MiFriendly Cities – Migration Friendly Cities Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton 2017/18-2020/21 Summary In partnership with Coventry City and Wolverhampton City Councils, Birmingham City Council has been successful in securing EU funding to deliver a three year MiFriendly Cities project. The project, which is backed by West Midlands Combined Authority, will see the three Councils working together to develop new and innovative activity which can help integrate economic migrants, refugees and asylum seekers into the West Midlands. This approach provides an opportunity for Birmingham City Council to explore how it can work with partners and migrants in a way which can help to expand the current range of activity, which mostly focuses on addressing the basic needs and legal rights of migrants. As part of this approach there is a particular focus on changing attitudes to migrants, developing employment pathways, social enterprise and active citizenship. Coventry City Council will be managing the whole project but Birmingham City Council will be required to project manage and coordinate activity which specifically relates to Birmingham, across all the different work packages and activities. Birmingham has also been asked to lead the regional work on “Active Citizenship”. Introduction Following a competitive bidding process “MiFriendly Cities” was chosen by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as one of three projects across Europe which they would like to support. This was from two hundred proposals which were submitted. To support the delivery of the MiFriendly Cities project the EU is providing €4,280,640 over three years to Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton City Councils. This is irrespective of the Brexit process and the UK leaving the EU in 2019. In the proposal a MiFriendly City is described as one in which: “the contribution of refugees and migrants to the city’s civic, economic and social fabric is facilitated and recognised, refugees and migrants are empowered to access their rights and feel fully-fledged citizens, hostility and prejudice towards refugees and migrants is minimised and solidarity between migrant and non- migrant groups is built upon.” To deliver these aims and objectives the project contains several “work packages”, which will be developed and led by voluntary sector partners involved in the project. Alongside Coventry and Wolverhampton City Councils, Birmingham City Council will have a place based lead role for the project. The work packages relating to delivery of activity in Birmingham, includes the following: • Communication – this is focused on the development of a communications approach which can help to influence attitudes towards migrants. Migrant and refugees will be trained around media and communication skills via media labs to become citizen journalists.One of the products of this work package will be a “How To” guide to developing migrant friendly cities. • Jobs – this consists of the delivery of weekly employment drop-in sessions at community venues in the most deprived parts of Birmingham (and Coventry). These will be available to all residents, not just migrants, for the purpose of informing people about how to enter specific careers (e.g. nursing) and provide support to enter training and education to access these careers. • Social enterprise and innovation – this consists of issuing small grants to migrants who are interested in and able to set up social enterprises. • Active citizenship – this is the largest of the work packages and includes several activities: o Health champions - training, delivery and support of community health champions, to help deliver public health messages o Share My Language Timebank – to encourage shared language learning through the sharing of language skills between individuals and groups o ESOL – additional resource to expand the current availability of ESOL classes o Community home makeovers – consisting of two elements, firstly training up migrants in painting and decorating and secondly applying those skills to the homes of vulnerable residents across Birmingham (Coventry and Wolverhampton). o Community repair cafes – which will provide the space to upcycle furniture which can be used for the community home makeovers. o Community Social Scientists -This will include training migrants and refugees who will support the monitoring and evaluation of the project-something unique to this project. It is proposed that the three year project will start in March 2018. Requirements on BCC and available resources Coventry City Council will be leading the consortium (11 partners which includes the three city councils, Coventry University (and its community interest company CU Social Enterprise), Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre (CRMC), Central England Law Centre (CELC), The Refugee and Migrant Centre Black Country and Birmingham) and will be providing the project management support and oversight for the whole project. As one of the key partners, Birmingham City Council will be expected to: • Participate in the project steering group • Project manage activity relating to Birmingham, including compiling financial and technical monitoring reports, contributing monitoring data to the evaluation, as well as the overall project risk register • Involve West Midlands Strategic Partnership as a part of the strategic engagement for this project • Brief and engage Birmingham stakeholders • Coordinate activity relating to Birmingham • Deliver some activity relating to Birmingham To support the project’s governance Birmingham City Council will also be expected to: • Identify representatives from the City including political membership to support the project’s steering group • Allocate one or more project managers to be part of the project coordination committee • Identify and nominate subject matter experts who can contribute to the development and delivery of the project’s work packages There is a partnership agreement being developed to define roles and responsibilities in the project, as well as allocate resources. This will need agreeing by February 2018. It is proposed that Birmingham City Council is provided with funding to support the project’s management, coordination and delivery. The budget can be used to cover staffing and support associated administrative costs. The funding Birmingham City Council receives will relate to what the exchange rate is at the time a claim is made by Coventry City Council for the project overall. Based on the current exchange rate of €1.12 per £1, this provides an estimated annual budget of approximately £105,000. However this may fluctuate, especially during 2019 when the UK leaves the EU which may need mitigating for. The majority of this budget needs to be spent on BCC staff costs and capacity to deliver the project in Birmingham. Proposed BCC approach In the first instance it is proposed that the project management capacity for supporting MiFriendly Cities sits within the Adult Social Care & Health Commissioning Team. This will complement the teams existing roles and responsibilities for the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme, Birmingham Migration Forum and Asylum Dispersal. Delivering the MiFriendly City project will require both an internal and external partnership approach to involve the right skills and expertise, but also to ensure that activity isn’t being duplicated elsewhere and there is added value wherever possible. The proposed approach to develop this is through: 1. An internal BCC group, including named lead officers for migration issues and the project manager for the Use-It ERDF project in West Birmingham. This will help to form a cross-Council approach which can also help to better coordinate the Council’s wider migration activity. 2. External discussions with voluntary, community and private sector stakeholders, as well as statutory agencies such as the NHS. This has already started through the Birmingham Migration Forum on 8 th December. This will help to brief key external stakeholders, collect ideas and interest to participate, as well as connect to other relevant (and funded activity). 3. Partnership coordination via the City of Sanctuary, which aligns well with the MiFriendly Cities aims and objectives. This will help to connect to other linked initiatives like Schools of Sanctuary, Libraries of Sanctuary and Universities of Sanctuary. Austin Rodriguez – BCC Adult Social Care & Health (15 th January 2018) .