CIVIL SOCIETY: 269 PRACTICES
PRAKSIS whose main goal is the design, application and implementation of humanitarian programs and medical interventions, the elimination of social and economic exclusion of vulnerable social groups and the defense of their personal and social rights.
Read more: www.praksis.gr
The program entitles “SYN sto PLIN” (a positive aspect in a negative environment) is an innovative initiative, unique for Greece, designed jointly by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and PRAKSIS, that constitutes an effort to combat the growing social and economic problems that affect a large part of the Greek society. The antipoverty program has a double mission in order to face homelessness through intervention and prevention.
This section of the program is focusing on crisis management intervention both through the day centers but also through street working teams springing from them to reach out to this population. Using the existing social welfare system, the Day Center social workers provide through referrals the maximum possible assistance.
The Day Centers of PRAKSIS are open to all people or families facing homelessness conditions without any discrimination on gender, color, race and nationality, political or religious views or sexual orientation. A homeless condition does not necessarily mean a roofless condition. Not only people sleeping on the streets are homeless. People hosted for a small period of time by friends or family, people staying in a hostel, people living under the imminent threat of eviction, people living in dangerous or inappropriate buildings without running water or electricity, people living in overcrowded conditions, people sleeping in their cars, people living at risk of violence if staying in their home, people living in poor conditions.
Since May 2012, two Day Centers are in full operation in Athens and Piraeus, while the third Day Center in Thessaloniki operates since April 2014.
The Day Centers are equipped with social scientists and psychologists whose main focus is to support registered visitors on various areas ranging from psychological support, their search for permanent housing as well as supporting them on any administration/bureaucratic affairs, according to their personal needs. The Day Centers operate a medical clinic providing first aid support and redirecting needs of homeless visiting the clinics, through referrals to hospitals or other social services. The provision of medical services is of crucial importance since 60% of the Day Center visitors seek First Aid help and need of Health Care advice. Due to the holistic approach followed by the program, apart from the first aid and health care advises, services also include psychological and social support & referrals showers and laundry, clothing room beverages and snacks, Internet, mail and telephone access, employment support and access and help guidance for state social services.
Outreach activities by street workers aim at identifying and recording people that are sleeping rough and in case of medical emergency refer to emergency units of public hospitals. Outreach activities are forming an integrated component of the process that aims to motivate people sleeping rough start putting in place a plan and a target that could improve their status.
Through the daily operation of Day Centers new needs came to the surface with regard to recreational and educational activities. As a result was the creation of multi-functional spaces that could facilitate the growing and unmatched needs of beneficiaries. In accordance, the Day Centers operate a children playground in order to facilitate the activities of homeless’ children, a teaching room, where beneficiaries can learn the Greek language and a cinema club as well as a lending library and a visiting hairdresser. The Lending Library provides direct access to books, both for the children and families of the “SYN sto PLIN” program. The library is in full operation since May 2014 and it is mainly supported by volunteers of PRAKSIS. It hosts over 1,700 titles of books of all categories and languages. The children playground is special designed for the children of benefited families and it is mainly used for recreational as well as educational purposes such as playing with toys or drawing and other entertaining activities. The cinema club operates since October 2013 on a weekly basis. Every Sunday, beneficiaries have the opportunity to choose their movies and participate in open discussions regarding the films after the end of them. The hair salon operates since January 2014, giving the opportunity to beneficiaries for basic services of personal care that might be obvious for everyone but is a luxury for many.
For the period of May 2012 – November 2014 the Day Centers in Athens, Piraeus and Thessaloniki have supported more than 5.000 individuals and 115.903 visiting have been made so far. The program has been recently evaluated from external auditors and the evaluation showed the following important results:
• 14.143 Psychosocial Support Counseling Sessions.
• 9.101 Medical Care Acts.
• 3.269 Escorts and referrals.
• 1.308 Employment Counseling Sessions.
• 56.964 Uses of Washing Machines and shower facilities.
As the recent evaluation showed the operation of the Day Centers can be considered as the first and one of the very few reliable sources of recorded data on this population group in Athens and Piraeus. In addition, the 25% of the homeless population in the broader region of Athens is estimated to get relief and support in one of the Day Centers of the program.
The project is being implemented in the areas of Athens, Piraeus and Thessaloniki.
PRAKSIS was able to initiate the program with the valuable financial support of its basic partner in this effort, the “Stavros Niarchos Foundation”. The sustainability and extension of this program has been made possible by a multitude of sponsors.
The HR involved in this program consists of Coordinator, Administrative staff, Social Sciences, Doctor & Nurses, Support Personnel and Driver. Additionally in this program, a multitude of volunteers are involved.
Τhe impact of Day Centers οn the broader economy is significant as they reduce the workload of other public services related to homeless population, providing significant benefits to the economy. In brief, the total monetary benefits for the economy assuming savings from reduced medical acts, pharmaceutical prions, hospitalization and juridical services are estimated to be around 1.3 million euros.
No Connection with Global Goals found