, in order to raise awareness about the situation of the influx of asylum seekers and refugees to Europe. They were organised by the Building Bridges working group, the participating branches and volunteers in collaboration with the International Secretariat of SCI. As part of the Annual Work Plans they were supported by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe.
