The Athens Solidarity Center (ASC) after 5 years of successful operation at the heart of the city supporting all those in need, is entering a new era with the support of the EEA Grants, and plans to keep supporting even more people in need of assistance.

The Center’s doors opened in December of 2014 and since then the Center is an exemplary best practice of cooperation between a public stakeholder (Athens Municipality), the local civil society and institutional funding bodies, such as the EEA Grants, that have supported the Center’s operation since its launch in 2014 until April of 2016.

From 2014 to 2019, more than 60.000 people have benefited from the services of the Athens Solidarity Center.

The Center follows an “open door policy” which means that it welcomes all regardless of nationality, origin, sexual orientation, religious or political belief. The only criterion that the Center has is vulnerability. The Center continues to serve hundreds who are in need on a daily basis, offering free services such as social, psychological, legal aid, employability counseling and accounting services.

“The Athens Solidarity Center has succeeded in embedding itself in the consciousness of people who often don’t have a lot of opportunities or options, as a space that can provide them with a solution or a way out of their multiple needs, which most times are urgent needs”, states Antigone Lyberaki, General Manager of SolidarityNow. “The EEA Grants have been companions of SolidarityNow for some time now, as they supported us when we first started our operations. They are standing by us again today, in order to support us in giving a bigger impetus to the services we offer at the Solidarity Center in order to be able to embrace even more people in a meaningful way: to solve with them their problems and concerns, but most importantly to empower them so they can reclaim their life again”.

“SolidarityNow is a trusted partner of Norway and the EEA Grants. We are proud to have supported the Athens Solidarity Centre in its early stages and are impressed with the progress and results. The donors’ renewed support to the Athens Solidarity Centre demonstrates our continuous commitment to the objectives of reducing social and economic disparities in Greece by supporting solutions that have a clear and practical impact on the society”, states the Ambassador of Norway to Greece, H.E. Mr. Frode Overland Andersen.

The second phase of our partnership, 2019 – 2021

The EEA Grants are funding the operation of the Athens Solidarity Center, setting common goals with SolidarityNow in the provision of holistic support to persons in danger of social exclusion, their empowerment and re-integration in society.

The Solidarity Center today offers high quality services to anyone in need – Greeks, refugees, migrants, other vulnerable groups, expanding its important scope of work to include the following:

• Social protection services
• Psychological support and counselling
• Legal service (counselling, court representation)
• Employability service (counselling)
• Accounting support
• Center for the Child (by the NGO ‘Network for Children’s Rights’, for children 0-12 years old)

The services offered at the Athens Solidarity Center are presented in detail in a video that was prepared to showcase the new partnership with the EEA Grants, inviting anyone in need of support to reach out and visit the Center in order to receive the appropriate help or advise.

You can watch the video

*Since May 2019 the Athens Solidarity Center is supported by EEA and Norway Grants and the fund is operated by CROWE Greece and HumanRights360. The Center is also supported by the Municipality of Athens.

**Athens Solidarity Center was established through Open Society Foundations and the EEA Grants 2009 – 2014 (EEAGR08.02), in cooperation with the Municipality of Athens until 30.04.2016.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Greek.

“You Can’t See Them.” This is the key message of the new SolidarityNow awareness campaign launched nationwide to inform and raise public awareness of the organization’s diverse actions on the side of the most vulnerable people and of its role in enhancing and empowering their integration without being visible thus, “we can’t see them”. Through this awareness campaign the organization (re)introduces itself to the wider public.

The campaign’s protagonists are SolidarityNow’s beneficiaries, as well as employees of the organization that supported its development.

“You Can’t See Them”

The new TV spot is airing on TV stations as a social message; through this spot SolidarityNow aims to make within 48” its own mark on the country’s humanitarian map and to inform the wider public about its actions.

In the TV spot, we see scenes of everyday life unfolding in the city: we are wondering around a downtown square on a sunny afternoon. In a café, we ​​see friends drinking their coffee and chatting. A group of friends celebrates one’s birthday, next to them two friends are having coffee while one waitress is serving another group. Sitting on a bench, a man and a woman are happily talking. Two parents play with their children in the square.

Looking at these scenes, nothing gives us the “other side” and the twist. Because in reality at that square, we see a homeless man who was sleeping on the streets for three years. We see a frightened woman who had long been abused by her former partner. We see a couple who had been living in poverty for years without any work. We see a family of refugees saved by the war and the cold waters of the Aegean.  

But you still, cannot see them. 

SolidarityNow, supported them to restart their lives from scratch through psychosocial support, housing and educational programs to help them re-integrate. To date, we have done this with more than 300,000 people in need. And we keep doing it.  

“At SolidarityNow we already count six years of continuous and effective action. As an organization operating in Greece, we traveled through the troubled waters of the economic – but also refugee – crisis, and – urgently – we became an organization that learned swimming and navigation while already in the water”, notes Antigone Lyberaki, the SolidarityNow General Manager. And she continues: “With this campaign, we believe we highlight the role of SolidarityNow in helping to create the modern conditions needed to rebuild the lives of those in need, with dignity and perspective. The goal of all our actions aims for people’s smooth integration and their return to normality. So, we can’t see them and distinguish them“.

The campaign’s how and where

Targeting to get the message across, SolidarityNow’s awareness campaign will be “on air” for the general public starting mid-November and for the next two months, and through various communication tools and actions:

• The TV spot (https://youtu.be/4u8VBx6G7GE) “You Can’t See Them” (aired pro bono as social message by the TV Channels)
• Special tribute to the SolidarityNow website
• Print ads and electronic ads
• Online campaign in the organization’s social media pages and accounts
• Thematic tribute in the organization’s e-newsletter
• Targeted articles in the press
• Human stories, with ‘heroes’ the people empowered and supported by the organization’s programs, published on the website, social media and the press.

The SolidarityNow awareness campaign was carried out pro bono by SohoSquare and the advertisement “You Can’t See Them” is a production of Foss Productions.

Stay tuned & follow our digital campaign!