The educational program created by Desmos, embraced by the Institute of Educational Policy of the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs.
The program “I Care & Act”, was created in 2015 by Desmos, in collaboration with the Lambrakis Foundation, in order to cultivate a culture of giving and help create a collective mentality of civic engagement, by inspiring actions of volunteerism and solidarity through the education of the younger generations. It is a complete educational program for students of all ages, with original educational material for teachers and students – specially designed to adapt to any type or class of school and all subjects.
The signifying difference of “I Care and Act” in relation to other educational programs is the innovative learning methodology which is based on experiential teaching. Students, through the guidance of their teachers, think, plan, implement and evaluate social contribution activities. They experience the joy of giving and the power of change by creating experiences of volunteerism and active citizenship inside and outside the classroom.
From its onset, the program received enthusiastic reviews – leading to repeated yearly approvals from the Ministry of Education and Religion for 5 consecutive years, creating a consistently exponential number of participants per year of implementation.
Between 2015 and 2020, over 63,500 students and 5,200 coordinators from 681 schools participated in the “I Care and Act” educational program throughout Greece.
In the year 2019 – 2020, amidst the extraordinary conditions we experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the educational program “I Care and Act”, completed its 5th cycle. The program was implemented in 182 schools nationwide with 1,470 teachers and 14,743 students participating, and the cooperation of 620 civil society organizations.
Culminating on its five-year successful implementation, 2020-2021 is a milestone school year for the “I Care and Act” program. The Institute of Educational Policy adopted and incorporated the program in a pilot educational curriculum for primary and secondary schools. Students in 218 schools (of all levels) will attend 10 experiential laboratory meetings in the framework of “Skills Workshops”. We are happy to announce that the entire methodological framework, content, tools, good practices, the network (teachers – students – parents – civil society organizations) and the know-how created within the framework of ” I care and I act ” has been handed over and will be available to all concerned parties.