Here at Momentum we are passionate about inclusion and this is one of the reason why we love working on the ERASMI Project.
“Empowering Regional Actors & Stakeholders for Migrant and Refugee Inclusion” (ERASMI) is a three-year Erasmus+ project to identify innovative and interesting approaches to network collaboration in the field of migrant and refugee inclusion/integration.
In this post we are taking a look at The Sanctuary Runners. This is an Irish initiative which brings asylum seekers, refugees and people from the wider community together, to run shoulder to shoulder. They promote solidarity, friendship and respect. The Sanctuary Runners have around 25 groups and 3,000 members in Ireland, and they are hoping to expand. You can read more about them here: https://sanctuaryrunners.ie/how-we-work/about-us/
We recently listened to a podcast on Ocean FM Ireland which focused on the Sligo Sanctuary Runners, this group join in with the Sligo Park Run which takes places on a Saturday morning. Although it’s paused at the moment due to the pandemic, you can find out more about the Sligo Park Run here: https://www.parkrun.ie/sligo/
Sally is a volunteer with Sligo Sanctuary Runners. She explained that the group show solidarity and friendship; anyone in the community can come along, wear the blue t-shirt and run, walk, or jog and enjoy a cup of tea afterwards. Sally explained that it’s a two-way street, the volunteers get as much out of the initiative as the people who live in direct provision, and it’s a great way to make friends.
Hillary moved to Ireland from Zimbabwe in 2018. She spent a month in Dublin before she moved to Globe House, the Direct Provision centre, in Sligo. “I didn’t know anyone and through Sanctuary Runners I got to make friends and integrate with society. I’m now enjoying life in Sligo. Not only improved my fitness but the group have helped me so much, they are like my family, they welcomed me and made me feel at home.”
The Sanctuary Runners are an excellent example of refugee and migrant inclusion and it’s wonderful to see an organisation making a difference to so many lives. You can find out more about the group here:
If you’d like to find out more about the ERASMI Project you can get involved:
1. Follow the link to our new project website with the information you need to know on project goals, news, activities and resources for you to access: www.erasmi.info
2. Follow our Facebook page ERASMI Project and our hashtag: #erasmiproject
3. Download the newsletters to find out more and visit our project website
The ERASMI Project will deliver the following outputs:
1. Provide actors with best practice (collaboration) blueprints in the field of multi-actor migrant and refugee inclusion (IO1)
2. Develop an innovative learning framework and toolkit (IO2) empowering actors to enhance the impact of their social work
3. Enable and empower actors to improve collaborative planning and coordination of educational activities in Inter-Agency Networks with regional action plans for social inclusion (IO3)
4. To ensure wide and free access, the framework and the documented processes and lessons learned from the networks will be shared on our interactive knowledge exchange platform as OERs (IO4).
