Dr Rachel Hoare, Director of Trinity Centre for Forced Migration Studies, has secured a €400,000 Erasmus+ grant as Principal Investigator on “Befriending for Refugee Integration through Embodied Creativity & Network Development” (BEFRIEND), a two-year project (2026-2028) uniting partners across five countries:

  1. Trinity College Dublin
  2. Il Telaio (an Italian arts-therapy organisation)
  3. Spirasi (Ireland’s national centre for torture survivors)
  4. Serve the City Paris (a volunteer network supporting refugees and asylum seekers in France)
  5. Kosovo Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims
  6. Al’Adoun (a Syrian women-led organisation supporting refugees in Jordan)

The project trains 75 volunteers in creative, trauma-informed befriending, pairing them with 120 to 150 refugees for six months of regular sessions that build trust through creative rather than purely verbal connection. Local craftspeople will lead activities, helping refugees develop skills with potential for future income generation. As well as managing the project, Dr Hoare will lead the mixed-methods evaluation, producing rigorous cross-national evidence on the outcomes of creative befriending for refugee wellbeing and integration.

 

Photograph: Dr Rachel Hoare (left)