Voluntary Actions Y.M.C.A.
Voluntary actions
A few words about the project
YMCA is the owner of the project: “Actions to strengthen ecological awareness and volunteerism in the urban environment”, integrated in the Operational Programme “Central Macedonia”, with priority axis: AX06 “Environmental protection and promotion of resource efficiency”, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.
The object of the project is the implementation of environmental education and awareness-raising actions to strengthen ecological awareness and volunteerism in all 8 municipalities of the wider Thessaloniki Urban Complex. The relevant actions are organized by the Christian Youth Brotherhood of Thessaloniki (Y.M.C.A), with special emphasis on understanding and highlighting sustainability problems and improving the urban environment in the city. This will also be achieved through innovative non-formal learning tools and on the basis of volunteering, aiming at participation and experiential education (e.g. raising environmental awareness among children and adults through workshops, comics, theatre events, creation of a volunteering platform, etc.). Indicative actions of the project include:
Educational seminars, aimed at cultivating and further strengthening environmental awareness and understanding of environmental issues (in cooperation with the 8 municipalities of the urban complex of Thessaloniki and the participation of high school students)
Creation of an online platform to inform and support volunteering activities for the environment.
Events on volunteering and environmental protection.
Planning voluntary actions for the environment at local level.
Actions for the exchange of know-how and dissemination of good practices.
A few words about Y.M.C.A.
The Christian Youth Fellowship (Y.M.C.A.), an international youth organisation founded in London in 1844, offers its services in more than 125 countries around the world, with 45 million members. In Thessaloniki it completes 100 years of social work and voluntary work, as its founding was signed on 2 September 1921.
Y.M.C.A. in Thessaloniki operates in Greece as an Association, a non-profit charity and is governed by a 24-member board of volunteers, elected by its more than 1,000 regular members. Honesty, childhood friendships, pure love for the Y.M.C.A. as well as loyalty to its work are the reasons that drive all these people to participate for so many years, exclusively on a voluntary basis, in its Board and Committees.
The historic, preserved main building of the Y.M.C.A. is located in the homonymous square of Thessaloniki, opposite the entrance gate of the D.E.Th. and the Archaeological Museum, while just behind it is the Sports Center “Mimis Tsikinas” with modern indoor facilities, tennis and football courts and of course the unique in Greece Basketball Museum. Apart from the central Y.M.C.A. there are two branches in Kalamaria and Asvestochori, where educational and sports programs are developed in line with the central Y.M.C.A., offering the organization’s stigma to the local communities.
Around 12,000 young people participate in its programmes and actions every year. It is one of the most massive and dynamic youth organisations in the country, with around 12,000 young people participating in its programmes and actions every year. Sport, training, kindergarten and nursery school, creative activities, camps, culture, social contribution and volunteering are the main pillars of its development.
The Christian Youth Brotherhood of Thessaloniki has always been a pioneer in its programs – introducing and spreading in Greece basketball (1919), volleyball (1919) and other sports, the institution of organized children’s camps (Pelion 1924), the night school (1947), the mobile camp (Pindos 1980), the Basketball Museum (2013). However, its stamp is special in the field of volunteerism and social contribution, as it always made sure that its actions met the needs of the time – care for refugees (1922), shelter for students from the countryside (1950s and 1960s), night school, scholarships in its programmes for children of vulnerable social groups and the unemployed, food bank, reforestation, interventions in the urban environment with actions to strengthen the green footprint, organised excursions to get to know the cultural heritage of Thessaloniki and finally programmes for refugee children and their families, aiming at their education and preparation for their inclusion in Greek society. Above all, through the social action and contribution programs, it teaches young people to be first citizens and then residents of our city, so that they can have volunteering as a way of life.