Xanthi TechLab

The aim of this partnership is to create a technology and innovation hub by engaging young people in the local community with new skills and creating career prospects to enhance the sense of employment and volunteering. By providing innovative educational workshops they bring together groups of young people, pupils, students, and young entrepreneurs to provide expertise, training, and networking. 

Equally important is the extroversion of the young people of the Muslim community who are geographically isolated in the mountainous Xanthi and through our actions, they come in contact with young people of their age, innovate by creating technological projects and groups of students who take initiatives.

In the last 4 years, more than 240 students from underprivileged social groups have benefited from our actions which are provided free of charge. 

Students aged 9-16

Students from 18-23

Adults 23+

The project in its new form has existed since late 2015 and is still ongoing.

By providing innovative educational workshops they bring together groups of young people, pupils, students, and young entrepreneurs to provide expertise, education, and networking. In the last 4 years, Xanthi TechLab's activities have amounted to more than 600 including workshops, meetings, and 3-4 month programs. Educational robotics, S.T.E.A.M. youth entrepreneurship empowerment, crowdfunding, presentation skills & 3d printing are some of the skills provided.

Embassy of the United States of America in Greece, Cultural Center of the Municipality of Xanthi, Democritus University of Thrace. Depending on the projects, there is cooperation with student organizations, local authorities, educational organizations, schools, etc.

The majority of them are voluntary

Xanthi and East Macedonia & Thrace

The results are the involvement of more than 15.000 people in our activities in the last 4 years and the creation of productive groups that propose, create, and strengthen the local ecosystem.

We also won 4th place in the Startupper Awards 2018 in the category structures - private and public initiatives, based on our collaborative actions to strengthen youth entrepreneurship in a region that has the highest youth unemployment rate in Europe.

Most importantly, in a multicultural region like Xanthi, with the Muslim element being distant from technology and innovation actions, we managed to engage them with educational robotics, bring them in contact with the youth of the wider region and strengthen their role in the local community. For the first time, we managed to take a group of young Roma students from the settlement of Droseros to an educational robotics camp and as a result, they became ambassadors of robotics and knowledge to their peers. Also in the mountainous region of Xanthi where a multitude of Pomaks live, we brought them for the first time in contact with new skills and young people from the wider region, resulting in an increase in their extroversion by participating in soft skills programs. 

Reaching out to volunteers, and new partnerships to involve the local community more and more effectively.