Mainstreaming participatory approaches into communications and advocacy

As part of the European Network on Statelessness (ENS)’s five-year strategic plan, community engagement is a key pillar, and ENS aims to increase the participation of their ultimate beneficiaries to have greater influence in their communications work. In this frame, this one-year pilot project intends to set the groundwork for increasing the role of migrants and refugees experiencing statelessness in their external communications as well as within their membership.

Looking internally, ENS will survey its membership to better understand how members engage and empower their ultimate beneficiaries, adding to a community engagement workshop that will bring together ENS members to establish a common definition of participatory approaches and community engagement.

ENS will also conduct a mapping of community organisations working on statelessness in three key countries (UK, Netherlands, and Spain) and will form partnerships between interested members and identified community organisations to take part in workshops and co-design joint action plans to integrate participatory approaches into their communications work.

Looking ahead, this first year should set the foundation for an engagement-based, participatory project between community organisations and existing ENS membership organisations.