1) Hosting unaccompanied refugee children.
The Ark of the World always accepts children and families from all around the world. So when the refugee surge rose we created in our branch in Chios spaces suitable for accepting and hosting unaccompanied minors refugees. There is collaboration with National Centre for Social Solidarity from where refugee children come to us. Now this branch houses 25 children, while a total of 120 children had been cared for there for a while.
2) The reception center that provides meals, relief and psychological support to homeless people and other vulnerable groups.
The Center provides meals to our homeless, lonely and needy fellow human beings but also the opportunity to look after themselves and tend to their personal hygiene. Located in central Athens, it is also staffed with specialist psychologists and social workers; training workshops and handicrafts’ classes are also conducted, in which the trainees themselves create artifacts to be sold, thus creating a small income for them. There’s also the possibility to continue doing this as a profession, should they wish to and be able to.
3) Center for young people with delinquent - deviant behavior and psychosocial difficulties.
Two years ago a special need emerged for us related to children that came to us by court order and have expressed delinquent behavior. Every need that rises shows us the way for the creation of additional programs, so now the creation of a youth centre was mandatory. The aim of this program is to host and rehabilitate young people with delinquent – deviant behavior and psychosocial difficulties. In order to achieve its goal our program offers an integrated approach that includes individual and group therapy, parallel psychological support of families, work therapy, lifelong learning skills, remedial teaching and education, adequate to cover the emotional, mental, learning, educational and social needs of young people with delinquent and dysfunctional behavior.
4) Apprenticeship Program
An extension but mainly a critical need of the above program is the apprenticeship program, where the young with similar behaviours, has the opportunity to be an apprentice, work next to a handyman and train himself on his expertise developing his skills. Through this, there is twofold advantage since we manage to cover a large part of his time creatively as he converts his abilities to potential and at the same time he avoids cunning thoughts. Besides, according to our ancestors, "Idleness (is mother) (of) all evil". In order to achieve this goal, we have developed a good cooperation with juvenile prosecutor (through labour contracts for minors) and professional handymen who have shown great affection through supporting and embracing our initiative and guiding children on their first steps in their career path.
This is a stepping stone and unique initiative for our Greek society, where the multi-factorial problem of delinquent and deviate behaviour of young is constantly growing without finding an answer to any supporting framework for a population with such special needs.
5) The program for semi-independent living for young adults.
This project arose from the need of the children when they become 18 years of age and legally no longer qualify as children, but as young adults; without a family, income and support, their choices are truly limited. The Ark backs our children up as they become adults until they manage to stand on their own feet. We provide them with living quarters and cover their expenses; allowances are given to young people as a support during their studies and throughout their military service. After high school, they attend higher education establishments or enroll in apprenticeship programs to learn the trade in real working conditions and be trained by real professionals (plumbers, electricians, and car mechanics).
http://kivotostoukosmou.org
