The project aimed to improve the social and economic integration of refugees in the partner regions and wider 2 Seas area by co-creating and introducing new demonstrations to increase the engagement of refugees in the education process and to improve the economic independence of refugees through self-employment. The project was created to make a palpable difference to the lives of newcomers who arrived in the 2 Seas area and to help them begin a new chapter in unfamiliar surroundings.
It tackled the key societal challenge of social exclusion by increasing access to education and self-employment through co-creation processes. 
In education, they looked to establish 40 new learning communities through co-creation, resulting in a 10% increase in parents’ involvement in the education of children, 20% increase in pre-school children attending school and 10% increase in adult education. They sought to equip 450 teachers with training courses to better support refugees. 
Co-creation was also used as a means to generate 50 new refugee businesses, to generate 40 new jobs (with the potential of an additional 516) and 4 new refugee business networks to support long term enterprise development.

The SIREE project involved 9 full and 11 observer partners in 4 territories, each representing a different stage of development and understanding in their field. They joined together to share expertise to solve a common problem of refugee social integration and to create new solutions which otherwise they would not be able to achieve. Indeed, partners had limited capacity and resources to develop, adopt and promote new approaches on their own, but together the partnership was able to learn from and build upon the experience of others. 

The scale of the number of refugees reached was increased by cooperation since many partners had existing active networks of refugees; this saved time both in recruitment; but also increased the impact, transferability, and durability of results.

The e-book and demonstration guide were the result of co-creation, with input from all partners. These outputs are universal and can be used across each country. Without the cross-border cooperation, the communication and dissemination of the project would not have been as broad and knowledge would have been held in isolation.

Throughout the project, PPs shared learnings about how the other countries approached the integration of newcomers through education and self-employment. It was particularly important during the pandemic to hear from other project partners about how they dealt with the impact of COVID on planned activities.

There was a different range of cultures impacted by SIREE, and partners had different ways of working, which added value to the project as it enabled new ideas and concepts to develop.
Working together on the developmental process of methodology has meant partners could establish more than they each could have done on their own. They successfully developed educational methods, teacher training and learning toolkits. These are future proof ways to anchor the process of education and integration across the 2 Seas area.