Exchange House has submitted a needs analysis report for the project TANDEM NOW.

TANDEM NOW is a European project which focuses on the development of a mentoring programme for young migrants in the partner countries and Travellers in Ireland. The partner countries involved are; Spain, Austria, Italy, Turkey, and Germany. In Ireland role models in the community will be asked to participate in a training programme which will identify different methods and communication tools that could be used as part of a mentoring programme for young Travellers. They will develop skills which will help support the young people to gain information, knowledge, and skills for entering their chosen vocation. The mentoring sessions will incorporate the use if ICT which will enable the mentors and mentees to have meetings both in person and online.

The needs analysis which was conducted by Exchange House considers a number of different areas. These include; identification of the target group; the Traveller community. Challenges faced by Travellers, mentors and mentees and their needs, and services available for Travellers. Finally the needs analysis identified a gap in service provision specifically a need for a mentoring programme for young Travellers who wish to enter their chosen career path.

Each partner working with the project has conducted a needs analysis which is submitted to the lead partner in Austria and these will be used as part of the development of the programme. As each partner is working with a different minority group who have different backgrounds and life experiences it is expected that each needs analysis will bring different information and the identification of different supports needed from the programme.

If you would like further information on the TANDEM NOW project which is funded by the European Union Commission please check out the Exchange House website at http://www.exchangehouse.ie or contact Dearbháil or Emma on (01) 872 1094.