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Initiative

Niazome kai Dro (I Care and Act) educational progam - Civic Engagement at Schools in Greece

Niazome kai Dro (I Care and Act) educational progam - Civic Engagement at Schools in Greece
SUBMITTED FROM:

DESMOS

Desmos connects the giving of the private sector with the needs of social welfare organizations supporting vulnerable groups. The ultimate common goal is to assist in creating sustainable networks of solidarity and cultivate social and humanitarian responsibility.

 

Read more: www.desmos.org


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Objective Action

The "Niazome ke Dro (I Care and Act)" educational progam was created in order to introduce civic engagement through volunteerism at schools across Greece. The program's the long-term goal is to create the appropriate conditions in Greek society in order for its future citizens to focus on the benefit of the society instead of their personal gain. The program's pilot phase ran during the 2015-2016 academic year in 66 schools across Greece, with the participation of 66 schools, 321 teachers and 5,498 students. The program's extraordinary results were confirmed by its external evaluation conducted by the Patras University. "Niazome ke Dro" was implemented by Desmos Non-profit Foundation (www.desmos.org), in collaboration with the Lambrakis Foundation (www.lrf.gr), which specializes in designing and running educational progams. Desmos' ultimate goal and vision is to drastically influence the Greek people's mentality for the generations to come, in favor of raising civic consciousness, in favor of "we", instead of "I"

 

Target Audience

The program was designed for Greek schools and its primary beneficieries are 11-15 year-old participating students, as well as their teachers. Its secondary beneficiaries are the students' families, the social welfare organizations that collaborate with the schools,in order to design and implement civic engagement activities, and the broader community around each school. 

 

Duration

The program was implemented in 2015, 2016 and it will continue to run in 2017 and hopefully afterwards as well. 


Description

The "Niazome ke Dro (I Care and Act)" educational progam was created in order to introduce civic engagement through volunteerism at schools across Greece. The program's the long-term goal is to create the appropriate conditions in Greek society in order for its future citizens to focus on the benefit of the society instead of their personal gain. The program's pilot phase ran during the 2015-2016 academic year in 66 schools across Greece, with the participation of 66 schools, 321 teachers and 5,498 students. The program was implemented by Desmos Non-profit Foundation (www.desmos.org), in collaboration with the Lambrakis Foundation (www.lrf.gr), which specializes in designing and running educational progams. 

Participants of the pilot phase of "Niazome kai Dro" had the opportunity to get acquainted with the notion of volunteerism, solidarity and active citizenship, by designing and implementing experiential activities, in order to improve their school and their community. 

"Niazomai ke Dro" creates georaphical and theme based networks among schools. Simultaneously it provides schools with a specific framework including: i) polymorphic 3-volume educational material which introduces teachers and students to the notion of volunteerism, has proposed active citizenship activities and it can be downloaded for free on the program's website www.noiazomaikaidrw.org, which also contains plenty of information regarding the program and civic engagement, ii) the www.e-paideia.org online platform that operates as a communication, connection and coordination hub for the participating schools, iii) constant in person and distant training of the participants in order to provide them with the necessary tools and abilities to design and implement experiential activities with their students, iv) equipment and expendables where possible, by Desmos. 

For impementing the pilot phase, the program was aprroved by the Greek Ministry of Education and was funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the Bodossaki Foundation and Desmos. 


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Impact on Society

According to the program's initial goals the beneficiaries of the program would include 60 schools across Greece, 180 teachers and 3,300 students. Additionally, the program would involve 35 social welfare organiszations in the schools' activities. The results are quite impressive as the final numbers of participants of the program include 66 schools across Greece, 321 teachers and 5,498 students, while 321 social welfare organizations in total collaborated with the schools in order to implement civic engagement activities, surpassing thus our initial goals by far!



Initiative Location

The program was implemented across Greece and it reached all regions of the country. Specifically, Attica, Thessaloniki, Argolida, Achaia, Viotia, Dodekanese, Zakynthos, Herakleion, Ioannina, Kavala, Kozani, Cyclades, Lesvos, Magnisia, Messinia, Xanthi and Rethymno. 


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Working with Organization

For designing and implementing "Niazome ke Dro", Desmos is collaborating with the Lambrakis Foundation, a non-Profit research and development private institution of public interest, in the areas of education, culture and development, founded in 1991 in Athens, Greece. The Foundation has extensive experience in collaborating with the Ministry of Education, in designing and imlementing innovative educational projects, educational materials, in training and mentoring the teachers, in creating sustainable school networks. Through the years, the Lambrakis Foundation has built an extended local network of expert consultants, regarding educational matters, and has monitored state-of-the-art practice at international level via its involvement in joint projects, mainly with European partners. 


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Workers Participation

Desmos and the Lambrakis Foundation support the program with the full-time or part-time participation of 7 of their employees, as well as their BoD members and volunteers. 


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Benefits for Οrganization

Through "Noiazome ke Dro", Desmos had the opportunity to create new procedures regarding designing and implementing educational programs, fundraising, coordinating multiple funders with different procedures as well as applying to the Ministry of Education for approval of the program. At the same time, Desmos increased its network of organizations with the schools that participated in the program and its visibility to the public, as the recorded beneficiaries of the program surpassed 5,800 people. According to members of the educational community, several schools implemented the progra unofficially by downloading the educational meterial for free from www.noiazomaikaidrw.gr, thus the numbers of beneficiaries are estimated to be even higher. 




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