Συνιστούμε να ακολουθήσετε το λινκ, το οποίο σας παραπέμπει στο website του Curing the Limbo, προκειμένου να ελέγξετε την ατζέντα για τις συνεργατικές δράσεις του Co-Athens και να μπορέσετε να κάνετε κράτηση θέσης στη δράση της αρεσκείας σας!

Ακολουθεί αναλυτική ατζέντα της κεντρικής εκδήλωσης

Τετάρτη 16 Ιουνίου

17:00 - 17:15

17:15 - 17:30

17.30 – 17.50

17:50-18:20

18:20-18:40

18.40- 19.00

19.00 – 19.10

You are cordially invited to the online event

Curing the Limbo 2018-2021:

Athens’ lessons shared

Upon the occasion of the completion of the European pilot program of the City of Athens’ Curing the Limbo after 3 years of field of implementation, we are pleased to invite you to our final event “Curing the Limbo 2018-2021: Athens’ lessons shared”, which will take place online on June 16th, from 17:00 to 19:00.

Curing the Limbo is a pilot program that was implemented from 2018 to 2021 in the city of Athens. Its main goal was to test a dynamic and innovative integration model that allows refugees to become socially active, while supporting their transition from emergency assistance to an autonomous life in Athens. It is the first holistic integration program implemented at the local level by a municipality in Greece, having as its strategic objective the development of a policy proposal for the integration of refugees, in both Greek and European cities.

The program was addressed to adult refugees, providing them several concomitant services and connecting them with active citizens in Athens, giving them the opportunity to join activities and contribute to the improvement of city neighborhoods. The core services of Curing the Limbo offered language and technical skills training, access to affordable housing, psychosocial support, and job counselling services.

Curing the Limbo was implemented with the strategic collaboration of the University of Athens, Catholic Relief Services, the International Rescue Committee and the Athens Development and Destination Management Agency. The program is co-funded by the City of Athens and the European Regional Development Fund, through the Initiative “Urban Innovative Actions”.

During the online event, program partners will present their main findings in the fields of housing, education, job counselling, and collaboration with civil society, highlighting the innovations of this pilot integration approach. The audience will have the chance to watch testimonies from the program participants’ experience, as well as from other project partners (homeowners, employers, active citizens).

For further information, you can contact the event team at curingthelimbo@gmail.com.

The event will be in Greek with simultaneous English translation.

Parallel activities and workshops

On June 14th, 16th and 17th, Curing the Limbo will also present a series of public activities and open workshops from its initiative “Co-Athens”, that were co-designed, co-developed and co-implemented in partnership with the refugees participants of the Curing the Limbo and active citizens, aiming to positive changes in the neighborhoods of Athens. Due to limited capacity, and in compliance with the COVID 19 security measures, participation in the activities is secured with seat reservations.

A detailed agenda of the main event follows below.

Wednesday June 16th

17:00 - 17:15

Welcoming and greetings

• Kostas Bakoyannis, Mayor of Athens
• Melina Daskalakis, President of Athens Development and Destination Management Agency and Executive Advisor for Migrants and Refugees in the City of Athens
• Antigone Kotanidis, Project Manager for Curing the Limbo, City of Athens

17:15 - 17:30

A pilot program emerges in the neighborhoods of Athens

Antigone Kotanidis, Project Manager for the City of Athens, will present an overview of the program, as well as the key findings and conclusions from the holistic integration approach tested by Curing the Limbo.

17:30 - 17:50

Affordable Housing

Greeting by Conor O Loughlin, Country Representative for Catholic Relief Services

Stefania Gyftopoulou from Catholic Relief Services together with Bibiche Makilutila Matondo from Congo will present the program’s housing model. A video will be screened, where the audience will have the opportunity to learn about refugees’ and homeowners’ experience with the program, while learning how active participation from all involved parts leads to sustainable housing models.

17:50 - 18:20

Capacity Building Lab

Thalia Dragona, Coordinator of the trainings pillar on behalf of the University of Athens, will present the educational activities of the program, which aimed at skills and language acquisition and the cultivation of creative expression. She will showcase the critical role of the psychosocial service in a holistic integration program, and the importance of training cultural mediators. Experiences from the educators and the students will be presented in a short video.

18:20 - 18:40

Job Readiness

Greeting by Dimitra Kalogeropoulou, Head of Office for International Rescue Committee in Greece

Anastasia Sikiaridi and Amadeus Canals from the International Rescue Committee will present an overview of the job counseling services provided by Curing the Limbo. They will then invite to the panel employers from the network created in the program’s framework. Refugee participants who found a job with the support of Curing the Limbo will present their own recorded testimonies.

18:40 - 19:00

Becoming part of the City

Co-Athens team of the City of Athens with Haris Biskos and Katerina Apostolopoulou will present a dynamic process that involves, activates, and benefits not only the refugees, but the city itself, its citizens and its neighborhoods. Through a short video, the audience will watch snapshots from the joint activities of co-Athens, implemented by refugees in cooperation with the citizens of Athens, in the framework of Curing the Limbo. Through a live connection with several city spots, refugees and citizens will welcome the audience to the activities of co-Athens, taking place throughout the city.

19:00 - 19:10

Closing remarks

Urban Innovative Actions

Urban Innovative Actions (UIA) is an Initiative of the European Union that provides urban areas throughout Europe with resources to test new and unproven solutions to address contemporary urban challenges. Housing is on the core of the UIA initiative and several supported projects are in the process of developing affordable housing models in the framework of reducing poverty, integrating refugees and other vulnerable social groups while creating new jobs and promoting circular economy. UIA allowed the City of Athens to pilot the program Curing the Limbo from 2018 to 2021.

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