Co-creation session Almere

On October 5, several experienced stakeholders from Almere came together to shape guide routes for Ukrainian Almereans. We worked with insights from this spring's Expert Pool and frameworks from the municipality.

Session and pillars

The co-creation session proceeded based on 3 pillars: Work, Language and Social Connections. There were 17 participants from the following organizations:

• Municipality of Almere
• Refugee Council
• Welcome app
• The New Library
• The Chimney
• Language school IVIO
• Language school NL Training

Results and insights

Several important points emerged.

A welcome meeting where the social map of Almere is presented in an accessible, language- and culture-sensitive manner. The welcome meetings are intended for a broad group of Almere newcomers and are designed to meet the different needs within the group of newcomers in Almere. After the welcome meeting, newcomers can access follow-up offerings on their own initiative.

Language class

Language classes are offered not only as language classes in themselves, but connected to the other pillars, work and social connections, with language being the foundation. An example is a session of language classes designed to work toward a networking event, where newcomers connect with potential employers.

Work

The offer around work can fit well with what already exists in Almere, such as for example components from the MAP, training culture-sensitive working, job coaching, and employment mediators. Knowledge is thus kept in-house by the municipality of Almere.
Offerings around work are differentiated around different groups of Ukrainian newcomers.

Social connections

There are already many initiatives in Almere that facilitate social connections in various ways between all Almereans, but the threshold for Ukrainians to participate in these activities needs to be lowered. For example, by having an ambassador who speaks the Ukrainian language. In addition, cooperation between parties should be strengthened: it should be clear which party can take up what, but also which party facilitates which offerings. De Schoor has suggested regular meetings to improve and maintain these collaborations.