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05/11/2023 | Campus-Meldung

Professor evaluates Kassel project "Social Economy Integrated

Promoting women with a migration background and at the same time actively countering the shortage of skilled workers in social economy professions - that is the primary goal of the model project "Social Economy Integrated - New Opportunities in the Social Economy - Qualification Perspectives for Migrant Women" (SoWi) of the city of Kassel. The fact that the project actually achieves this has now been confirmed by scientific monitoring by the University of Kassel, which is unique in Germany.

Group pictureImage: City of Kassel / Bernd Schoelzchen
From left: Mayor Ilona Friedrich, Prof. Dr. Sigrid James, Franziska Seidel (both University of Kassel), Terhas Andezion (project management).

"The monitoring since the start of the project in 2018 has enabled us to repeatedly adapt the concept to actual needs as it progressed. 58 women have taken up jobs and 140 participants have been able to start training. This has far exceeded our expectations. I admire all our participants for their courage, determination and perseverance. And I am grateful to all those who support this wonderful project. The results of the evaluation show that our efforts are successful and that indeed fills me with gratitude and pride," said Mayor Illona Friedrich when presenting the results.

 

The project

"Social Economy Integrated" is a program of the city of Kassel that gives women with a migration background the chance to work as professionals in the social economy. Since 2018, SoWi has been funded by the Hessian Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration. Initially until 2025, after which the project will continue with funding from the city of Kassel, among others.

The program is designed to meet the women's different biographies, educational backgrounds and language levels, as well as official requirements. Each project participant receives an individual training plan, can catch up on school-leaving qualifications and take language courses.

As a scientific accompanying study, the evaluation followed the processes and (further) developments of the project. The aim was to understand and explore structures. The following questions were central: Why do changes occur? How are challenges dealt with?

The model project was scientifically accompanied from the beginning by a team from the University of Kassel led by Prof. Dr. Sigrid James from the Institute for Social Work. "The results suggest that SoWi can provide support for many of the women's individual problems and can be an important element of labor market policy to promote occupational participation," says James, summing up the findings.

It is remarkable that SoWi can successfully support women with completely different backgrounds and conditions. The heterogeneity of the participants continued to increase over the course of the project years.

A detailed text on this can be found here.