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Description
In the wider area of Heraklion in Crete, many migrants live and work, alone or with their families. In the same area, through the integration programs ESTIA and HELIOS, many refugees have also arrived, most of them with their families, and many remain after the end of these programs. Through the program of the social laboratory of creative integration that we developed in the Thalassa of Solidarity, we are coming in contact with these migrant and refugee communities on a daily basis. Their problems are many, but one of the main ones is the lack of information on where and how they could be served on their key issues such as access to services, the labor market, health services, and their rights. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, these groups, along with others such as the unemployed and homeless Greeks, have been further pressured and the difficulty of accessing information via electronic means makes the situation even more difficult.
The purpose of the project is to create a network of state actors and organizations where with seminars, production of information material and a permanent website will be able to bring all this information to those interested, in their language, migrants or locals, and this information will be based to the needs of themselves, refugees, immigrants and locals facing social exclusion.
Through meetings and consultation with existing agencies we will make a survival map in Heraklion Crete with information on all organizations and agencies, with the services and criteria that exist, which needs can be met and which needs are not met. This will help in a permanent interaction between the institutions and the served public. In this way, civil society organizations will be closer, they will be able to face common challenges but also to take initiatives for new actions.