The activities where the volunteers will be offering their service is within the main offices of EDRA.

We are operating two mental health residences, one day care centre and one creative workshop, but this activity concerns youth information and will be accommodated to our offices. The environment is professional following standards of quality and hygiene and the volunteers will be working next to an experienced youth worker (our EVS Coordinator) who will be directing them and will have the role of the point of reference for the volunteer in the 'working' environment. Our organisation has an open culture where decision making takes place involving all parties involved and affected.
EDRA is located on the west district of Athens and is the largest suburb of the Greek capital. Its population exceeds 300.000 and it is one of the liveliest places in the capital of Greece. The main class of Peristeri is working class, although, because of its geographical situation, many new businesses are established here. Lots of young Athenians are coming to Peristeri to enjoy nightlife, cinema, and culture and be part of sports and other recreational groups/teams. The centre of Athens in only 15 minutes away by metro and there are frequent buses that connect the town with other neighbouring suburbs. Although Peristeri has a big population of young people, it is evident that youth information is not being diffused effectively to young people with a result of youngsters not being aware of possibilities concerning volunteerism, mobility, education, and much more. It is worth mentioning that the city does not have a youth centre, and through are activities that we will mention later on we want to make young people and not only more aware, more active and more pro Europe and tolerant to tolerant to difference.
As about Athens, where the house of the volunteers is located, we imagine that there is not enough space on this application to outline the different activities and chances a young person can have in this metropolitan centre. A great change has taken place through the Olympic Games of 2004. The whole city has been transformed from an ugly duck to a beautiful swan. Its history is apparent in every corner with Parthenon over Acropolis standing still for the last 2500 years. Athens is a city that is awake 24 hours a day, and within this time possibilities are numerous: museums, concerts, theatre, dance, nightlife, sports, cultural, political and other centres. You ask it, you have it.
Not applicable, the volunteers will be staying in their own apartment. The house is located in the area of Thissio, in the centre of Athens. The house has three double rooms, one living-room, one bathroom, one extra toilet, and is fully equipped with electrical appliances and household items
Our volunteers will have the chance to go through an on going learning process through which they will gain a number of skills and competences.
First of all, at the arrival of the volunteers they will be formally trained on EVS and Youth in Action but also on how to prepare an online newsletter and update a website. But more importantly they will be trained on Project and Time Management as they will be involved in workshops and activities that they will have the chance to manage.
Moreover, throughout the whole project there will be on the job training in issues concerning youth work and youth coaching as they will be working next to a youth worker and they will also assist in some youth coaching tasks.
Furthermore, our volunteers will have the chance to improve their communication skills within an intercultural context by learning how to express themselves in the local language (a course will be given to them) and English which is the language mostly used between us and our volunteers at least in the beginning of the project.
All of the above are part of our overall EVS planning and they will be evaluated on a monthly basis. We have to mention that there is a mentor assigned to follow their learning and support it any possible way including the formal evaluations. The mentor is also responsible for their social integration and generally to make sure that the volunteers feel comfortable, evolve and integrate to EVS, the project and the local community. Finally, the mentor is the contact and reference person for any information needed or for conflict resolution processes. The mentor is on stand by for volunteers' needs but formally there will be weekly meeting in the house of the volunteers or the organisation's offices.
Concerning Youthpass, at the arrival of the volunteer there will be a meeting to explain Youthpass and discover how the volunteers perceive their learning. Accordingly, the EVS planning will be based on the findings of that meeting in order to facilitate the final production of Youthpass that will take place in a meeting between the mentor and the volunteer.
At the end of the project, the volunteers will be briefed on future possibilities and will be directed accordingly depending on the will of the volunteers. They will be re-briefed in Youth in Action, Erasmus, Leonardo Da Vinci and other mobility possibilities but also supported for their follow up activity if they have applied for it.
The volunteeers tasks will always have an assisting character, unless they want to take further some of their responsibilities and try their own initiatives. However, the two latter will always be done with proper supervision and coaching. Still, we can say that the role of the volunteers is to support the organisations new activities that target to the empowerment of young people, diffusion of youth information, and promotion of youth in action, evs and volunteerism.
The volunteers will be involved in activities that will be targeting young people of the local area, Greece and also EVS volunteers. We have already developed a timetable with activities, but we will also be very happy to incorporate the ideas and initiatives of our volunteers. Once they have adapted to the new environement they can discuss this possibility with their point of reference and their mentor in order to decide on how to proceed and have at the same time the appropriate support .
In more particular, the activities where the volunteers will be assisting consist of:
Promotion of Youth in Action, EVS and volunteerism through open days in the offices of EDRA and also in festivals, conferences, bazaars we are taking part.
Update of the blog that EDRA has developed concerning the EVS activities of the organisation (www.edra-evs.blogspot.com)
Development of a newsletter for the world of EVS in Greece. A 8-12 pages online newsletter, that will be delievered online to EVS volunteers with news, articles, and information (interviews, explanations, happenings, possibilities etc) that concern EVS volunteers in Greece. This will be promoted through our blog but also through a youth initiative that has been developed by a non formal group (where some of its members are also members of our organisation) concerning EVS in Greece (www.evsactually.gr)
Promotion and preparation of a video forum that will be centred around themes according to the priorities of the Youth in Action programme and in more particular to issues such as intercultural learning/dialogue, active/european citizenship, The video forums will be open for young people including local EVS volunteers and discussions will follow.
Promotion and maintenance of our EVS Library. This is a library we have organised and still update with information about Europe, Youth in Action, EVS, Greece, but also literature, language books, travel books, science etc. This library has a multilingual character and the idea is that we can give the possibility to local people and foregners in Greece (including EVS volunteers) to have the opportunity to have access tob books and information of different interests in different languages.
Also, the volunteers together with the stuff and volunteers of EDRA will organise special workshops days, where they have the possibility to do activities such as:
Intecultural evenings, expositions of local artists, language courses, theatre, dance, photography, craftworks, non formal education dynamics (these are skills that the people currently in EDRA have and have obliged themselves in leading the workshops once per month) Volunteers will be occupied from Monday to Friday (except special occcasions where if they work in the weekend they will have an extra free day off). The timetable will be as follows:
The volunteers will be occupied 30 hours a week plus 2 hours per week for Greek language lessons. That makes a total of 32 hours.
The office will be open from 9.00 to 21.00. The volunteers will be occupied 6 hours per day within the opening hours of our office. Normally, it will be in the morning, except that days of the videoforum, open days for local people to promote EVS, Youth in Action and Volunteerism, and also evening where we will have special workshops. (These will be once per month each)
Days without evening activities
9.00 to 15.00
Days with evening activities (once per week)
15.00 to 21.00
Still, the volunteers are expected in times to take part in other activities organised by EDRA such as holidays, festivals, conferences which are happening in particular times of the year and for the moment we can only speculate timing.
Finally, we need to note that every week they will have two days off which will normally be the Saturday and Sunday. Concerning their holidays, according to the EVS guide (Youth in Action), volunteers will have 2 days per month off, plus bank holidays, and we can also make discussions for extra days off in case of personal and educational reasons.
We find that the most important thing concerning our potential volunteers is the honest interest in the proposed activities. Accordingly, we are looking for volunteers that have a background proving this not through studies and work experience but through volunteer work and a motivation letter that is followed by an interview over the phone. Nonetheless, as mentioned before, our positions are open for anyone that can demonstrate a real will to work with youth information.
We are already part of a number of networks and this is where we promote our calls for participation. The networks include our own network through past co-operations, Yahoo groups active in youth and youth in action (such as European-youth-exchanges and host-sending-EVS-possibilities and finally through www.youthnetworks.eu which is a private initiative and works as the SOS database but it is more updated. In extreme circumstances, we also put ourselves in contact directly with the National Agencies.
Through the process of selecting the right volunteers we are considering a number of factors. First of all, we are looking for evidence that prove the motivation of the volunteer. Secondly, we are trying to find information on the sending organisation from our partners to know who we deal with. After a pre-selection, e inform all unsuccessful volunteers and we move to selection that takes place in a meeting with the presence of current volunteers, the mentor, the president of the organisation, the EVS coordinator and the supervisors in the structures of the volunteers. As already mentioned the most important issue is the demonstrated motivation and will of the volunteer to be part of our organisation and what we stand for. Finally, a significant issue is the demonstration of openness to difference and will to learn from others and the intercultural context we are offering.
In the selection process, we take into consideration the profile of the volunteer (through their CV and motivation letter) but also of the needs of the organisation and our different activities. At the first couple of weeks of their volunteer service we give them the space to be observers in all of the activities that we have in order to have an idea. After that, we sit down and methodically, together we prepare the planning of activities for the particular volunteer. A very important issue is also the Youthpass that we are planning to use not only at the end of he project but also in the beginning in order to have a more volunteer oriented approach to the development of the activities and the meeting of the volunteer's profile and of our activities.
No special skills are required to do the task in our activities as there is always professional supervision and training at the initial stage of the volunteer project but also through our the whole period the volunteer is with us.
EDRA has been operating since 2001. Since then, quality standards have been a priority for us and accordingly we work within professionalism and only. Our organisation employs around 50 people that are each responsible for particular tasks within our structures. Nonetheless, we are every year introducing new activities as we think an organisation such as ours should go beyond the minimum standards. The activities we are proposing do not substitute paid at work under any circumstances. EDRA cannot operate as a Youth Centre, but since there is the need of youth information diffusion and activities for young people in the local environment, EDRA is providing its space and its resources in order to be able with the assistance of EVS volunteers to produce a result that can only benefit young people in the local community, the local community itself and also EVS volunteers in Greece.
We are open to receive volunteers with fewer opportunities. We are still not expecting particular skills or experience but we need to have a confirmation concerning the preparation that will take place on behalf of the sendind organisation. Also, it is vital to know the exact profile and medical condition-history of the volunteers in order to be able to organise their EVS accordingly. It should be mentioned that if the volunteer needs extreme medical attention, we might not be able to take on such a responsibility.
Conflict/crisis management and conflict/crisis resolution is a vital issue for the success of EVS. We have to admit as an organisation that conflict is inevitable and it should not always be treated as something negative. We have a process to be followed including meetings and coaching techniques that have been learnt in EVS trainings. Accordingly, we brief the volunteers on conflict and how they should treat it in cases it comes up. Nonetheless, we are trying to keep the roles very clear and set a number of basic rules that should be followed in the interaction of the volunteers and their accommodation. Responsible for these cases is the mentor but also the social worker is on stand by the act if necessary.
Concerning crisis, the volunteers at the arrival are given a number of contacts of emergency within the organisation but also the local community. Also, they are shown where the nearest pharmacy, police station and hospital are and finally, there is always a person on stand by 2 hours a day that can be reached through mobile phone.
Concerning underage volunteers, a person will be assigned to be their personal mentor/tutor that will be responsible for their safety and supervision.

Edra gives a great value to volunteerism as a mean to solidarity, development and expression. Accordingly, we have introduced a volunteer mechanism for local volunteers that are interesed in special needs and social exclusion and we are also active within the Youth in Action Programme mainly through EVS (sending and host organisation since 2005 with the Youth Programme). Volunteerism for us is a two way communication process between equals and for this reason we have it high in our agendas providing our volunteers a space within which them and us can evolve and develop. Especially within EVS and the intercultural and crossnational elements that are involved we have been giving our best to be a model EVS organisation always trying for the best and opening our organisation to cross-national partneships. So far we have hosted 13 volunteers from 9 different countries and we have sent 6 volunteers abroad. We have also taken part/co-oganised seminars and trainings related to EVS 6 times. We are valuing planning and organisation and this is why so far we have been succesfull in EVS. From preparation to implementation, evaluation and follow up we are trying our best in a methodological way to have the best effect for us and our volunteers. Accordingly, we supported two volunteers realise their future capital and we have also assisted a number of organisations on starting up EVS. EVS has been for us a tool that has changed attitudes and energy levels within our organisation. We have been active for 2 years and hopefully we will stay active for as long as this programme gives this great opportunity to NGOs and young people. Also, since year 2007 and we are an aproved host,sending and coordinating organisations (2007-GR-47).


Our vision is to develop the necessary activities and actions that enhance the possibilities of mental health service users to become active members of the society and their workplace without having the mental service user stigma following their lives.
Our staff consists of professional in the field of mental health and intellectual disabilities. We count 45 working people with a variety of backgrounds such as, psychiatry, psychology, nursing, occupational therapy, logo therapy, physiotherapy, educational tutors etc.
EDRA is a member of
Argos Network - A network of private organizations applying Psihargos Projects
Praxis - Hellenic network of Productive Workshops
Neapolis - Network of mental health organizations in West Athens
Posopsi and Sopsi - Network of families with special needs members
Hellenic NGO Federation
HEALTH ACTIVITIES "Hippocrates I" - Socio-psychological Rehabilitation Unit offering services to 15 users "Hippocrates II" - Socio-psychological Rehabilitation Unit offering services to 10 users "EDRA" Creative and Productive Workshop - Social and Occupational Re-integration Unit "PNOE" - Learning Disabilities Rehabilitation Unit SOCIAL ACTIVITIES Founding member of "NEAPOLIS" - Social and Mental Health Organizations Network of W. Athens Founding Member of "ARGOS" - Pan-Hellenic Network of Non-Profit Organisations operating in the field of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Member Of "PRAXIS" - Pan-Hellenic Network for Occupational Re-integration of People with Special Needs Member of "SOPSI" and "POSOPSI" - Local and Pan-Hellenic Associations for families with members with special needs REHABILITATION THROUGH ART AND SPORTS Theatre group for people with mental health problems Photography groups for people with mental health problems Participation-Organisation of Sports activities for people with mental health and intellectual problems SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES Organisation - Participation in Conferences/Workshops/Seminars Magazine "ALMA" publisher of a magazine with articles concerning mental health problems and intellectual disabilities Constructed website with an open forum for issues within mental health VOLUNTEERISM Development of a local volunteer mechanism to promote volunteerism in mental health Participation in the European Youth Programme - Action 2 - European Voluntary Service EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES "EDRA" also operates as: 1. an educational/training centre for mental health practitioners that will work in private mental health Institutions 2. a training centre for University and Polytechnics students (Schools of Social Workers, Occupational Therapists etc.) and 3. develops educational seminars for its own employees and volunteers. OTHER ACTIVITIES - Organisation of 5X5 football championship for employees working in Mental health Units. - Blood Bank organisation
- Publishing informational prints concerning mental health and intellectual disabilities - Theatre group open to the local community