Our Approach
We understand each person’s circumstances
before identifying the right support. We speak with people individually and assess the connections between their legal status, housing, income, health and family responsibilities. We tailor the combination of services to each person’s and family’s needs.
We set priorities
using vulnerability criteria. Our assessment tools consider household composition, financial resources, access to services and additional challenges. These criteria help us direct the available assistance towards those who need it most.
We coordinate support
around the person and their family. Through case management, we bring together social, legal, educational and psychosocial support. For example, helping a parent find work may require coordination with children’s activities, language learning and assistance with paperwork.
We work on the ground
and offer several ways to access support. We work in reception and immigration detention centres, at borders and in communities, including through mobile teams where appropriate. We complement face-to-face meetings with telephone support and online channels.
We adapt our communication
to the languages people speak and the ways they access information. We draw on multilingual colleagues, interpreting and intercultural mediation to make information and procedures easier to understand. We use communities’ own communication channels and take account of the difficulties faced by people with limited access to technology.
We involve refugees and migrants
in delivering our activities. We work alongside teachers, mediators, mentors and volunteers from the communities we support. Their professional experience, language skills and understanding of people’s circumstances contribute directly to how we organise and provide support.
We offer practical guidance
when dealing with institutions and services. We help prepare documents, explain administrative steps and facilitate communication with schools, landlords and service providers. When necessary, we accompany people through these processes.
We connect people
with support available through other organisations and institutions. We work with specialist services and refer people to them when their needs extend beyond the support we can provide. Through local coordination and information sharing, we identify the available options.
We match the level of support
to the complexity of people’s needs. In our psychosocial work, we combine community and group activities with individual support and specialist interventions. We choose the appropriate form of assistance according to each person’s circumstances and the difficulties they face.
We adjust our work
when people’s circumstances or the wider context change. We adapt support as crises evolve, public programmes change and new needs emerge. We connect our emergency response with the practical steps needed for the next stages.
We use participants’ feedback
to improve how we organise our work. We listen to their suggestions and the difficulties they raise, and use these to improve our activities. For example, we have introduced appointment slots to reduce queues and included speech and language therapy at the request of parents and teachers.
We reassess needs
and review the outcomes of our work. We use questionnaires, interviews, focus groups and external evaluations to complement our team’s observations. We examine what works, which difficulties persist and what needs adjusting in our programmes.
We develop the skills
of those who work directly with people. We organise and facilitate training for staff, teachers and volunteers, including in protection and psychological first aid. In our psychosocial work, we also use professional supervision and opportunities for practitioners to share their experience.
For refugees and migrants, change often shows in everyday things: a conversation without an interpreter, someone arranging a doctor’s appointment, a child making friends at school or a parent organising their day around work and family. For some, these things become possible quickly. For others, health problems, caring responsibilities or past experiences make these steps more difficult. Everyone moves at their own pace and has their own plans. The support they need changes as their life evolves.
