Issue - meetings

MyCoventry Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund Project

Meeting: 13/10/2020 - Cabinet (Item 37)

37 MyCoventry Project and Specialist Training and Employment Programme (STEP) - Successful Award of funds under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) pdf icon PDF 303 KB

Report of the Director of Health and Wellbeing

Minutes:

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Public Health and Well-being in respect of the successful award from the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.

 

Following a bidding process, Coventry City Council has been successfully awarded £1.57m funding from the AMIF Fund towards delivering the £1.75m “MyCoventry” initiative. The Fund is a European Union (EU) funding stream that the UK Government joined in April 2012. The UK National Programme consists of 3 Specific Objectives consisting of Asylum (including Resettlement), Legal Migration and Integration; and Returns (voluntary, enforced and reintegration measures).

 

The funding secured will aim to meet the second objective (Legal Migration and Integration) of the fund supporting legal migration to the Member States in accordance with their economic and social needs, such as labour market needs, whilst reducing the abuse of legal migration, and to promote the effective integration of Third-Country Nationals.

 

The proposal (“MyCoventry”) has been developed by co-working with key partners including St. Francis Church of Assisi, Positive Youth Foundation, Ashley Community Housing, Coventry University’s Centre for Trust Peace and Social Relations and the City Council’s Employment Team. The proposal hence includes a holistic offer of Integration, building on the key elements of Community and social links, Language/Learning as well as Employment skills and development. The City Council will be the Accountable Body for the full project.

 

The “MyCoventry” proposal will aim to engage and empower our existing migrant communities in the city to make them more independent and enable them to contribute to the cities social, economic and civic fabric.

 

Coventry City Council has also successfully been awarded AMIF funding as a partner on the STEP Employability programme with World Jewish Relief (WJR), who are leading this partnership. This funding brings targeted resources to support employment interventions for refugees resettled under the Syrian Resettlement Scheme and the Resettlement of Vulnerable Children Scheme who are already in the city.

 

RESOLVED that that Cabinet:

 

(1)  Note the success of the partnership work between the City Council and the wider partnership in securing the funding to support our existing local migrant communities.

 

(2)  Authorise the City Council to receive the £1.79m grant funds for AMIF grant funded projects and act as accountable body for the MyCoventry initiative and guarantor for the available funds. This includes incurring expenditure of the £1.57m (MyCoventry) plus the match funding on the City Council projects within the initiative.

 

(3)  Delegate authority to the Deputy Chief Executive, following consultation with the Director of Finance and the Director of Law and Governance, to enter into the appropriate agreements:

  i. The grant funding agreement for the receipt of the AMIF funding with the City Council acting as the accountable body for the funding.

  ii. Back to back funding agreements with the identified project partners necessary to deliver the ‘MyCoventry’ proposal as set out in this report.