The Erasmus+ project „Talk with me: young voluntary language mentors for young refugees“ was developed by three partner organisations: “Gemeinsam leben und lernen in Europa e. V.” (GLL) from Germany, “Tulip Foundation” from Bulgaria and “Centrul de Voluntariat Cluj-Napoca” from Romania. Together, they devised a European project format for a language mentoring programme, in which young volunteers and young refugees meet on a regular one-to-one basis and talk to each other in a relaxed, informal setting.

The overall aim of this project is to improve the integration of refugees in different European countries and to support volunteers who are working with refugees across Europe. We hope that our European model of a volunteer language mentoring programme is useful for other NGOs and helps them set up their own mentoring programmes. And of course, we hope that this project leads to long-lasting friendships between young locals and young refugees. This is the key to integration: to be able to speak the local language, to have someone to talk to, and to be connected within the local community.