of two years, several instruments are put into action to facilitate their integration and inclusion and ensure autonomy is achieved. The agreement contains a clause whereby families wishing to withdraw from community sponsorship can join the general admission system. However, the necessary instruments in the case that autonomy is not achieved are not sufficiently developed. There should ideally be a bridge or temporary adjustment enabling participating families to access existing support following the community sponsorship period, such as the income support (guaranteed minimum income) provided by the Basque Government. In terms of local support groups, it is important that the members of these be selected carefully. Though there are no specific requirements for who can volunteer in the pilot experience, this would not be the case were the programme to be expanded elsewhere. Lastly, in terms of the instruments for implementing the initiative, there are various settlement plans in which several levels of government as well as the promoting entities and local support groups have been involved and collaborated in a positive way. It is worth encouraging and facilitating self-evaluation for the local groups to identify successes and areas of improvement. Meetings enabling support groups to share experiences, ideas and suggestions would constitute a new engagement space under Auzolana II. Thinking to future versions of the initiative, the development of these standardised tools should be improved to include monitoring and evaluation indicators for community sponsorship itself and for the various actions rolled out as part of this process. Expert support staff have made a critical contribution to the development and coordination of the management work carried out by the entities, and these roles should be maintained. The development phase comprises key stages of the process of starting a community sponsorship project, including identification of stakeholders and resources as well as governance mechanisms. Various decisions have been taken in this pilot project that should be modified to provide greater assurances and transparency throughout the entire process, in the framework of it becoming a structural project.
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AUZOLANA II COMMUNITY SPONSORSHIP PILOT EXPERIENCE