Inclusive Mobility Alliance

Who is IMA?

The Inclusive Mobility Alliance (IMA), founded in 2018, is an alliance of European organisations that aims at making mobility inclusive for students and youth from disadvantaged and underrepresented groups. IMA believes that international mobility is a key element of the education and training of young people and that every young person should have the same opportunities to take part in an international mobility programme.

The Inclusive Mobility Alliance stands for an Inclusive Mobility, the core elements of which are:

  • Fair and equal access to mobility programmes
  • Accessibility and accessible information
  • Clarity
  • Individualised support
  • Independence for the person who goes abroad
  • A better approach to assessment and understanding of needs
  • Evaluation and monitoring
  • Informing / training / raising awareness
  • Effective means of communication and structures to solve problems related to access and inclusion.

IMA is a unique platform that has been created to become the main stakeholders’ platform for inclusion in mobility programmes in Europe and a privileged stakeholder for the European institutions on how to make mobility more inclusive.

IMA is composed of organisations from the civil society with high expertise in higher education mobility, youth mobility, and social inclusion at large. As stated in the Inclusive Mobility Alliance Declaration, the IMA partners stand for full inclusion in mobility and an inclusive Erasmus+ programme.

Members: Support Centre Inclusive Higher Education (SIHO), European Disability Forum (EDF), European Blind Union (EBU), Eurodesk, Erasmus Student Network (ESN), Lifelong Learning Platform (LLP), European Students Union (ESU), VIEWS International, European Union of the Deaf Youth (EUDY), OBESSU, Autism-Europe, Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de l'Europe (AEGEE), UNICA network of universities from the capitals of Europe, ENIL, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer & Intersex Youth and Student Organisation (IGLYO) and Centre national des œuvres universitaires et scolaires (CNOUS).

Steering Group: Support Centre Inclusive Higher Education, European Disability Forum and Erasmus Student Network.

Chair: Dominique Montagnese, Support Centre Inclusive Higher Education.

What does IMA do?

IMA works mainly on policy level by researching and analysing newest trends in inclusion in mobility programmes, providing recommendations and inputs that are research-driven and derive from grassroots level experiences to policy-makers on how to make mobility schemes more inclusive.

IMA is output-oriented and produces concrete outputs such as recommendations, position papers and reaction papers.

IMA offers its members a platform to discuss the latest updates on Erasmus+ and inclusion, the possibility to contribute to writing position papers, as well as invitations to conferences connected to the topic of inclusive mobility.

IMA fosters the exchange of good practices in the field of Inclusive Mobility, enhancing collaboration among its members and beyond.

How does IMA work?

IMA members meet two to three times a year, for a half-day meeting. Meetings take place either online or physically in Brussels or Ghent.

The steering group actively contribute to the writing process of position and reaction papers and actively contribute to the preparation of the agenda and the review of memberships.

Publications

More info

Dominique Montagnese, Support Centre Inclusive Higher Education, dominique.montagnese@siho.be

four pictures of IMA members discussung the future Alliance in Brussels