75 organizations working together to improve conditions for migrants and refugees in Athens

Athens Mayor George Kaminis today visited the Athens Coordination Center for Migrant and Refugee issues and met representatives of NGOs and other organisations which have joined forces under the coordination of the Municipality of Athens to improve service delivery for migrants and refugees in Athens.

"The city of Athens is proactively coordinating the voluntary and non-governmental organizations active in the field of migrant refugee support, aiming at social integration in the city", stressed the Mayor of Athens, Mr. George Kaminis, welcoming the representatives of these organizations and thanking founding donor, Stavros Niarchos Foundation for their decisive support.

The Center, set up and operating since June 2017 with an exclusive donation from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and with the coordination of the Athens Partnership, aims to coordinate efforts between the municipality of Athens and all those active in the field of support and integration of migrants and refugees.

“The donation for the establishment of the Athens Coordination Center for Migrant and Refugee issues is part of the large donation of €10 million from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation to the municipality of Athens, aiming at strengthening the capital's residents faced with a period of crisis, but also of regeneration opportunities. Initiatives such as these, which highlight the possibilities for public-private partnerships for the benefit of the wider community, are now more necessary than ever", said Myrto Xanthopoulou, a representative of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation's Grant Management.

The Athens Coordination Center for Migrant and Refugee issues has 75 member bodies with more than 200 delegates. The Center includes representatives from international and Greek NGOs, international organizations, immigrant communities, as well as municipal agencies. The main common goal is to develop a coordinated response both for dealing with new potential emergencies, as well as for the smooth integration of the immigrant and refugee population in the city of Athens.

Building a strong partnership network

Recently, the Center led the signing of 3 Memoranda of Understanding with other municipalities in Greece, with the aim of exchanging know-how and support for similar projects at a local level. So far, Memoranda have been signed with the municipalities of Thessaloniki, Trikala and Tripoli.

Through the work of the Center’s Technical Committees, gaps and needs have been identified and 65 proposals for pilot actions have already been produced with the aim of meeting the needs of migrants and refugees in areas such as housing, education, health, labor market integration and legal support.

At the same time, the Center has organized seminars, presentations and workshops in collaboration with important institutions. For example, the Center coordinates the participation of its members in the Athens - World Book Capital 2018 and is co-organizer of the Refugee Code Week initiative, through which more than 350 young refugees have been trained to date on the basic principles of programming.

How to respond effectively to a potential future refugee emergency? Developing a Preparedness and Response Mechanism for the City of Athens

The refugee and migrant crisis of 2015-6 highlighted the importance of effective mobilization of municipal structures and resources to address urgent human needs. A new study that aims to establish an efficient framework of response in the case of a future refugee emergency is being supervised by the Athens Coordination Center for Migrant and Refugee issues (ACCMR), which was established and is operating with an exclusive grant by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and with the support of Athens Partnership.

A study for setting up a Preparedness and Response Mechanism for the City of Athens is being developed with the financial support of the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) and the technical support of the International Rescue Committee (IRC). A Task Force to support the process was established on the initiative of the Vice–Mayor for Migrants, Refugees and Municipal Decentralization and is composed of representatives of the UNHCR - The UN Refugee Agency, the City of Athens Resilience Office and the Directorate of Social Solidarity and Health.

"Following the difficult, but highly enlightening experience of recent years with regard to the management of refugee and migrant flows, we have decided to work on a Preparedness Mechanism so that the City of Athens will be better prepared in case of a new crisis. The fact that the Municipality is taking precaution measures is in itself very important and obviously what matters most is the mechanism’s implementation,” explains Lefteris Papayannakis Vice – Mayor for Migrants, Refugees and Municipal Decentralization. 

An important step in this process was recently completed. The ACCMR organized two workshops on contingency planning and crisis management on 15 December and 9 January at the Orange Grove venue, courtesy of the Dutch Embassy.

The two workshops, supported by the IRC, provided a unique opportunity for a participatory technical discussion, involving city services and other key players. A total of 28 stakeholders participated in the workshops, including 13 specific bodies of the municipality, the Identification and Reception Service of the Ministry of Migration Policy, Attica Region, the UNHCR, Non-Governmental Organizations, namely, the Greek Council for Refugees, Action Aid, International Rescue Committee, Solidarity Now, International Organization for Migration, Unicef Greece and academia.

During the first workshop, participants used their experience and know-how to formulate three practical crisis scenarios for Athens and for each scenario, they assessed the risk probability depending on the possible occurrence of the hazard and the intensity of the emergency. The impact of the hazard depends on the loss or damage to the health and life of refugees and migrants and on the system's ability to respond to the emergency. The emergency situation may result from sudden internal flows or new mixed migration flows. During the next seminar, participants defined the basic municipal organizational structures and responsibilities to guide the City of Athens when involved in a refugee emergency. They also set out the main required preparatory actions to ensure an effective implementation of the contingency plan. 

These workshops will inform the wider study of the Preparedness and Response Mechanism for the City of Athens, due to be completed by the end of February, which will include suggestions for the institutional integration of a preparedness and crisis management plan into the municipal structures. The need for crisis management mechanisms is also recognized as a high priority in “Athens Resilience Strategy for 2030”, where large influx of refugees is identified as one of the main challenges of the city.

Athens Partnership Presentation at Foreign Press Association Christmas Drinks event

The F.P.A. invited members, colleagues and guests for Christmas drinks on December 20. In a relaxed and collegial atmosphere, it also hosted a presentation by the Athens Partnership, a non-profit carrying out high-impact public-private initiatives in partnership with the Municipality of Athens.

The Athens Partnership’s Executive Director Alexandros Kambouroglou gave a rundown of its 14 major projects and achievements since its 2015 launch with the backing of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. “We come up with real, scalable solutions,” Kambouroglou said.

Other key Athens Partnership officials were also present: Athens Vice Mayor for Migrants, Refugees and Municipal Decentralization Lefteris Papagiannakis; the city’s first Digital Officer Kostas Champidis; as well as Kostis Alketas Oungrinis, Vice Dean of the School of Architectural Engineering at the Technical University of Crete.

The F.P.A. founded in 1916, brings together the foreign press corps operating in Greece and hosts events and press briefings throughout the year.

reproduced from www.fpa.gr

Volunteer Athens Greeters give a warm welcome to the world!

As Athens neared a record-breaking 5 million visitors this year, our "Greeters program", coordinated by the Athens Partnership, made sure a warm welcome awaited tourists. A huge thank you goes to out to our 120 enthusiastic volunteers who were engaged in this City of Athens project that was successfully completed a few days ago with the support of The Hellenic Initiative, Aegean Airlines and Athens International Airport.

This video shows how the Athens Greeters are shared their love for their city and their intimate knowledge of Athens with the world!

The Athens Greeters program is part of the Athens Tourism Partnership, a wider effort to boost the tourist influx and local economy. The Athens Tourism Partnership aims to promote the Greek capital as a modern, attractive year-round destination.

Athens Digital Lab: An innovative venture that changes Athens and supports youth entrepreneurship

An initiative of the Athens Partnership, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), COSMOTE and Nokia, with an exclusive grant by the SNF.

The creation of the Athens Digital Lab, an innovative venture that aims to change Athens though revolutionary digital solutions, was announced today. Funded by an exclusive grant by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), the Athens Digital Lab brings together the City of Athens with COSMOTE, Nokia and SNF, in a groundbreaking venture coordinated by the Athens Partnership. This unique smart city research and development laboratory will support innovative solutions that will improve the quality of life of Athens’ residents and visitors.

The Athens Digital Lab competition is calling for digital ideas with the potential to change the city and invites individuals, groups and new technology enthusiasts to submit proposals that can evolve into advanced Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for smart cities. Proposals are requested to cover the following themes: cleaning, parking, green spaces, public spaces, vehicle fleet, open theme.

Five teams will be selected and will have the opportunity to work for a six-month period in a specially designed, modern and fully equipped lab, which will be provided by the municipality of Athens, having at their disposal all the technical and financial resources required for the implementation of their proposal. In addition, teams will receive:
• Technical support and guidance from executives of the municipality of Athens, COSMOTE and Nokia
• Access to the Nokia IMPACT IoT platform, a secure, standards-based, IoT platform on which to build and scale new IoT services
• Advanced network infrastructure by COSMOTE.

During implementation, teams will be able to perform field trials and will have access to the relevant data of the city for testing the solutions. The solutions that will be developed can be implemented in the municipality of Athens for two years while at the same time gaining access to sales channels in Greece and abroad, with the support of COSMOTE and Nokia.

Proposals submissions begins on October 17 and will end on Sunday, November 19, 2017. Submissions are made exclusively at www.athensdigitallab.gr.

The Mayor of Athens, Mr. George Kaminis, said: "With the Athens Digital Lab, Athens gets its own research and development laboratory for advanced Smart City solutions and the digital strategy of the municipality of Athens enters the implementation phase. We aim for technological solutions that will optimize everyday life for the citizens of Athens in the best possible way. We give young people - engineers, researchers and entrepreneurs the chance to become part of this development. We thank the Stavros Niarchos Foundation for its continuous support and trust, as well as Athens Partnership, COSMOTE and Nokia, who support the present and the future of Athens".