|
2. Visit day Center for Homeless
The team is composed of counsellors, psychologists
and educators. Access is free, accept everyone. Are
mainly guidance and enter to services without making
a real acceptance. Provide the following:
1)
Primary services
2)
Dispensary - Clinic
3)
Consulting for the job
4)
Counselling
Have a
large group of volunteers who run various
activities:
1)
Teaching language
2)
Library Management
3)
Babysitting in the Center
4)
During the weekend running a film Club
The Center
receives about 120 people a day, do not have
cultural mediators.
The Center
is located in an area of Athens experienced by drug
addicts, take that category of people but try to
avoid that colonize the Center.
Are
experiencing an increase in drug addicts (despite
the crisis) cheaper and more harmful substances.
Collaborate with health services but do not have
formal meetings programmed.
Often
geared to health services but do not get effective
responses to complex needs that these people bring.
Co-working
with many different services but often by phone,
and you do not know face to face. Looking to partner
with other organizations in a complementary manner
although sometimes depart from different
perspectives can often work together. (in Ireland
the competition imposed by the State among
organizations leads to lower costs of services and a
consequent reduction in quality, but if you create
synergy between large organizations can create a
lobby that face advocacy with the Government).
At this
time the main problem in Greece are migrants seeking
asylum, the closing of borders and agreements with
Turkey are the topics on the agenda.
3 Visit DIOGENES
Support the most vulnerable part of society:
1) Homeless
2) Drug addicts
3) Migrants
Since 2007
have launched the Kickout poverty, a project that
through sports activity facilitates the social
inclusion of people. Every week they have a workout
and play soccer, participate in the Homeless World
Cup. The most important thing is to team up, regain
self-confidence, is a life-changing experience of
these people, the mobility.
From 2014 released a street newspaper, is a monthly
magazine which costs 3 euros, is sold by the
homeless that they get a percentage. People in
social difficulty working on monthly build skills
and gain confidence.
The
magazine is only sold on the street by vulnerable
people, the challenge is to produce a good monthly
with good content that is not being bought for
charity but for interest. Sell the newspaper, albeit
partly stigmatising, is the beginning of a new
perception of self. Must sell the newspaper
highlighting the quality and not asking for charity.
The contents of the newspaper does not relate to the
problems of the homeless, but housed in the general
interest that attract the public. The monthly has
increased from 350 copies in 2014 to 30000 copies
today.
The people
working at magazine are considered not as homeless
but employees, many have since found a different
job. There is an annual meeting of street newspaper
editorial offices worldwide where good practices are
exchanged.
Currently
starting a project for the establishment of the
Greek national basketball team of homeless. Know
that they cannot solve problems such as homelessness
or unemployment but try to support people to find in
itself the resources to overcome their difficulties.
Through the sport will get a respite than the daily
necessity of survival and compared to street life.
They also
manage the project Invisible Tour where the homeless
become guides on routes which affect services at
their face and talk about their personal history.
This task also serves to overcome stereotypes,
stigma. Come with this task primarily to schools,
tourists and foreign students. (cf.
Schedia
Magazine “Unseen Routes”)
They
achieved a photographic exhibition created by
homeless people who provided their perspective,
their perspective of the city.
Is a social enterprise and their first goal is to
motivate people to change working hard on
self-empowerment.
The
activities are also aimed at the collection of the
needs of the person.
Friday 4/15/2016
Debate
with João Afonso Deputy Mayor for Social Welfare
Municipality of Lisboa and Maria Stratigaki Vice
Mayor on Social Policy & Welfare of Athens
Municipality
Luigi:
how to focus attention, to listen the voice
expressed or not of the homeless in situation of
extreme poverty, deprivation and social exclusion ?
Because these people seem to refuse the
institutional proposed services ?
What can we do, the responsible of social welfare
and the community services?
João
it's very important for me to be here and challenge
me on the approach to the problem with
representatives of different nationalities.
Starting from 2011 all crisis got worse, we had a
progressive impoverishment of the population, the
most vulnerable have lost their homes, families were
broken and there was an increase of homeless
immigrants coupled with increased presence.
In Lisbon
has about 800 homeless people. Asylum seekers
currently have specific services even if you are
planning on using the same partners and the same
strategies used for the homeless to support
migrants.
MARIA:
it's very important for us to create connections
between European cities. In Greece the crisis hit
very hard, the Greeks today are suffering the
consequences of the agreement with the troika and
undergo great pressure of migrants.
Luigi:
20 years ago in a Mental Health Congress in
Thessaloniki, at mine question: how many homeless in
Greece, the answer was very clear: no homeless
because 3 safety net : 1. family, 2. Clan, 3.
Community, there was a context supporting
vulnerable people. Today more than 20.000 : “I
could never imagine so many homeless people in
Athens”
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/03/09/gree-m09.html
MARIA
: Grandparents ' pensions in Greece today support
the children and grandchildren, family ties are
still very tight if they touch the pensions would
collapse the whole system. The social policy of the
city is not all because they suffer the influence of
national policy.
At the
moment there is a segmentation of services and a
gradual shift of powers between State and city.
Nevertheless, the city must address the social
programme (see slides).
Those
populations most in need have been identified, there
are shelters and a programme of social housing but
on the road there are still many homeless, many are
drug addicts who do not have access to psychiatric
services or housing.
We
currently do not have resources to solve these
complex problems.
Social
services with the crisis have suffered major cuts,
the staff has been reduced, and many employees have
been retired and not replaced.
Is there a
programme of social housing which is aimed at
families in difficulty (steadily increasing) not
homeless, is a program not funded by public
resources but by sponsors and charities.
The
Administration has asked that vacant apartments puts
them available for two years to implement the
program of social housing.
João:
the situation in Portugal is very similar, there is
a central State control of social policies, a
segmentation of services and expertise and scarce
resources. Major social problems have been
identified to achieve a rationalization of
resources. Civil society social programmes have been
defined based on the active participation of
society.
The
strategy for the homeless is based on national
guidelines. From consultations between Central
Government and municipalities in 2014 was created a
single Office that they collaborate 22/23
organizations to respond to the complexity of the
needs brought by the homeless. Every city has made a
social network (by law), and any social response
should be discussed and organized within this social
network. Within the network, there is also the group
that works with the homeless.
This group discusses coordinated within a table by
the municipality General strategies and operational
case-by-case basis.
The
general strategy focuses on the following points:
1)
Street unit
2)
Food Distribution
3)
Housing
4)
Design
5)
Emergencies
For more information on how this system is funded
and what responsibility see slides:
cf.:
Municipal Programme for the Homeless
MARIA:
we work with private social organizations on
projects (all interventions are arranged on the
project).
Social Policy Programme Athens 2015-2019
Are
involved in projects 20000 people and administration
works with 20 different organizations.
The
Central Government has dramatically reduced
resources and the city was forced to find resources
by private sponsors.
LUIGI:
you're in partnership with other European cities?
João:
Yes, we are trying to work together in the Group
Eurocity, a good place to exchange ideas and good
practice. We'd like to improve the solutions we
propose:
1)
Street unit to contact and engage the homeless
and to understand their needs
2)
Shelters from 30-40 people
3)
Housing first program
4)
Social housing
MARIA :
we have initiatives on refugees in cooperation with
Mayors of major European cities, we participate in
the Eurocity group, we work together with Barcelona,
Lisbon, Stockholm on an innovative project of social
affairs.
PIERRE: what developments do you expect the
socio-economic situation, began the path of
reconstruction, how long will it take?
TONY: For Joao, because you went through a
system of shelter for one mixed with housing first?
MARIA:
future
prospects in Greece are on a national level, we do
not know how it will end the deal EU but is critical
to understanding future developments. We are trying
to better address the current situation but the
distortion related to asylum seekers has changed
priorities.
How many
of these will remain in Greece?
How many
of these will remain in Athens?
At the
moment we are facing the emergency, integrate those
who remain will be the challenge of the future and
this will affect the overall management of social
affairs.
João:
we hope that the number of homeless do not increase
in the coming years despite we have to face the
consequences of Austerity.
At the
moment it is not easy to imagine future prospects,
if possible we will try to not let many people on
the street and increase the primary services
offered.
For people
who remain on the street is a priority to respond to
basic needs.
As regards
the housing first is funded by national resources.
In our opinion it is the solution that allows people
to stay in a better condition, in effect what we ask
the homeless in first instance is a House because as
long as they're in the street cannot help but try to
survive. In this sense, Housing First is for me a
solution.
VICTOR:
I support to projects of Housing First but sometimes
risks being a something that favours one category of
persons (the homeless) at the expense of other
categories of people who legitimately wonder why a
home for the homeless and not a House for us?
João
: we have this problem of course, we believe that
the condition of homelessness is a transitional
condition whereby if they are supported can be found
their own autonomy.
LUIGI :
what feelings you have for the future.
MARIA:
I'm moderately pessimistic.
João:
I have a pessimistic vision of the present but a
very optimistic about the future
===========================
ATHENS Evaluation Points from WS
Workshop 1 Friday 15/04/16
Group 1 Jacopo:
1.
Individual programme/approach
2.
Protected environment to facilitate reintegration vs
normal environment to real integration
3.First
than every other intervention: meeting primary needs
4. New
social role means new identity
5.
Everybody needs support in going out in the world,
nobody goes alone
6. Support
people means give them love, relationship and hope
7. We must
demand a better social justice
8. Often our interventions are realized according
prevalent needs. We should approach people like an
unique complexity instead of a set of non-related
needs. We should give answers to people instead of
giving answers to needs.
9. It’s
necessary to cooperate, between social system and
health system
10. Not everybody will be albe to reach autonomy, we
muste give them a different dignity on a different
scale of value. Everybody will reach a different
level of autonomy
11. we
must guarantee and ensure access to rights, not only
recognize the rights.
=========================
Group 2 Pierre:
1.
Translators are an important tool for communication
2.
Important to go beyond the rules and the role, to be
able to get out of the box (doing different things,
paying for things we are not supposed to pay, seeing
patients we are not supposed to see,…). You get paid
back because the results can be more rewarding for
the teams.
3. Let’s
see the people as an entity, and not as their
problem(s).
4.
Education is an important asset in recovery; we
should take education into account because it can
help the person in the recovery process.
5. We need
to work in close multidisciplinary collaboration,
inside teams or organisations, as well as between
different institutions.
6. Being
part of a social movement, or helping others can be
a way towards recovery.
7.
Hospitalization can be an opportunity to change
life, to get out of the street towards another
solution.
8.
Homelessness is a question of human rights, not of
some “tolerance”, or “charity”.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Workshop 2
Group 1, Victor:
1.
Compulsory admission is an important tool
2.
Protective housing, even in the form of
hospitalization, can be necessary.
3. Mental
health sector and social sector should work
together.
4. Working
together helps for de-stigmatization.
5. We
should also put energy in deciding top-down.
6. We need
sufficient budgets on the long term.
==============
Group 2, Pierre:
1. You
need time in the process, it’s necessary to take
your time (several months or years).
2. You
need the build up trust , a personal band with the
person.
3. If you
coordinate well with the other organizations, you
help some people to make the links they are not able
to make any more. It also prevent you to be in a
situation where you become incompetent. If you feel
competent, you will be in a better situation to
transmit that feeling to the patient.
4. Mobile
units for mental health are necessary. This allows
people to stay in their environment, and gives the
tools and the security to their environment
(follow-up from outside). Teams should be proactive,
and some contacts can take place by Skype, when
easier.
5. In a
system where there is a common reception for all
people, homeless or not, helps de-stigmatization.
6. Red
Cross can be a tool to trace peoples families
7. People
often stay at the same place, or near the same
places.
8. When
working together, we have a global vision of what
must be done, but we keep our own mission.
9.
Cultural activities can be an excellent way to boost
self-esteem.
10.
Trained volunteers, with low threshold activities or
structures, can offer good solutions for slight
mental health cases. We should look for a balance
between volunteers and professionals, in mental
health.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew some reflections
I was to
write something about Athens but it would be more
useful to write something on SMES on the grounds of
experience of Athens – and Warsaw.
I think
SMES has two functions :
1. spreading the news, reflections, new ideas,
experiences on the ways of assisting those in need;
2. Bringing helpers together for discussion,
exchange, friendship.
The first
function is more external and more appropriately
served by bigger events, the second more internal
and more appropriately served by smaller events. In
practice these functions intermingle and rightly so.
Spreading
ideas without human contact is not effective, coming
together in internal circle without new people is
self-adoration.
Warsaw was
a bit bigger event than Athens. Its potential for
spreading new ideas was therefore greater, although
I don’t think it was executed very effectively. For
the message to spread you need good message and
adequate audience. I don’t think that discussing
profiles without clear conclusions and postulates
delivered to adequate addressees furthers the cause
effectively. But sure the message of
desinstitulization has been heard in Warsaw by the
young people from Psychiatric hospital. However,
what further sequence of events can we offer to
those young people in Warsaw? Usually they are not
able to follow our meetings for financial reasons.
Athens
was more intimate, internal. I appreciate the
advantages of that. Discussions seemed to me more
in-depth, but as far as spreading message goes, the
message was not so clear and the audience was small.
I like the
idea of Florence.
As I see the agenda it is clearly about spreading
our ideas to the local audience.
This agenda seems clear, concise, purposeful. Jacopo
will take care of the appropriate audience, I
suppose.
So after a perhaps too dispersed attempt in Warsaw
and too intimate one in Athens we are on the way to
more good balance…
friendly
Andrew
=======================================================================================
LISTING PRESENTED BY RED R
Housing
Reintegration:
It is a
project started in September 2015. Funded by the
Greek Ministry of labour to place homeless people in
apartments in autonomy and build with them a course
of reintegration. It is a multidisciplinary
programme run by Praxis, Koispe. Following the
testimony of Nicolas one of the beneficiaries of the
project:
I was a
homeless who lived in Athens. I was 4 months in
hospital after discharge I found myself back in the
street, are then came in contact with Praxis they
informed me about the possibility to participate in
the Reintegration and Housing program gave me the
opportunity to be placed in an apartment at Enfisa
and start work within a cooperative supported by
mental health professionals. Today to seven months
away I feel reintegrated into society, I never
imagined possible. Work in the sale of organic
products and are supported by the love and care of
colleagues. Initially I was doubtful about transfer
to another city but the welcome i received made me
think again. The added value of this program is what
provides for the enhancement of quality of life.
Seven months ago, in Athens, I had nothing, I was a
homeless with no hope. Today at 65 years are within
a program that I returned to civil society. Next
month the program will end but I hope is renewed.
(Report
Silvia)
|
