The MiB International project is coming to an end on 31.8.2024. Our members will still be able to participate in multilingual events and seminars organised by volunteers, especially in the Uusimaa and Pirkanmaa regions.
The three-year STEA MiB International project will come to an end on 31 August 2024. With STEA funding, Mothers in Business (MiB) has targeted events and volunteer activities for immigrant mothers in English from autumn 2021. The aim of the project has been to increase mothers' well-being, networking and employment opportunities, as well as to provide peer support and engage immigrant mothers to promote the receptiveness of the Finnish workplace to multicultural talent.
"Mothers and professionals of all languages in Finland deserve to be involved in organisations, working life and society. The results of the project show that non-profit organisations play a major role in enabling attachment and peer support," says Tuovi Bresnahan, MiB expert.
"The project has shown that there are many skilled immigrant mothers living in Finland who share a strong will to participate in organisations and working life. The inclusion of these mothers in our community has also provided lessons for the development of MiB's activities."
MIB embeds multilingual activities in local chapters
In the project, we have piloted language-aware practices that enable MiB to organise events in several languages. Until spring 2024, we have developed multilingual volunteer activities as part of the everyday life of MiB's local chapters in Uusimaa and Pirkanmaa. English-speaking volunteers will now work as part of a multilingual team, which will allow for a better exchange of information and a more inclusive experience in the future.
"We have diverse members, and even after the end of the project we will continue to work in a multilingual way in our local chapters. This will allow us to continue to take on projects in the field of diversity and inclusiveness. The project has created multilingual conditions for our activities, which is still quite rare in the field of non-profit organisations," says Annica Moore, Executive Director of MiB.
We thank our partners, such as THL, Väestöliitto, KPMG and Lidl, who have shared positive solutions and examples for promoting multiculturalism and inclusiveness in Finnish working life at our DEI seminars.
"While labour market shortages have been identified, there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure that employers take concrete steps to recruit workers with a migrant background for jobs that match their skills. Knowledge sharing is important across all sectors, and this is where we hope to continue to challenge employers in the future," says Moore.
More information:
MiB International project: https://www.mothersinbusiness.fi/international
MiB’s multilingual community: https://www.mothersinbusiness.fi/welcome
