Innovation: Failte Isteach

Ireland

AAI Domains:

• Independent, healthy and secure living (lifelong learning)

• Participation in society (voluntary activity, inter-generational activity)

Failte Isteach was founded in 2006 in Summerhill by the social entrepreneur Mary Nally, a major figure in the development of Third Age Ireland and the mobilisation of the potential of older people for more than thirty years. She recognised that Ireland, which was enjoying an economic boom, was becoming home to migrants from Europe and the wider world but that they could experience social exclusion if their English language skills were inadequate.

Her solution, Failte Isteach, is a community based project that utilises the skills of volunteers, usually but not exclusively older people, who want to welcome migrants to Ireland by teaching them conversational English language skills that will help them to function on a day to day basis in contemporary Irish society.

Failte Isteach started with a couple of volunteers and half a dozen migrants in Summerhill in 2006 and was launched as a national programme of Third Age Ireland in 2008 and by 2010 was operating in 25 places across Ireland and reaching more than 500 migrant students each week. The project has continued to grow thanks to financial support from Irish O’Brien Foundation and the Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration.

Failte Isteach groups meet at least once a week, with many meeting several times a week depending on the demand from migrants and the supply of volunteers, with an informal approach based on conversational skills. The aim is to have a low ratio of migrant learners to volunteer tutors so that personal relationships and understanding are built up over time leading to improved integration of migrants into Irish society.

The project has continued to grow even during the post-2008 financial crisis as Irish society has continued to become increasingly diverse. There are now approximately 70 groups utilising the skills of more than 700 volunteer tutors who are reaching more than 2,000 students each week with teaching resources and support co-ordinated by Third Age Ireland and delivered by a variety of local organisations.

As European societies become increasingly diverse there is a growing need for social innovations to promote social cohesion and integration and Failte Isteach is a fine example of this type of development.

In terms of the Active Ageing Index, Failte Isteach relies on the contribution of older people to act as volunteer tutors and provides them and migrant students with opportunities for lifelong learning. The underlying aim of the project is to promote integration and this is done through a welcome hand to build social connectedness that invariably spans the generations as most tutors are older people while the majority of migrants are of working age.

Failte Isteach website