EARLALL participated in the WISE coordination meeting
19/03/2026
On 18 March 2026, EARLALL took part in the coordination meeting of the WISE (Supporting Ukrainian Refugee Women’s Socio-Economic Integration and Wellbeing) ESF+ project. The meeting brought together project partners to review progress, align on upcoming activities, and ensure effective implementation across all work strands.
Discussions focused on project implementation updates, communication and dissemination efforts, story collection planning, webinar design, stakeholder engagement, and preparations for the interim report.
Project implementation overview
Partners shared progress on the implementation of key project activities supporting refugee women from Ukraine in Italy and Bulgaria.
The Women Rise Programme continues to be implemented across several locations, with activities running until 20 April 2026. It provides psychosocial support in small group settings, helping participants build resilience and strengthen social connections.
Partners also reported changing needs in employment support in cities such as Rome and Milan. Recent activities included visits to employment centres and an online session on labour contracts and payslips, delivered in Ukrainian with Italian interpretation. A joint online event with a Turin-based organisation was particularly successful, attracting new participants.
Mental health support, delivered with Centro PENC, remains a core component of the project. Weekly group sessions have been running since October, with regular participation and continued demand likely extending beyond the programme timeline. Individual counselling is ongoing, supported by baseline assessments for reporting purposes. To improve monitoring, partners agreed to include a “hours per session” indicator.
Additional updates from Laboratorio Gruppo Analisi (LdG) highlighted an increased frequency of Women Rise sessions in Rome and ongoing adjustments to the programme model. A pilot combining Women Rise with Italian language classes did not improve attendance and is being reassessed. At the same time, mental health services continue steadily.
Updates from Animus Association in Bulgaria show steady progress in the implementation of the Women Rise Programme, with four out of eight sessions completed and a stable group of 11 regular participants. Sessions are led in Russian by a psychologist, ensuring accessibility for women,
Mental health support combines group psychoeducation with individual counselling, with increased flexibility allowing participants to access one-on-one sessions when needed. At the same time, partners observed a higher demand for case management than for employment support, as many participants are already relatively independent in their job search or have clear career paths.
Engagement remains strong in labour rights workshops. The need for more targeted employment activities was confirmed, reflecting similar trends observed in Italy.
Communication and dissemination
As WISE communication manager, EARLALL presented the latest results of communication and dissemination activities under WISE. So far, the project has generated strong visibility, including 70 social media posts, 12 articles, as well as a press release, newsletter and project factsheet.
Significant progress has also been made in stakeholder engagement, with over 500 stakeholders – particularly from lifelong learning and gender equality networks – invited to join the WISE stakeholder database.
In terms of outreach, WISE has been promoted during six events to date: three in Brussels, one online, one in Romania (in synergy with the SALAM project), and one in Poland.
Looking ahead, partners agreed on several upcoming actions, including the collection of individual stories from Ukrainian women to highlight the project’s impact, the publication of the next newsletter and factsheet, the organisation of four online webinars, and preparations for the final conference in Brussels.
Evaluation, reporting and next steps
Looking ahead, an independent midterm evaluation will assess the Holistic Support Centre model, with a particular focus on how services are integrated, the effectiveness of the approach, and areas for further refinement. Partners also aligned on the preparation of the interim report, clarifying outstanding questions and reporting requirements.
In the coming months, the consortium will continue its close cooperation through an online Steering Committee meeting planned for April 2026, followed by an in-person exchange visit in Sofia, Bulgaria in June 2026.
EARLALL is proud to contribute to WISE’s mission to improve the socio-economic inclusion and wellbeing of Ukrainian refugee women in Italy and Bulgaria by piloting and scaling up Holistic Support Centres, built on a trauma-informed and gender-sensitive approach that complements the Women and Girls Safe Spaces methodology with employment and social support services.