Evaluation of the project INside AUT promoting the autonomy of persons holding international protection

Title INside AUT – Individual socio-economic integration plans for the autonomy of holders of international protection

Location Tuscany

Duration June 2020 – October 2022

Partners  CO&SO Gruppo cooperativo, Polo Universitario Città di Prato, Fondazione Solidarietà Caritas onlus, Cooperativa sociale Pane e rose onlus, Fondazione Casa Lucca, Cooperativa sociale Gli Altri, Oxfam Italia

Funding Asylum Migration Integration Fund (AMIF)

 

Context

The INside AUT project aims at promoting the autonomy of persons holding international protection in Tuscany, who have been out of the national integrated reception system for no more than 18 months. The project fostered the creation of individual socio-economic integration programmes and a system of coordinated and complementary interventions to strengthen and develop social inclusion of the persons holding of international protection.

On the basis of the needs and characteristics of the recipients, new interventions were activated in three key areas:

  • Job placement: Research and update of training and work opportunities towards which to direct beneficiaries, with the activation of interventions in the fields of: facilitation to attend funded courses, facilitation to access new employment opportunities, integration of work measures;
  • Housing autonomy: Individual theoretical and practical training on the active search to answer to housing needs, accompanied by the possibility of activating support for: forms of co-housing, mediation with landlords or real estate agencies, forms of economic granting to favour the stipulation of contracts, provision of economic contributions for the payment of utilities, monthly payments or furniture
  • Socio-cultural insertion: Interventions aimed to target persons with greater fragility (women, psychological vulnerability, marginality, etc.), with actions of: orientation and accompaniment to local services, social animation and socialisation activities, workshops to consolidate knowledge of the Italian language (micro-language)

The project Inside AUT has been funded by the  Asylum Migration Integration AMIF Fund under the specific objective “Realisation of individual paths to socio-economic autonomy for holders of international protection”.

 

General Objective

The project INside AUT has been implemented at a regional project in the provinces of Florence, Lucca, Pistoia and Prato by a partnership with a deep knowledge of the Tuscan reception system. ARCO was involved as project partner to carry out the mid-term and final evaluation.

 

Our contribution

 To assess the effectiveness of the individual programmes, ARCO Researchers carried out data collection using mixed methods, carried out participatory activities with the holders of international protection involved in the project and with the project partners’ contact persons and operators. Researchers also created specific data collection forms to collect more detailed information on the persons reported to the project and the beneficiaries of the autonomy programems.

The mid-term evaluation took place during 2021 while the final evaluation was completed in October 2022. Between the two evaluations, Researchers provided continuous support for the monitoring of activities and indicators.

Read more on our M&E and Impact Evaluation Unit