Skills to Maximise Inclusion through Interpretation and Mediation (SMIIM)
Skills to Maximize Inclusion through Interpretation and Mediation was a KA2 Strategic Partnership for Vocational Education and Training co-funded by Erasmus+. The project was led by Dacorum CVS (UK) and brings together partners from Bulgaria (Runi Center), Germany (Iberika), Greece (Active Citizens Partnership), Italy (CSC Danilo Dolci) and Sweden (SwIdeas).
Central to all initiatives to create community cohesion and harmony is the role of the interpreter and cultural mediator, who form an important role in bridging the divide between the public sector, civil society and the individual migrant and refugee. SMIIM aimed to help reduce the social barriers and economic obstacles faced by immigrants or refugees through providing interpreters and cultural mediators with improved training so that they are better placed to reduce communication barriers and draw public services and citizens closer together.
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Over a period of two years (2017-2019), SwIdeas was part of a partnership led by Community Action Dacorum in the UK, involving NGOs and other non-profit organisations in six European countries, to produce training materials to support interpreters who find themselves at the forefront of problems involving social isolation among migrants.
The project will improve training provision for learners in the field of Interpreting and Cultural Mediation. It will start with in depth research and will be followed by the creation of a web portal with training materials, videos and a speech repository to enable learners to practice their speech and pronunciation with their peer learners. A manual and two training activities will complement the portal, and a badge system will be created to recognise learner achievement.
Lastly, the sustainability and legacy of the project is a priority, and forward planning will ensure that communication and dissemination plans create awareness of the project and the materials available.
The project is a KA2 Strategic Partnership for Vocational Education and Training co-funded by Erasmus+
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There are 23 official languages, 60 dialects and many other languages spoken by migrants and asylum seekers in Europe. This diversity brings a cultural richness but at the same time potential barriers for speakers who are not fluent in the language of the country where they are living.
In the absence of fluency, it is important that there is support and assistance to access public services and achieve a sense of being settled in the local community. With recent migration patterns, there is an increased need for services such as interpreting, translation and community mediation to address the needs of those experiencing a language gap. This project is therefore designed to help reduce the social barriers and economic obstacles faced by immigrants or refugees. Providing intrepreters and cultural mediators with improved training means they are better placed to reduce communication barriers and draw public services and citizens closer together.
