THREAD: Textile Hub for Refugees' Empowerment, Employment and Entrepreneurship Advancement in Denmark - a new model

THREAD is a dynamic and innovative collaboration of diverse partners from
business, design, education, research and refugee support agencies aiming to
achieve life-changing results for women who are forging new lives in Denmark.
Integration is a key problem for refugees and their host countries. This project
seeks to help solve this problem by developing and testing a pioneering themed
model of Empowerment, Employment and Entrepreneurship opportunities. The
model offers a step-change programme to women refugees with differing levels of life experience and educational qualifications, which may be accessed according to their individual confidence and competence.
Empowerment: Cultural textiles researchers, fashion and design scholars, support agencies and women refugees work together in workshops exploring
archaeological/historical material and contemporary Muslim fashion as collective
creativity has been shown to boost confidence in disadvantaged individuals.
Employment: Woolspire, Vikingelandsbyen Albertslund, UCC and CTR offer
internships to women refugees aiming to enter the labour market because the lack of appropriate employment opportunities is a bar to effective integration.
Entrepreneurship: CTR hosts masterclasses with Danish entrepreneurs, including
Henrik Vibskov, Sine Larsen and Esben Gadbøll, to inspire future women
entrepreneurs, explaining different routes to successful self-employment. Danish
fashion and design businesses claim that Muslim fashion in the marketplace offers a major economic opportunity for new enterprises.
Evaluation: The THREAD model is assessed via an independent longitudinal study
to test the effectiveness of the themed model in facilitating empowerment,
employment and entrepreneurship among the participants and to measure its
impact.

THREAD introducerer, implementerer og evaluerer en grundlæggende ny model for integration af flygtningekvinder i det danske samfund og arbejdsmarked: nemlig tekstil og mode som en samlende motor for social integration. THREAD’s
målsætning er gennem mode og tekstiler at styrke kvindelige flygtninges sociale
netværk, øge deres økonomiske selvstændighed og forbedre deres muligheder på
arbejdsmarkedet. Projektet tager udgangspunkt i en tematisk integrationsmodel,
baseret på et tæt samarbejde mellem forskere, virksomhedsejere og
produktudviklere i tekstil- og modebranchen. Flygtningekvinder vil således deltage i forskningen i Center for Tekstilforskning og ved Designskolen Kolding, produkt- og designudvikle i modefirmaet Woolspire og hos den internationale modedesigner Henrik Vibskov samt samarbejde om fælles systuer og dragtdesign med Albertslund Vikingelandsby og FAKTI (Forening for flygtninge- og indvandrerkvinder). Denne model bliver fulgt, analyseret og evalueret i et længerevarende studie foretaget af AAUs Centre for Refugee Studies. THREAD vil derved levere en innovativt bud på, hvordan en tematisk integrationsmodel, tekstil og mode, kan være med til at løse en aktuel problemstilling i samfundet.