Volunteering and social giving culture in Greece are on the rise.

“I Care and Act” was selected and presented as best practice training program under  the “We Are All Citizens” EEA Grants program, for the period 2009-2014. The presentation, made at the opening ceremony of the Active Citizens Fund, was held at Serafio on 21/2, and supported by the Bodossaki Foundation.

Mrs. Lena Papalexopoulou, Vice-President of Desmos’ Board of Directors, mentioned the lack of a culture of volunteerism, solidarity and social giving in our country.

Below you find the full presentation:

In her speech she presented research findings of studies conducted from 2008 to 2014 in EU countries and the OECD, according to which Greece ranks last, with very low scores among all relative indices.

From 2014 onwards, although greece still displays limited results in the field, its ranking in the Global Indices of Giving improved significantly.

Given the absence of a culture of giving to society, Desmos developed “I Care and Act” in collaboration with the Lambraki Foundation. The program’s goal is to promote giving as an everyday activity among the yonger generation.

Since its inception in 2015, the program involved 500 schools from 13 peripheries, 48.000 schoolchildren, 3.400 teachers and fostered the cooperation with 1.700 social partners.

The qualitative findings of the program “I Care and Act” documented in a research conducted by the University of the Peloponnese, showed that schoolchildren who attended the program acquired a much better understanding of the concept of social giving than those who hadn’t.

Statistical studies reveal significant changes in the cognitive, emotional and behavioral level after the participation in “I Care and Act”.

Overall, the program has brought significant change in everyday life choices related to volunteerism and active citizenship among children and teenagers.