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ALFIRK – Collaborative Networks for Migrant Parent Empowerment
Start date: Sep 1, 2015, End date: Aug 31, 2018 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The SIRIUS European Policy Network on the education of children and young people with a migrant background proposes a strategic partnership between seven countries. This project aims to address the high occurrence of early school leaving (ESL) among migrant youth in European school systems by empowering migrant parents through the sharing of practice and transfer of knowledge. Specifically, this project seeks to address the many barriers to increased empowerment of migrant parents by establishing local migrant parent empowerment networks in five countries. These networks will work to empower migrant parents by involving them in the decision-making process, collaborating with a wide variety of stakeholders and facilitating local and international exchange of practices. The main short/medium term objectives of ALFIRK are to: (1) develop cross-sector, impactful, and sustainable migrant parent empowerment networks in the participating countries and (2) lay the groundwork for the development of future networks in non-participating countries. The main long-term objectives of this project are to: (1) facilitate the expansion of and continued existence of established networks in the participating countries and (2) lead to the development of networks in non-participating countries. The seven partners participating in this project are part of the SIRIUS Network, and have been working jointly for several years now. This group of partners joined together for this project because of their expertise in the field of migrant education and their interest in and commitment to contributing to ALFIRK. Our aim to represent the diversity of European school systems with regard to history of educating migrant students in this project also informed the composition of the partnership. Thus, this project includes partners representing countries in an early stage of the reception of migrants into their education systems, countries that have been experiencing large influxes recently, and countries that have been receiving migrants for several decades. ALFIRK will include three main phases: knowledge gathering, network development and dissemination. During the knowledge-gathering phase we will produce two major intellectual outputs, create an important project management document, and hold the first transnational meeting of partners where these outputs will be shared and discussed. In the network development phase, we will use the knowledge gathered to help establish migrant parent empowerment networks in five of the participating countries. This phase will include cross-sector conference of stakeholders committed to empowering migrant parents in the five countries, a second transnational meeting where all partners will finalize plans for ensuring the sustainability of the networks in each country, and a cross-sector training workshop in each of the five network development countries. In the dissemination phase, we will conduct an impact evaluation, finalize the comparative toolkit on migrant parent empowerment network development and develop an online collaborative platform. During this phase the partners will disseminate all project outputs at the local, regional, national and international level. In terms of short- and medium-term impacts of ALFIRK, we expect: - migrant parents to become more engaged in their children’s education and to feel more able to manage day-to-day family situations, to work with the school system and to advocate for improved educational services for migrant youth in general. - increased and improved cooperation between schools, parent associations, NGOs and local authorities at the local, regional, national, and international level. - increased awareness of the importance of a collaborative approach to migrant parent empowerment at the local, regional, national, and international level. With regard to longer-term impacts, we expect the project to lead to: - the development of migrant parent empowerment networks in non-participating countries - decreased ESL among migrant youth throughout the EU due to the strengthened parent empowerment and cooperation between stakeholders.

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