The project “Healing Trauma through Play” (Healing Play) aimed to support refugee children and their parents, primarily those who arrived from Ukraine, with psychological support and educational activities to promote empowerment, psychological resilience opportunities, and processing of their challenges. The project was implemented in partnership with the UTechLab of the Eugenides Foundation and was funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs through the American Spaces program. Youth had the opportunity to join in STEM and educational activities and had access to counselling and psychological services at the Athens Solidarity Center of SolidarityNow. The project was completed in November 2023 (press release).

The project is supported by the US Embassy in Athens.

SolidarityNow was a partner in a 3 year long Erasmus+ programme, ENACTED (European Network of Active Civil Society for Education and Diversity) with partners from Italy, Cyprus, Spain and Greece (Thessaloniki and Athens), with the aim of analysing and promoting inclusive education policies and practices of children (newly arrived migrant students, school-age refugees and asylum seekers and migrants in this case) in all partner countries; this was done by engaging stakeholders in formal and non-formal in discussions about inclusive education, and the creation of an online platform inviting the stakeholders to discover, discuss and apply the identified best practices where possible.

The ENACTED project aimed at establishing a new and currently absent, yet much needed, international online networking platform connecting European Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Primary and Secondary Schools that work with Newly Arrived Migrant Students (NAMS) focusing on providing Quality and Inclusive Education for all learners.

As such, ENACTED stepped in to facilitate the collection, analysis, evaluation, and exchange of CSOs(NGO) practices by offering a database and useful tool in the form of a networking platform that CSOs and schools can use to advance their work and upscale their activities. In the first and  present stage, the partners from ENACTED conducted desk research- resulting in country-specific papers and (soon) a regional research paper on education practices in the 4 countries; the country-wide survey also had the aim to help the ENACTED team design and implement an effective programme catering to the needs of education stakeholders:

• Formal education providers (schools, teachers/ headteachers of primary/ secondary education)
• Non-formal education(NFE) providers: CSOs, NGOs, community centres or programmes working towards integrating migrant students in education
• Policy representatives: experts or departments of education or migrant integration at local, regional and national level

The project was completed in December 2022.

In February 2020, SolidarityNow, in collaboration with the Major Development Agency Thessaloniki S.A., began implementing  the program “School SYN Geitonia” with the aim of providing an intensive program for the improvement of learning skills, which included supportive and remedial Greek and English language courses, as well as school support after the school hours. The group consisted of children aged 6 to 18 in order to promote a smooth integration of this age group into the formal education system and the reduction of early school leaving rates. The local neighbourhoods of Thessaloniki were transformed into open inclusive and intercultural places. The program was completed in August 2022.

In December 2018, SolidarityNow, in collaboration with STAR UK, started implementing  the STARTnow program in order to help refugees and asylum seekers in their first steps in Thessaloniki, through their interaction with student volunteers.  The aim of the program was on the one hand to support and train volunteer students to provide substantial assistance to refugees and asylum seekers and on the other hand to support the beneficiaries to become familiar with the use of the Greek and English language while mobilizing them to follow their dreams and go beyond the part of passive service reception. The program was completed in June 2022.

* STAR UK is a national charity of 34,000 students welcoming refugees to the UK.

SolidarityNow continued until the middle of 2019, to successfully operate the Diadromes Intercultural Center. Education Matters, an initiative developed in close collaboration with Almasar and the Development Forum at the Athens Training Center “Diadromes“, included free support training courses, networking technician training in collaboration with CISCO and other activities for children and adults. The actions developed in the context of this initiative were completed in June 2019.