OpenEmbassy & Welcome: inclusion for newcomers

The Dutch integration system hinders newcomers (refugees) to integrate to their full potential. Only 10% of newcomers find a paid job, many of them feel lonely, and get stuck in policies and rules, resulting in stress and failed ambitions.

OpenEmbassy and WelcomeNL join efforts in a data-driven social-tech solution that enables social inclusion for newcomers and systemic change by building a community based on equality. By connecting newcomers and locals in our app, we successfully enable social inclusion and individual growth for newcomers. The data in the app enables us to advise public sector organizations to design effective solutions for newcomers.

With branches in Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway, the app is an international movement. The more users, the faster integration goes, the more data we acquire about the needs of newcomers and locals, and the more solutions we can help build that serve the needs and talents of newcomers.

Dutch integration law and policy have been declining for the past decade. A political and societal crisis on multicultural issues resulted in less rights and benefits for asylum seekers. The Netherlands dropped significantly in ranking in the Migrant Integration Policy Index, leading the research team to conclude that 'the NL is no longer a leader on integration policy'. This negative trend is valid for all European countries.  

This is a huge problem. On the personal level of the refugee, who mainly has obligations instead of rights or aid, making it a lot more difficult to build up a new life to ones true capacity. But society at large suffers too. Research shows that only a third of former refugees and 10% of recently arrived refugees are employed in the Netherlands. Almost everyone works below his or her capacity. And a shocking 25% lives at or below poverty level. We waste talent and economic contribution, leading to declining willingness in society to take in refugees. Newcomers have less contact with locals because of this. We cut them off from society, and lock them up in social welfare and dependency.

This is not humane, ethical, nor economical.  

We serve any newcomer with access to Internet. Illiterate newcomers can reach us by voice message. Between 1990 and today, over 710.000 people sought asylum in the Netherlands, of which 150.000 in the last 5 years. In Europe, it’s almost 2 million in 2016 and 2017. At the end of 2018, 70.8 million people are refugees worldwide. Our ambition is to internationalize in Europe in the next 5 years. Our potential is to go global.  

This is how we include newcomers:  

• 50% of our online and offline community is made up of newcomers. They participate, meet locals, ask questions, go to or initiate events.
• Our team consists of 30% newcomers in paid jobs. This mixed perspective is crucial for our success.
• In our mixed team of super volunteers, newcomers (who became locals) support community members.
• We build and work with focus groups of newcomers that advise us on the solutions we build.

The voice of newcomers is at the heart of our operations. We create space for their voices in our community. But we also use their voices to advise stakeholders that build integration systems on how to build policies and solutions that actually support newcomers.

OpenEmbassy and Welcome NL join efforts in a data driven social tech solution that enables social inclusion for newcomers individually, while also enabling systemic and democratic change for the agency of newcomers as a politically challenged group at large. By building an online and offline community (the user base grows 15% each month), we acquire unique knowledge about the talents, needs and ambitions of newcomers. We use this knowledge to change the Dutch integration system. Our ambition is to grow this impact internationally. Bottom up policy building is our vision. Inclusive societies that enable newcomers to participate to their full potential, is our mission.  

The Welcome app (active in Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands) is a social-tech solution that connects Dutch locals and newcomers in a solidly build privacy proof native app. Locals and newcomers can use the app to lunch together, to launch and go to events, to participate in the labor market, and to ask questions about their new lives. The founding idea behind the app is that only in equal connection, newcomers can grow to their full potential in their new country. The Welcome app supports, nurtures and grows a community of newcomers and locals that thrives on equality and that creates social inclusion. Above this, Welcome NL enables stakeholders to participate on their app. Many big and smaller NGOs, employers and local governments offer their services and events on the app, making it a truly inclusive and empowering platform.

But our ambition goes further than building an equal community to empower newcomers through connection with locals. The Dutch integration system for newcomers is a top down system that hinders equal participation, and puts newcomers in a depending position. We contribute to bottom up policies and solutions that start from the knowledge and needs of newcomers. OpenEmbassy analyses and interprets the data created by the users of the app - specifically the question and answer portal - to advise local and national governments and other integration stakeholders. The Welcome app provides us with real time information about the issues, concerns and solutions within the community. Knowledge that is crucial for governments and other stakeholders for designing effective solutions for newcomers. We enable bottom up policy building, by supporting individuals to engage and to feel at home in the Netherlands. Governments hire us to advise them and work with them.

Our solution is innovative because we combine state of the art social-technology with in dept knowledge and data-analysis to change the integration system and with this the lives of all newcomers in the countries we work.

The Welcome NL app enables newcomers and locals to connect in an online community, with offline meetings and impact. These connections change individual lives of newcomers (and locals!) because they build friendships, or find jobs or learn the language much faster.

However, this is only the beginning. OpenEmbassy operates a part of the app (question portal) and has invested in the app to be able to turn the data of the interactions into knowledge about issues and opportunities for integration. We use this knowledge to advise stakeholders like governments or NGOs how to build better bottom up integration policies, laws, rules and solutions. We do not simply offer our advise to be taken or left, the stakeholders are our customers. Organizations like local governments hire us to work with them on change. This is good news for our business model (there are over 200 local governments in the Netherlands) but it's also crucial for our mission. Exactly because the stakeholders pay us to advise them, they are much more likely to take this advise seriously.

The individual interaction in the app therefore enables systemic change at large. 

Our core technology is a native app - the Welcome NL app - build in React Native. Both locals and newcomers can use the app. Once they sign up the app can be adjusted to their personal needs, for instance in their choice of language.

We have build a custom made admin panel, that enables our team members and our super volunteers to manage the community of locals and newcomers in an easy yet secure way. This enables us to actively follow and support the interaction on the app.

Part of the admin panel is our data analysis function. A few clicks will get us insight in the amount, location, and content of interactions and its users. This is done in a secure way that enables us to develop knowledge that is relevant to change the integration system, without sharing personal details of our users. Privacy is very important for us.

We are currently investing in an algorithm that allows us to automatically learn from the interactions on the app. We want to be able to classify automatically the conversations between our users, so we can easily see what topics are important or what answers or solutions are relevant, so we can use this to change the system of integration.

Our most recent step is to turn the software of Welcome in to open source software so we can scale our mission and vision internationally.

The policies for integration in the Netherlands are top down and hinder newcomers to live their new lives to their full potential. Newcomers therefore are less able to connect to their new society, including the local residents.

Our solution takes the power of the community to lift up the individual newcomer, for changing the living conditions of newcomers in general.

Our app connects newcomers and locals. They can meet, interact and exchange questions and answers. This enables the newcomer to connect to the Dutch society, despite the poor and hindering policies.

This interaction however is rich ground for changing the system at large. We extract knowledge from the app about the needs and opportunities of newcomers, and feed this knowledge to the stakeholders that build the integration system. We enable the stakeholders, like local and national goverment, to build bottom up policies and rules. Policies and rules that actually meet up the needs and talents of newcomers.

So, by creating connections through our community of newcomers and locals, we acquire the knowledge that is needed to change the lives of newcomers in the Netherlands as a group at large.

We're currently serving almost 8000 newcomers and locals in the Netherlands, and over 20.000 newcomers and locals in Sweden, Norway and NL. Our Dutch community grows steadily with 30 to 60 users each day, and with upcoming campaigns we expect this number to grow.

In the coming 12 months we will at least reach 14.600 newcomers with the current numbers, this is if we do not invest in growth, which we will do. This means we will at least reach 10% of the newcomers in the Netherlands.

In the next 5 years, we will grow in the Netherlands, but we want to internationalize to other countries too. We now have our focus on Sweden (where the app was originally build), Germany (with the largest influx of newcomers in Europe) The United Kingdom, Belgium and France (where the situation of newcomers is much worse than the Netherlands). If we aim to reach 10% of their newcomers population, we will reach at least 100.000 people directly in our community.

However, our impact reaches further. Our unique selling point is that we change systems for integration. By changing the system, we change the lives of all newcomers in the European countries we work. The more users we get, the bigger our knowledge, the more important our position and voice. We want to touch every newcomer in each country we work, by making sure that they enter systems that are build based on the voices of their peers.

With our app we can reach newcomers and locals in many different countries. The technique is easy to replicate, and we want to make sure this is easy and cheap to do with open sourcing our code. We encourage other teams in other countries to use our software. This will change the lives of individuals, the ones who find their way to the app. But with the data and knowledge we acquire, we want to take our data-driven ambitions to the highest political levels to discuss the needs and opportunities of newcomers. Europe is our direct target goal, but since the world will know more and more refugees, our playing field is the entire world.

In the next year we want to:

• reach 10% of all newcomers in the Netherlands, and match them with locals
• influence the new law on integration that is being written in 2019 en 2020
• grow our customer base of integration stakeholders, growing our revenue from €300.000, to €500.000
• connect with 3 potential European partners to internationalize the app and our method for system change

In the next 5 years we want to:

• reach 40% of all newcomers in the Netherlands, and match them with locals
• become a key partner at the table of national and local integration law and policies
• Grow our business to a revenue of €1.000.000,-
• Reach 10% of newcomers with our app in the countries Germany, Sweden, France and the United Kingdom
• Set up the system impact method in those countries 

1. Newcomers do not find our app
2. Newcomers don't want to use our app
3. Locals will not find our app
4. Political climate becomes completely against newcomers
5. Stakeholders will not have budgets to hire us
6. We are being seriously hacked
7. The method of the app plus data analysis and advice does not work in other countries
8. Open sourcing will be much more difficult than expected 
9. We will not find other organizations to launch the app in other countries

1. we work with newcomers, have extended knowledge of their online and offline needs and behaviors, and we apply a growth strategy with proven experiments.
2. a famous tech-company (MobGen) helps us with UX. Also we invest in offline community-work so people trust us
3. we connect with powerful networks of politicians, policy makers, influencers, companies, and local hubs who want to help.
4. We will show that newcomers add value to our society
5. there is a new law for integration coming up in 2021, resulting in extra budget for municipalities. Our knowledge and skills can also be applied to a much broader field of issues to be solved (and paid for).
6. we have a team of specialized security people who help us secure our software and database.
7. we can be flexible in adjusting the app to local needs, especially with open source.
8. we will need to apply to more competitions and funds, and look for partners who want to donate either their resources or time and skills. If we wil be selected for SOLVE this means a huge step towards this community!
9. We will host an international summit to invite organizations to join our movement. If needed we will start local versions ourselves.

I did not select Other

OpenEmbassy team:

7 parttime staff members:

• 2 directors (32 and 36 hours a week)
• 3 community members (32 and 36 hours a week)
• 1 action researcher
• 1 trainee action reasearcher
• 4 freelancers on current projects

Welcome team:

6 parttime staff members and 1 freelancer

• 2 founders (32 hours)
• 3 community managers (32 hours)
• 1 intern
• 1 freelance developer

OpenEmbassy works with a unique combination of community managers and action researchers. We build communities that thrive on equality and agency, and our action researchers use the interaction in these online and offline communities to learn what the system and society should change to make sure that newcomers can build their new lives faster, more equal and more meaningful.

• The founder of OpenEmbassy has years of research experience in the social sector, and has next to this founded several communities that support marginalized individuals in the Netherlands. She is a public intellectual and invited to national television programs, radio shows and news papers.
• The community managers each have founded their own communities prior to working at OpenEmbassy, and all of them have experienced what it means having to integrate in Dutch society
• The action researchers have a perfect combination of a thorough academic study and field practice, both in the Netherlands and Syria and Eritrea.

The Welcome team - of which OpenEmbassy runs part of the software, and with whom we work closely together - is like OpenEmbassy a diverse talented team, with both community managers and talented developers from several countries. The founder is a serial entrepreneur, who - barely 20 years old - founded a social enterprise that designs, manufactors and sells shoes in a fair and social manner.

We could not have build our community successfully if we did not intensively cooperated with stakeholders in the integration field. First of all newcomers themselves. Our team is a diverse team with locals and newcomers working together, and we are connected to many newcomers or migrants-led organizations, both online and offline. We are part of a national network of mostly grass roots organizations that improve integration. At the same time we are invited by the most important (policital or governmental) stakeholders to work with or for them, and to share our knowledge at their conferences or closed working groups. Here are some examples:

• Syrian Volunteers in the Netherlands (their founder, who spoke at the United Nations, works for us as a freelancer)
• Refugees Ambassadors in the Netherlands

• Local and national Dutch Goverments, such as municipality of Amsterdam
• Largest NGO for refugees in the Netherlands: VluchtelingenWerk Nederland
• The Ministery of Social Affairs and Labour that currently designs a new law on integration (due 2021)

Our business model: we advise stakeholders how to create better policies, solutions, culture and laws for newcomers. They pay us for our consultancy and the use of our software: the Welcome app. Our vision is that the system for integration is broken, and we can only fix it by listening to and including the voices of the people who undergo the system: the newcomers themselves. We put this into practice by building a community of newcomers and locals who support each other. By using the online and offline data that results from this interaction in a smart, safe and innovative way, we can advise stakeholders how to build effective policies that actually derive from the needs of newcomers themselves. The best part is: we change the system, while the system pays us to do so. And by listening to individual voices of newcomers, we make it better for the entire group of newcomers.

We have from day 1 invested in research, and have build a unique (and secure) database with insights about integration of migrants. This knowledge is our core value that enables us to support individual newcomers in their individual paths, stakeholders in building better policies and systems, and political parties or organizations in how to improve the lives of newcomers.

We have made revenue since day 1, and made profit since year 2. Our community and client base have been growing since we started, and with this our revenue, profit, and - most importantly - our impact.

We already make a profit. We work for integration stakeholders, and by using the Welcome NL app, and advising on policy building, we learn many new things that result in new products. For instance our Academy that trains professionals and newcomers. Or our so called 'Making Sessions' in which we help professional organisations to design inclusive working practices. The knowledge that results from assisting newcomers, is a great asset. What is more, the knowledge and instruments that result from our research and work, is applicable to other fields as well. We are experts on the question 'how can we live together equally while accepting differences?' and this is one of the most urgent questions of the 21st century. We foresee a long future for our organization, empowering people with building sustainable, smart and equal communities that nurture our knowledge.

With the prize money we can hire more people with a migrant or refugee
background, and we would invest part of the prize money into open
sourcing the software of Welcome

Furthermore, we are a small organisation with global ambitions. Being connected to the Sole community would be a truely unique opportunity to grow our network, knowledge, skills and future. We won the MIT Innovate for Refugees competition and this was our big break through in the Netherlands and for an international network. We even found our comminity manager through the competition, she was an intern with one of the other winning companies at the time. We clearly see these benefits: 

• An international network that can help us to grow and internationalize our solution. We want scale lounge the Welcome app to more European and global countries, and winning could mean the same break through as when we won the MIT Solve for Refugees competition. 
• A group of mentors that can help us build and grow our method
• Connection to developers who are the best and willing to work on social challenges
• Access to funding
• Funding to invest in our European and global dream

I did not select other

• Organizations that want to take the Welcome to their own country, we can assist them
• Social initiatives that focus on integration of newcomers (refugees)
• NGOs that are masters in diplomacy and advocacy, specifically for migration
• Organizations that combine (social) tech, consultancy and advocacy so we can learn from them

Not applying

With the prize money we can hire more people with a migrant or refugee
background to grow our community outside of the Dutch borders. We will invest in internationalization and open sourcing our software. This way we can keep growing our community of locals and newcomers, world wide, to contribute to more social inclusive societies. And to learn from the community what policy makers should change to build bottom up solutions.

Not applying

With the prize money we can hire more people with a migrant or refugee
background to grow our community outside of the Dutch borders. We will invest in internationalization and open sourcing our software. This way we can keep growing our community of locals and newcomers, world wide, to
contribute to more social inclusive societies. And to learn from the
community what policy makers should change to build bottom up solutions.

Not applying

With the prize money we can hire more people with a migrant or refugee
background to grow our community outside of the Dutch borders. We will invest in internationalization and open sourcing our software. This way we can keep growing our community of locals and newcomers, world wide, to
contribute to more social inclusive societies. And to learn from the
community what policy makers should change to build bottom up solutions.

Not applying