Multiplier events
In all participating countries, two or more multiplier events were held – not always without challenges!
Here comes reports from each country:
DENMARK
Overall considerations:
In the project description, it was planned to have the first multiplier event after the first iteration of training courses. However, the partners decided to postpone the first multiplier event until the second training course have been held. This decision was made in order to have more results to present for the participants of the multiplier event.
Multiplier Event number 1.
The first multiplier event in Denmark was planned to be held 1st of November 2016. However, due to a very small number of registered participants (3) it was decided to postpone the event to 2017. The Danish partners had invited their colleagues at other schools and in other municipalities.
At the replacement day 20th of March 2017, the Danish partners did a great job to follow up on invitations and contacting all potential participants, but still we only got 7 signups and out of these, one participant cancelled his participation on the day.
It was planned that the project MultiCulturality in Care should be the only subject/topic on the agenda and that might have been too little for potential participants to be absent from work a whole day. It is difficult to attract people to seminars in Denmark - even though there is an interest in the topic and the lesson we learned, was that it probably wrong to plan the multiplier events as stand-alone-arrangements. Therefore, we did it differently with the next event
Multiplier Event number 2.
With the experiences from the first multiplier event as the starting point, we discussed how to involve more people in the second multiplier events and decided to combine the event with a workshop arranged by FOA on 21st of August 2017. Now we did not expect people to come to an event for only one subject, but for a series of subjects. We organized, in a corner of the conference room, a presentation of the videos, produced by our project participants, and the training material that had been developed 29 participants signed up after having seen and discussed the MultiCult material.
Multiplier Event number 3.
In order to disseminate our results even more, we decided to run a third multiplier event in connection with a FOA event, 11th of September. Although it took place after the project finalization, we want to report on the many interested people (84 persons) who watched our videos and were acquainted with our material.
Extra multiplier event
On 28th of August 2017, Aarhus Kommune, MSO organized a premier in Aarhus, where the videos and the reflection material for teams and leaders in caregiving were presented. This was at the same time a celebration of the employees, who had participated in the training and in the production of the videos. Their leaders and centrally placed consultants, representatives from unions were invited for the event, as was SOSU Østjylland representatives and external participants from SOSU-Randers and University of Aarhus. In total 45 persons participated.
GERMANY
We sent invitations for a 5.5-hour workshop "Successful Collaboration of Multicultural Teams" on 11.05.2017 to approximately 250 inpatient institutions and outpatient services, as well as elderly care information centers. Unfortunately, no one registered for this event. We suspect that there are two reasons for this:
1. The facilities suffer from a massive lack of staff and cannot dispense with any employees. In addition, there is also a great need for training in other areas for which the employees can also not be adequately released for reasons of time.
2. The mood of many people in Germany over issues such as integration and multiculturality has transformed itself from a largely positive welcome culture during the wave of refugees in 2015 into a disillusioned, tired and often negative attitude. The tenor is often: ”They should learn our language and adapt, then we get along."
Multiplier Event number 1.
After this experience, we conducted a workshop with practical instructors on 26.06.2017, as part of a further training course.
This target group is responsible for the practical guidance in the training of geriatric nurses and elderly care assistants. They are also responsible for the development of training concepts for trainees, new employees and internships, and they are involved in strategic work groups at their institutions.
This group is therefore also responsible for the training, support and support of new employees and trainees with an immigration background.
The aim of our event was to sensitize this target group to the relevance of the topic in addition to presenting our project work, to point out that colleagues and trainees with migration background often need a supporting accompaniment, to clarify the danger of misunderstandings and to develop common solutions. The prerequisites for this were the results of the trainings carried out in the project, and general facts about the development of a culture-sensitive attitude in the care institutions and services teams.
The planned contents of this event were:
- The presentation of our project
- Figures, data, facts on the situation and development of teams in care
- Introduction to the topic “culture”
- exercise simulating difficulties in communication within verbal work instructions
- Presentation of results from survey among our students on difficulties with oral and written examination situations (students with and without migration background)
- Presentation of work results from the trainings including a video produced by the participants of the 2nd interculutral training
- Developing examples of intercultural misunderstandings from working practice
- Group work on four different tasks to improve collaboration among the participants' teams
In this group, some of the participants argued that colleagues and trainees with an immigration background should learn the German language and join the team, then no futrther action is needed to find a good cooperation within the team.
The trainees also mentioned the lack of time they have for their main tasks, the guidance and accompaniment of trainees. Since in this group many participants did not see the need to deal with this topic, it was necessary to deviate from the original plan and to illuminate the situation of their colleagues with a migration background as well as cooperation in the teams more intense.
The experience reports and work results from the intercultural trainings were a very good basis to encourage a rethinking of the participants. The feedback showed that many of them had thought about their original attitude, and showed a willingness to respond more individually to the needs of colleagues with an migration background and their entire team.
Multiplier Event number 2.
The second multiplier event took place on 15.09.2017 with 8 participants. Here, the target group were prospective care managers and head of institutions. We were very pleased to be able to work with these participants as they hold positions in which they have the greatest influence in their facilities and services on team processes and on strategic decisions.
We succeeded in winning Barbara Heyken from the project " interkulturelle Öffnung " as co-trainer for this event. Ms. Heyken has many years of experience as an intercultural trainer and coach. She is also involved in various networks and committees that are concerned with the intercultural opening-up of society.
The planned contents of this event were:
- The presentation of our project
- Figures, data, facts on the situation and development of teams in care
- Introduction to culture
- Simulation exercise in which the participants can experience how different, unspoken views of work rules affect teamwork and individual team members.
- Presentation of work results from the trainings including a video produced by the participants of the 2nd interculutral training
- Elaborate the challenges and opportunities of intercultural teams in individual work and in groups. elaborating examples of intercultural misunderstandings from their experience.
- Group work: 1. to develop ideas for structural changes to improve intercultural teamwork and to increase the satisfaction and motivation of individual employees. 2. to determine their own role as a leader in this process.
- Simulation exercise in which the participants experience how different, unspoken behaviors in an everyday situation affect the reactions of the opponent and their own emotions.
- Pairwise work on an "intercultural self check" on their institution.
After the introductory sequences, the simulation made great impression on the participants. Individually different behaviors and emotional reactions could be clearly elucidated. They succeded in empathizing with employees who need to familiarize themselves with unknown team structures, rules and approaches to work as well as the situation of existing teams.
It was interesting that in this group, in the further course, the meta-level was considered more important. Working on examples for challenges and opportunities within intercultural teams the participants referred to economic aspects. They hardly came up with any examples from their practical work. A participant had experienced a very successful integration of a man from Bulgaria, who was very intensively accompanied by the colleagues and the management of the house. But she had also seen a very negative example in which nurses with little knowledge of German had been brought into the institution by the central management totally unprepared.
During group work there was then a fundamental and, to a large extent, political discussion. Approximately half of the participants felt that orientation to customer requirements and customer needs was the top priority when selecting employees.
Because they have customers who have a negative attitude towards people with a migration background, they argued these people could either not work for them or just under poor conditions.
In addition, the opinion was expressed that very good knowledge of German is an absolute prerequisite for recruitment, since the communication with the residents and customers in care must take place without restriction.
With regard to teamwork, they believed that German-speaking employees should always be preferred to people with an immigration background, since their colleagues would suffer from a great workload anyway and should not bear any additional problems in the cooperation. Three participants even went so far as to say that they would rather close the establishment or reject new customers before they had to deal with migrants who did not have a fluent command of the German language,
This attitude, which is partly comprehensible in terms of a good care for the elderly but which is also clearly hostile to foreigners, has partly already been experienced in our last intercultural team training and in the first multiplier event. This reflects the changed, increasingly rejecting mood of many Germans, which is also recognizable in the political landscape.
This shows, on the one hand, how hard it has become to win people to deal with these topics, but also how important it is to do it nevertheless!
ITALY:
As foreseen by the project, two multiplier events have been rune in Italy. Here follows a brief description.
Multiplier event number 1
11 november 2016, location ASP Martelli. (programme)
The title was: “Multiculturalità e assistenza alla persona. Buone prassi e proposte innovative per favorire l’integrazione”. (Multiculturality and care. Good Practice and innovative proposals to foster integration.
Giovani Valdarno and ASP Martelli during the month before the event, promoted the seminar to public authority of Florence and Arezzo’s districts, home care situated in neighboring municipalities, associations who are concerned with hospitality and integration.
We used: Social networks of both organizations (Facebook, twitter, Instagram), e-mail invitation, direct contacts with social assistants and leaders of public authority.
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/giovani.valdarnoscs/
Twitter https://twitter.com/GiovaniValdarno)
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/giovani_valdarno/?hl=it )
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/asplodovico.martelli
Web side http://www.aspmartelli.it
To discuss with us about proposals and integration models for foreign staff in assisted health care, we invited Dr. Letizia Materassi, sociologist of University of Florence, Dr Ottavia Meazzini :the alderman of social policies of Figline’s municipality , Sister Simona Cherici: the leader of a family home for women/mothers in difficulty, most of them foreign.
The event had a very good reply. Participants represented: public organizations (social workers), staff from home care of the neighboring, staff of cooperatives who manage residences assisted health care, people from a community ( Loppiano) where there is a University with young people from every part of the world. We had 40 participants.
Multiplier Event number 2.
28 June 2017, location Multiculturality center of Loppiano. (programme)
The title was: “Multiculturalità: un modello per favorire l’integrazione migliorando la qualità nei servizi di cura”. (Multiculturality: a model to support integration improving quality in care services)
In addition, Giovani Valdarno and Asp Martelli promoted this second event through e-mail invitation, direct contacts with social assistants and leaders of public authority, Social networks.
The seminar started with a speech of Daniele Raspini, ASP Martelli’s director who focused on the project, showing the course we have done and the results we have had, after him, we had the speech of Dr. Letizia Materassi and Dr. Alessandro Sorani who knew our training as teachers. They explained the results and the model proposed to support integration and to improve the contest of the organization where people from different cultures/nations work together.
The participants were 32 and there was an interesting discussion about the proposals we worked out. Furthermore, we found many contact points with the experience and the projects that the community of Loppiano is promoting.
ENGLAND
We delivered three multiplier events and we piggybacked onto other activities for all three multipliers. One was within the community and voluntary sector specifically for people who work with and for older people. The second was with a cross section of education institutions (Academia, colleges and schoolteachers) as well as local authority care departments (programme). The final event was delivered with Black careers many of whom work in home care situations.
The first multiplier was on 6th of March 2017 and there were over 200 attendees. The second event was 18th of May and with 24 people. The third event was 12th of June 2017 with 17 people