An Evaluation of The Orient8 Social Mentoring Program

ORIENT8 is a social mentoring program supported by smart digital tools and tailored activities. The project ran from January 2021 to December 2022. By connecting third-country nationals with volunteers of the local community, it aimed to improve the social orientation of newcomers, promote exchanges between newcomers and the host society, and improve transnational cooperation and knowledge among practitioners. Funded by the European Union’s Asylum Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), the program was implemented in three European municipalities: Mechelen (Belgium), Nikaia-Agios Ioannis Rentis (Greece), and Sala (Sweden). Other partners were Beyond the Horizon ISSG vzw (project manager) and HIVA-KU Leuven (scientific partner).

At the onset of the project, HIVA-KU Leuven had developed guidelines to implement a social mentoring program for newcomers. During the course of the project, these guidelines have been tested by the three participating municipalities. The present document contains an evaluation of the guidelines: what worked and what did not work. These insights were integrated into the final version of the guidelines. The report further contains an evaluation of the impact the program had on various involved actors, such as the mentor and mentee. While the project’s main output also consisted of a Welcome Application and a Smart Matching Tool, we will focus only on the social mentoring program itself.

This evaluation report consists of the following elements: first, the theoretical framework for the evaluation will be discussed. Chapter 3 contains the evaluation of the efficiency of the program, referring to the guidelines mentioned above. The next chapter evaluates the program in terms of its effectivity, referring to the changes/impact it had on the mentors, mentees, the organization that ran the program, and other actors who were directly or indirectly involved. Finally, the most important findings are summarised in the conclusion.