I Get You campaign launch

Brussels, 20 April 2016 – Exactly two months before World Refugee Day we are launching a new campaign called ‘I Get You’ to map, network and strengthen local initiatives of refugee welcome in Europe. To get involved visit our new interactive campaign website today at www.igetyou-jrs.org.

Across Europe, local citizens have opened their doors to people in search of safety – migrants and refugees – sharing meals, learning languages and simply being together.

I Get You was started by JRS Europe in 9 European countries with the goal of identifying and bringing together community building initiatives for local citizens and refugees.

It began with some questions: what are the best practices that community building initiatives have found for working with local citizens and migrants? How do these initiatives build understanding and friendship? How do they counter racism and xenophobia?

Now we are asking you to help us find the answers. I Get You has three main calls to action:

     1. Nominate an initiative by completing our online mapping questionnaire

     2. Send us photos and stories with the hashtag #IgetYou

     3. Share news about the project via social media

The research side of the project will enable us to analyse and compare initiatives across Europe. We will produce a mapping report and after that go to interview people in the initiatives themselves to gather even more data. Finally, 9 national reports and one European report will be launched and disseminated amongst policymakers and practitioners to raise awareness about best practices.

We believe that bringing people together is the best way to build mutual understanding. JRS Europe is working on I Get You with JRS Belgium, JRS Germany, JRS France, SJM Spain, JRS Italy, JRS Malta, JRS Portugal, JRS Romania and JRS South-East Europe Croatia.

This project is co-funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) Programme of the European Union.

Across Europe, local citizens have opened their doors to people in search of safety – migrants and refugees – sharing meals, learning languages and simply being together.