Meet the team
The partnership comprises of 6 partners from 4 European countries with different backgrounds and skills: universities, municipalities, NGOs, and educational centres. Several partners have already collaborated in previous projects. In each of the places of intervention foreseen by the project, the partners guarantee efficient territorial networks capable of involving schools, migrants and local authorities, stakeholders, and other key actors that can positively influence migrants’ inclusion in the school and social settings. Although coming from different sectors, the partners share a common motivation to increase awareness of the importance of inclusion and inclusion of migrants, and the role of schools and local communities to achieve this.
Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU) in Turku and Vaasa, Finland is an internationally acknowledged research university with an extensive responsibility for preserving the Swedish educational and cultural heritage as the only Swedish-speaking multidisciplinary university in Finland. Due to the Swedish language and the university’s location on the South-West and West coast, ÅAU also serves as a bridge for collaboration in research and education between Finland and other Nordic states. Åbo Akademi University, is a leading University in Finland, spear-heading education and research in the field of Minority research and health and well-being. With the choice of minority studies as a strategic research profile Åbo Akademi University endeavours to be an active research agent within Europe as the emergence of multicultural and multilingual societies puts pressure on individual European nations to find new mechanisms to addressing societal, ethical, legal and educational issues that embrace and include a multitude of different communities. They are the coordinators of this project.
Contact person: Emmanuel Acquah, Associate Professor and Project Leader – emmanuel.acquah@abo.fi
Contact person: Anette Bengs, Project Coordinator – anette.bengs@abo.fi
The City of Närpes is a rural municipality in Ostrobothina, Finland, and is thus responsible for primary and secondary education, integration services, while the regional organization Österbottens välfärdsområde caters for social- and healthcare services.
Närpes is a valuable addition to this project, since the municipality has more than 30 years of experience of integrating refugees and work-related immigrants in a rural environment, where a minority language is the de-facto majority language in community and education. Unemployment is among the lowest in Finland with numerous work opportunities also for people who do not speak any of the national languages. However, this also creates challenges regarding linguistic and cultural integration and brings new demands in relation to linguistically and culturally sensitive education. The town has considerable hands-on experience of integration processes, but also experiences unsolved challenges.
Contact person: Åsa Snickars, Project Manager – asa.snickars@narpes.fi
CARDET is the leading research and development centre in the Mediterranean region with global expertise in school education, social inclusion, digital skills, and capacity building. As the largest independent non-profit centre based in Cyprus, CARDET is independently affiliated with universities and institutions from around the world, such as the Yale University, the University of Nicosia and the International Council of Educational Media. Our team, in partnership with EAEA, has recently developed the lifelong learning strategy 2021-2027 for Cyprus, engaging several ministries, government agencies, social partners, and public and private stakeholders.The CARDET team has implemented projects in more than 45 countries, several of which were supported by the European Commission, the United Nations Development Program, Microsoft, Google, international agencies and governments around the world. One of our core strengths is our ability to carefully plan, implement, execute and evaluate projects in various contexts. The management team is supported by 10 members of the board and advisory board, who are all international veterans in education, business, research, and evaluation. CARDET currently employees more than 50 full-time and part time staff and collaborates with 100s of dedicated volunteers. The majority of the team members hold graduate degrees (Masters and/or PhD) in areas of education, research methodology, social sciences, business, instructional design, web development, and evaluation.
Contact person: Michaela Protopapa, Project Manager – michaela.protopapa@cardet.org
The Rightchallenge Association is a non-governmental organisation which aims at the promotion of vocational education and training as a means of social inclusion and equal opportunities. We believe that education must focus in the integral development of all people – independently of social status, age, or gender – in order to prepare them to intervene and participate in all dimensions of society, such as family, work, community and leisure. So, as an organisation actively engaged with the community, one of our pillars is lifelong learning, because we have the conviction that it’s essential to sustainable development, as it promotes active, democratic and responsible citizenship among citizens. Rightchallenge activities are aimed to ensure quality and access to non-formal education and to overcome the deficits in access to lifelong learning in Portugal, while promoting the valorisation of human capital and generating value in organisations by providing integrated training services. Rightchallenge recognises that non-formal education and lifelong are extremely important to develop social, emotional and cognitive competences, while promoting the individuals’ personal fulfilment and well-being. As an organisation who strives for the holistic development, we promote and develop positive transformations in society and facilitate the access of learning opportunities for citizens who face educational attainment obstacles. Our specialists have a wide range of expertise in vocational education and training, educational policies and networking activities in the field of non-formal education. We create resources and curriculum (both in online and face-to-face environments) to support adult educators and other VET providers to address the needs of their target-groups.
Contact person: Sofia Salgado, Project Manager – sofia@rightchallenge.org
KMOP – Social Action and Innovation Centre, established in 1977, is one of the oldest civil society organisations in Greece offering social support services and implementing various programs aimed at empowering and enhancing the well-being of individuals and communities. KMOP established KMOP Education & Innovation Hub, with the aim to create a knowledge hub that offers access to a wide range of educational programmes, resources and trainings, capitalizing on the knowledge that the organization has gained from its extensive work in the field. Our training programmes enable individuals and teams to navigate their social ecosystem towards achieving their goals, and contribute to a more inclusive and sustainable future. So far, these programs have impacted the lives of more than 17,500 individuals, providing them with the tools and skills they need to succeed in all aspects of life. Find out more: https://education-hub.kmop.org/about-us/
Contact person: Afroditi Azari, Project Manager – inclusivehubs-project@kmop.org
The IoD is an organization established 2003 with a vision to contribute to the improvement of the society’s quality of life through the continuous development of the individual, the family, and the human resources of business and educational organizations. The Institute promotes resilience, sense of wellbeing, mindfulness, mental health, and a positive outlook to life, the boost of creative skills, increasing performance, resilience to stress and experience of happiness. It has considerable know-how and expertise in the design and offering of training opportunities on the fields of teacher empowerment and wellbeing, self‐awareness, self-esteem, emotional intelligence, stress management, cooperative learning, values and creative thinking, life and employability skills, positive psychology applications and career guidance.
Contact person: Andri Agathokleous, Project Manager – info@iodevelopment.eu
Project Number 2022-1-FI01-KA220-SCH-000086160
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.