THE ELPIDA PROJECTMay 2016 - December 2016

a quick overview

Elpida

OVER

460VOLUNTEERS

For two months before the residents arrived more than 100 Better Days volunteers from over 35 different countries worked tirelessly to transform an old jeans factory into a warm, welcoming home where refugees can live with dignity and respect.

We cleaned, gardened, set up rooms, built furniture, compiled information boards, and created a multitude of social and activity spaces. We painted the walls and filled the space with love and humanity in order to welcome Elpida’s future residents.

After the residents arrived, volunteers and residents worked together to create activities and systems centered around community and humanity.

We created activities like English and German classes, yoga, aerobics, cosmetics and hair workshops, design and technical workshops, sewing, photography, and sports competitions – many of which are either co-hosted or led by residents.

We designed and implemented systems for volunteer coordination and training, information point, distribution, communal kitchen facilities, education, waste management and ecology.

We have done all of this with 100% private funding and no salaries.

FROM

37DIFFERENTCOUNTRIES

ORGANISEDOVER

45DIFFERENTACTIVITIES

WITH

HUNDREDSOF RESIDENTS

In the period of 6 months we launched and operated over 45 different activities.

The Better Days Activity Programme was customized in response to the first “Elpida Residents Skills & Needs Assessment” performed within 7 days of the residents’ arrival. This quantitative way of identifying needs based on popular demand, enabled us to design an activity curriculum that responded to residents’ requests.

ACTIVITIES

OVER

45 DIFFERENT ACTIVITIESINCLUDING

SEWING CINEMA YOGA SPORTS ART

LANGUAGE CLASSESTHREE LEVELS OFADULT ENGLISH

BASIC ADULT GERMAN

RESIDENT TAUGHTARABIC FOR VOLUNTEERS

Three levels of English courses provided conversational language skills needed to complete everyday tasks. Regular German and even occasional Spanish classes were offered to interested residents.

Residents taught Arabic classes to volunteers.

Students practiced their skills with a variety of engaging activities including role playing, games and speed conversation sessions.

Language classes were extremely important and very popular with our residents. Language skills are an essential part of the integration process and everyday life in their future communities.

BASIC ADULT SPANISH

TOGETHER we built a

fully stocked FREE clothing shop

The objective:to bring back a sense of normalcy into residents’ lives to distribute essential items in a dignified way to maximize choice and reduce waste

FREE CLOTHING SHOP

We also aided in the creation of a credit system by which residents could accumulate credits, overtime, and redeem their credits for items of their choosing.

This allowed residents and fair and dignified way to “shop” for clothing that they wanted.

Volunteers by Country of Origin

The Together for Better Days team was 100% volunteer led and run. Volunteers are the heart and soul of Better Days. Our volunteers come from all over the world. We had over 37 different nationalities helping us to design and build warm welcoming spaces, plan activities and operate Elpida.

DIFFERENTNATIONALITIESWORKINGTOGETHER

37

VOLUNTEERS

VOLUNTEERTRAINING

Our training provided an important foundation for each and every one of our volunteers to hit the ground running. We encouraged responsibility, creativity and innovation from everyone.

It also gave important protection and safeguarding guidelines to all of our volunteers. The purpose: to understand the protection needs of the refugee situation to identify and refer protection cases through the correct channels to minimise risk to everyone

INTRODUCTIONS -30 MINUTES

INFORMATION AND BACKGROUND ABOUT BETTER DAYS & ELPIDA -30 MINUTES

INFORMATION ABOUT THE LEGAL SITUATION IN GREECE -30 MINUTES

TOUR OF ELPIDA - 45 MINUTES

CODE OF CONDUCT, RULES, REGULATIONS & PROCEDURES -1 HOUR

Additional trainings, provided by our partners, supplemented our training and offered more depth on topics such as: child protection, attachment, self-care, first aid, etc.

PROTECTION TRAINING &REFERRAL PATHWAYS -3 HOURS

VOLUNTEERCOORDINATION

Better Days is part of a much larger volunteer movement.

Our activities were coordinated to ensure consistency and reliability. This means our residents could rely on their favorite activities to be uninterrupted and seamless regardless of regular volunteer turnover.

Our volunteer management, coordination and training has been built and maintained by our core team of dedicated, long-term volunteers.

These systems were developed and continually adapted to meet the needs of our volunteers and our community. We simultaneously innovated while consulting with professionals to incorporate best practices into everything we do.

AREA DESIGN &INFRASTRUCTURE

THE TEA SPACE THE MEN’S SPACE THE ACTIVITY SPACE

THE WOMEN’S SPACE