CONSOLIDATE (2024-2027)

Led by Eurocities, CONSOLIDATE aims to set up Communities of Practices that take the stock of the most efficient tools and transferable best practices; and accompany, through financial and technical support, 12 local authorities in designing innovative policy pilots for more effective support in the following areas:

Effective labour market integration for refugees and other newcomers.
Local support instruments for refugees towards housing autonomy.
One-Stop shops as an accessible and efficient model for coordinated services provision.

Furthermore, CONSOLIDATE provides training to partners and external cities and identifies best practices in responding to the cross-cutting challenges of:

Collecting and sharing client data in integration support.
Developing women-centred approaches to integration.
Managing the transition from emergency to a strategic approach to integration.

CONSOLIDATE aims to:

Support the development and implementation of new and more effective local integration strategies.
Identify and disseminate best practices and key knowledge to improve local integration policies.
Improve transnational engagement and cooperation between integration stakeholders.
Increase engagement of migrants and their organisations at the national level.

METHODOLOGY

THREE COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

Refining the transnational learning method used in three previous AMIF-funded projects, CONSOLIDATE draws on thematic communities of practice (COP) as the main space for structuring transnational peer learning between cities. Three such COPs are in place to address challenges in:

housing
employment
setting up one-stop shops

The COPs accompany member cities in conducting needs analysis, followed by the planning and implementation of an innovative pilot action or service. Peers conduct thematic benchmarking in the three areas, providing guidance to assess the local status quo in each of the 12 cities and informing the pilot actions in each city.

TRANSNATIONAL PEER SUPPORT

CONSOLIDATE has a strong element of reaching out to cities outside the project. This happens concretely through the Integration Champions providing support to 2 less experienced cities outside the project; in opening the training on cross-cutting challenges to external audiences; and in the project’s outputs.

The project will continue the efforts of Eurocities and its partners to develop insightful and evidence-based guidance on how to do better and more effective integration policies in a concise, “practitioner-friendly” format. This is reflected in the How-to-Guides, research and policy briefs, master classes and best practice cases developed for the project.