Summary of project results
In worldwide surveys, Greece is among the last countries, when it comes to citizens’ civic engagement and participation. In the school programs and books, there are limited or fragmented references to volunteerism, while there is no educational material or framework for cultivating volunteerism at schools. With the aim to reinforce and stabilize social solidarity and cohesion in Greece, Desmos created an educational program to cultivate civic engagement and volunteerism, through its introduction as a course to Greek schools. “I Care and I Act” (Niazome ke Dro) was designed and implemented during the 2015-2016 academic year by Desmos and the Lambrakis Foundation to 10 elementary schools and high schools in Attica. The program included a complete educational material approved by the Greek Ministry of Education, created after studying the cultivation of volunteerism to schools in Greece and abroad. The material produced can be used in all educational levels and it consists of: a) Book for the Teacher, b) Book of proposed activities, c) Book for the Student, d)
www.noiazomaikaidrw.gr. The program’s initial goal was to reach 30 teachers, 570 students and forge collaborations with 5 NGO’s. The goals were impressively surpassed, as the program managed to reach 54 teachers, 936 students and 85 social welfare organizations. It has exceeded all its goals by 64-170%, while 82.2% of the parents participated in the program’s activities. Additionally, 98.7% of all participants would like to continue implementing the program next year. In order to inform the educational community regarding the program 2 events were held in Thessaloniki and Patras with 166 participants, as part of the project's additional activities. Apart from the schools officially participating in the pilot phase, there were several others that applied for participating in the program, while 16 of them downloaded the educational material from
www.noiazomaikaidrw.gr and implemented the program independently. The most important contribution of the program, apart from training the teachers and mentors, the on-going support and the exquisite educational material was that it provided a concrete implementation and coordination framework to all participants who Care and Act in order to improve our society!