Vissani Pogoniou
44002 Ioannina
Greece
- Youth and education
YC EPIRUS has 3 departments: Youth department, Asylum Seeker Integration department, and Europe Direct Information Center. As of January 2023, the organisation employs 31 staff members and 5 contracted full time volunteers and the expected yearly budget for 2023 is around 150.000 Euros (the budget differs year by year). Main sources of funding are the Ministry of Asylum and Migration of Greece, private sponsorships, and several European programs - EDIC, Erasmus+, ESC, and CERV.
YC EPIRUS partners with several local organisations occasionally, and with numerous organisations in other countries, differing every year. In 2022, our organisation cooperated with 6 organisations in Greece and 45 non-governmental organisations in Europe, North Africa, South Caucasus and Middle East on various international projects, such as voluntarism projects, training courses, youth exchanges, youth participation projects, capacity building and innovative projects.
AMKE KENTRO NEON IPEIROU (YC Epirus) is a non-profit company located in Ioannina, Epirus region of Greece and operating since 2011, even though being officially registered since 2015. Main aims of YC Epirus are to improve general environment, promote coexistence and to develop the region of Epirus. Therefore, the main objectives of the organisation are to promote and contribute to youth work and non-formal education, promote values tied to human rights, interculturality, inclusivity and other values of the EU, promote international cooperation, active citizenship and youth participation, promote and support integration of disadvantaged people.
1)Youth center organizes and implements local, regional and international level events and projects created by and for young adults (mostly, aged 18-30). The activities are related to topics of quality in non-formal education, research and innovation, voluntarism, environment problems, LGBTQ issues, social inclusion, employment of young people, human rights, asylum seeker integration and policies, health and well-being, EU awareness, cultural awareness and others.
On local level, our volunteers, and youth workers offer leisure and non-formal educational activities to young adults, we implement occasional courses and workshops, informative events, cultural parties, several annual actions such as environmental actions, regional and large scale music festivals, and celebrations. Yearly, several hundred young adults benefit directly from non-formal educational activities and other events of the youth department, and several thousand people attend each of our large scale events.
The Youth department also organizes and participates in international non-formal educational projects such as youth exchanges, training courses, seminars and research, innovation and capacity building projects under programs Erasmus+, ESC, Europe for Citizens, and CERV, each year giving many young adults and some youth workers the opportunity to participate in non-formal education activities and related events.
2)The department of Europe Direct Information Center (EDIC) is a regional community point of access to official information about the European Union, including information about citizens’ rights, available services, funding opportunities, processes, and reports of the EU. Within it, many local and regional events and activities are carried out for all citizens.
3)Within the third department of Asylum Seeker Integration, our organization hosts a facility for 40 unaccompanied and underaged asylum seekers. Within this project, professionals accommodate and fully support the youngsters. The support includes legal work, psychologist and social work, medical and education support and referrals, cultural mediation, and other necessary support. In addition, our YC department volunteers work with the unaccompanied asylum seekers on daily basis and provide them with recreational and non-formal education activities, psycho-social monitoring support, and language education support.
We are open to network and exchange our practices and expertise with other organisations within the ALF Network. We strongly believe in cooperation when it comes to capacity building and reaching goals – both of our and other organisations' that work in similar fields. Our organisation is intercultural on a local level, by having an international and intercultural team and working with people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and we are very willing to share our experience and good practices in this field and, of course, other fields with other ALF Network member organisations in Greece and beyond.
Additionally, it would be our honor to contribute to any programs, activities, courses, calls, and the Research Centre supported by the Anna Lindh Foundation, because we believe in the mission of the Foundation and would be excited to work together with organizations supporting this cause, too.
When our organisation joined an activity supported by the ALF in 2013, we realized that the foundation brings active people and organisations from different regions together, is strategic and impactful in the areas our organisation is interested, too. It would be an honor and privilege to become part of the ANF Network, to join initiatives and programs supported by the foundation. For example, the Young Mediterranean Voices is a meaningful program for young people coming from our region, and it would be in our interests to promote youth participation in this program. Similarly, there are various resources and courses provided by the Foundation that could be beneficial to the work of our organisation, and moreover, we would benefit greatly from joining the partners' database of ANF, since our organisation is strongly based on cooperation for reaching our aims.