Welcomed by the sound of crickets and the early summer heat, the teams met again at the end of June 2018 in Ferrara, Italy. The aim of this meeting was to collect key elements from the interviews of the qualitative research phase. But also to bring together the research results of the quantitative and qualitative research phase and come to conclusions in order to continue to our next work, namely the game development phase.
CIDAS hosted the partners and arranged an interesting tour around the quarter of the “skyscraper”, a significant area in Ferrara where a lot of migrants hang about. There have been issues with drug dealing and strong police control, but there is little support and understanding of the problems these migrants face. CIDAS has set up several projects in the neighborhood to fight the problems and offer services in education, intercultural dialogue, and social inclusion. A team of intercultural mediators visited the group and shared their experiences.
Another visit was paid by a team of the Vesta project, an initiative that connects young adults under (inter)national or subsidiary protection to a host family in Ferrara and Bologna. The youngsters stay with their families for a period of 6-9 months. The host families are trained before they host the youngsters and the youngsters get support to find a job and a house. It has shown as a very effective and personalized way to help these youngsters find their way in Italian society.
The meeting was concluded with a preview on the next working phase. In order to maintain a European perspective and to include everyone in the working process, the decision was made to create a more intense common working phase in the coming months. There will be three extra meetings in Berlin in which there will be a deeper knowledge exchange and the foundations of the game will be developed.