Feb 28 2019
0

Social inclusion and green transition projects in the innovative WELCOMMON HOSTEL

By | Actions, News | No Comments

Social inclusion and green transition projects in the innovative WELCOMMON HOSTEL

WELCOMMON Hostel, an innovative hostel with social inclusion and energy transition vision

It is a demanding project, but we decided to risk. We created the WELCOMMON HOSTEL, an innovative hostel and also a social experiment in the center of Athens.   We decided to combine two “different” aims: sustainable tourism, green and social innovation with social inclusion, art, intercultural dialogue. And it seems, it works.

The WELCOMMON HOSTEL is a project run by the cooperative Anemos Ananeosis / WIND OF RENEWAL. We are part of the social change we want to see happen.

 

Social Program: non-formal education and social inclusion of refugees

Although the building is no longer a refugee hosting center and has been refurbished into a modern facility, two floors of the WELCOMMON Hostel are used as an open center for social empowerment and inclusion. Learning from each other is an important and interesting part of our social project. As many people with different knowledge and skills come together, we try to benefit from each other.

We offer in daily basis classes (e.g. for language, painting, puppet show, music etc) with the support of volunteers to about 50 refugees, migrants, local people, tourists; we work for the empowerment and training of our guests and design interactive workshops for the professional training and promotion of the abilities and qualifications of refugees, especially the young people, along with Greek nationals, in order to be able to find their way in our society and for the benefit of our societies (see attached a brief report about our activities with refugees).

The aim is to create also new employment opportunities for everyone in areas such as up-cycling, ethnic cuisines, culture, green / cyclic economy, energy efficiency and others. Our societies must not accept generations being lost, we must not leave young persons, Greeks, migrants, refugees behind.

Challenge:

We want to reach a satisfactory level of completeness of our WELCOMMON HOSTEL through our collaboration with sustainable tourism organizations, schools, universities, Erasmus groups, ethical enterprises, social enterprises and cooperatives, social and ecological groups.  We hope in 2 years to be able to finance 100% of the operation of the Hostel and more than 50% of our social and green projects, which are also very demanding. In 2019, we have to find the resources of more than 70.000 euro to finance part of our social projects’ costs.

Needs:

In order to maintain the social project and the proportions of the building used for the social activities (800 m2), as well as being able to develop our social – ecological projects and to have a valuable continuation, it’s necessary to have more support.

The salaries of the volunteers’ coordinator and volunteers’ mentor as well a small part of the materials for the activities and lessons are funded by the non-profit association Respect for Greece and one foundation until the end of 2019. But this is a small part of the cost that in total is higher than 8-10.000 Euros/month. In order to be able to continue our work we have to find, very soon, donations, as two floors in the Hostel are not used for the guests/tourists but for the social inclusion activities.  The expenses of the social project are high:

  • the proportional rent cost for 2 floors – 800 m2- used for the social, cultural and ecological activities and the lessons,
  • hosting 10-12 volunteers in special rooms,
  • the activities as such,
  • use – consumption of materials,
  • need for supporting services, eg cleaning,
  • refurbishment of the rooms,
  • bills for water, electricity, heating and cooling

The philosophy, vision and mission of Anemos Ananeosis/Wind of Renewal and WELCOMMON Hostel

  • Our philosophy is that we want to be part of the social change we want to see happen. Anemos Ananeosis / Wind of Renewal has a strong commitment to building a better world through social and green innovation and the cooperative business model. We want to influence the direction of our society to become more sustainable and ecologically and socially fair.
  • Our visionis to bring close people from all over the world, to enable them to communicate, to be entertained and to explore the creative side of Athens. In the WELCOMMON Hostel we can introduce you to the world of Greece’s cultural, environmental and social organizations as well as of social economy. You can also contribute with your ideas and experience. It highlights the positive impact that cooperatives and social enterprises have on communities, revitalizing neighborhoods, making bridges between communities, social groups, newcomers and local people.
  • Our missionis to daily improve and develop our services, make our hostel more than convenient, friendly and live, artistic and social innovative. We can organise your study trip in the city and provide details about interesting social events and groups. We can also supply you with all necessary information on other Greek cities, islands or a mountainside, connect you with cycling groups, or let you know the secrets of culinary delights. This networking supports our model for the way out of the deep crisis.

Who we are

Anemos Ananeosis /Wind of Renewal has a strong commitment to building a better world through social and green innovation, green and social economy and the cooperative business model. We want to influence the direction of our society to become more sustainable and ecologically and socially fair.

We “promote” our WELCOMMON HOSTEL to Universities, schools, social groups, social enterprises and cooperatives, artists which plan to visit Athens. If they decide to stay in our hostel, they can discover the creative side of the city and at the same time support our social and green activities. Our guests can participate in workshops, art exhibitions, cultural events, social activities, networking, youth meetings, youth exchanges like Erasmus projects. We collaborate with a lot of eco- and social active groups in the city and we could connect our guests with groups that offer guided tours to cultural sites, alternative neighborhoods, “secret” corners, traditional shops, local and authentic places in Athens. We can plan the perfect tour for our guests.

Best regards!

www.anemosananeosis.gr

www.welcommonhostel.gr

www.facebook.com/welcommonhostel

www.facebook.com/daysofwelcommon

www.facebook.com/socialcooperatives

#Sustainability #Athens #cooperatives #SocEnt #innovation #social
#inclusion #withrefugees #WelcommonHostel @Social Cooperatives

#sustainabletourism #education #youth #Erasmusplus #volunteers #art

Contact us: info@welcommonhostel.gr or windofrenewal@gmail.com

If you want to support our social activities with a donation, our bank account is

ANEMOS ANANEOSIS / WIND OF RENEWAL

Piraeus Bank
IBAN: GR83 0172 0180 0050 1807 7868 253

Piraeus’s BIC code is PIRBGRAA

 

Feb 28 2019
0

You stay in a hostel in Athens and you support social and green projects: this is our WELCOMMON HOSTEL

By | Actions, News | No Comments

WELCOMMON Hostel, an innovative hostel with social impact

The WELCOMMON HOSTEL is a new Hostel in Athens and also a social experiment. We are combining two “different” aims: sustainable tourism, green and social innovation with social inclusion, art, intercultural dialogue.

It is a project run by the cooperative Anemos Ananeosis / WIND OF RENEWAL. We are part of the social change we want to see happen.

With a lot of effort and hard work, we succeeded in creating an innovative Hostel in the center of Athens, which aims to promote sustainable models of tourism and at the same time provide the space for non-formal education and social inclusion for about 50 refugees daily. It is also a place for art and culture as well as for social and green innovation and economy.

 

 

We “promote” our WELCOMMON HOSTEL to Universities, schools, social groups, social enterprises and cooperatives, artists which plan to visit Athens. If they decide to stay in our hostel, they can discover the creative side of the city and at the same time support our social and green activities. Our guests can participate in workshops, art exhibitions, cultural events, social activities, networking, youth meetings, youth exchanges like Erasmus projects. We collaborate with a lot of eco- and social active groups in the city and we could connect our guests with groups that offer guided tours to cultural sites, alternative neighborhoods, “secret” corners, traditional shops, local and authentic places in Athens. We can plan the perfect tour for our guests.

  

Who we are: Anemos Ananeosis / Wind of Renewal

Anemos Ananeosis /Wind of Renewal has a strong commitment to building a better world through social and green innovation, green and social economy and the cooperative business model. We want to influence the direction of our society to become more sustainable and ecologically and socially fair.

The social enterprise Wind of Renewal / Anemos Ananeosis (WoR) was constituted in Greece in 2014 for the promotion of social cooperative and responsible economy, social entrepreneurship, green-circular economy, eco-social innovation, intercultural dialogue and the protection of environment.

The WELCOMMON Hostel highlights the positive impact that cooperatives and social enterprises can have in a society to revitalize neighborhoods and communities, social groups, newcomers, social groups, youngsters and locals.

We are a member of the European Social Entrepreneurs network for inclusive community tourism LE MAT EUROPE, which reflects on the triangle of “outstanding spaces, values, people”. We are also part of the Greek Youth Hostels Association as well as of the international network of hostels Hostelling International.

Additionally,  Wind of Renewal is a founding member of the Greek Forum of Social Entrepreneurship and member of REVES, the European network of regions, municipalities and social enterprises for the development of the social economy.

 

How you could support our innovative project

If you like our project “WELCOMMON HOSTEL”, please inform your friends, social networks, schools, universities, artists, organizations and institutions. We create job opportunities for unemployed locals, refugees and migrants in a cooperative environment and in diverse fields, while training in fields of sustainable tourism, energy transition, climate protection, social innovation and inclusion.

If one decides to stay in our hostel. one supports the sustainability of our project, the employment of young Greek, migrants and refugees, one can feel the history of Welcommon and can support our work for climate protection, energy transition, energy poverty etc

Challenges:

Although our program is highly innovative and carriers from all over the world visit us to get to know the business model that combines social entrepreneurship with social benefits, we did not get to have access to even a micro-credit. All the official banks refuse to give us a credit of 45-50.000 Euro on the grounds that we had no profit in the last years.

The key factors in making our program a success are:

  • Access to financial resources and funding for this first period of the operation of the Hostel, until we reach a satisfactory level of completeness and we are able to ensure the financial viability of the hostel. Until now we were not able to have such an access to micro-credits or other financial tools because of the difficult financial situation in Greece and the crisis of the Greek systemic banks.
  • Investments: We have so far invested more than 250.000 euro for the renovation, refurbishment and to acquire equipment for the hostel, but we must invest more resources for the artistic decoration and the rest of the equipment, for energy efficient systems, and an infrastructure for a better environmental performance
  • Hiring extra personnel from vulnerable groups (refugees, young and elder unemployed local people etc.) and training them for high-quality accommodation service and sustainable tourism in general, as soon as we are financial viable.

Needs:

(a) Our basic need is to make the Hostel in one year sustainable and subsequently the income of the Hostel is enough to finance its operation and additional programs of social impacts, benefits and inclusion as well as energy transition and climate protection. This means marketing the aims and needs of the WELCOMMON HOSTEL to networks and carriers, universities and schools, in order to consider our Hostel when they visit Athens to support our activities.

  • Communication about the innovative hostel and the activities we organize every day (we need a communication officer and campaigner, but we cannot afford the resources for this job position).
  • Cooperation with social networks, universities, Erasmus+ projects, cultural initiatives, environmental and youth organizations, special partners from the tourist ecosystem, experts.
  • Advertisement of our project through social networks

(b) We need immediately access either to some micro-credits or to donations to be successful and to pay back loans we were forced to take out from friends and partners as well as to fulfill the investments we still need. It would be also very helpful if groups, friends and partners that plan to visit Athens and stay in WELCOMMON HOSTEL would book timely and already pay for their accommodation now (prematurely). Every financial alleviation and donation is necessary for us, to withstand economically as long as it takes until we are sustainable from the incomes of the Hostel.

Best regards!

www.anemosananeosis.gr

www.welcommonhostel.gr

www.facebook.com/welcommonhostel

www.facebook.com/daysofwelcommon

www.facebook.com/socialcooperatives

#Sustainability #Athens #cooperatives #SocEnt #innovation #social
#inclusion #withrefugees #WelcommonHostel @Social Cooperatives

#sustainabletourism #education #youth #Erasmusplus #volunteers #art

Contact us: info@welcommonhostel.gr or windofrenewal@gmail.com

If you want to support our social activities with a donation, our bank account is

ANEMOS ANANEOSIS / WIND OF RENEWAL

Piraeus Bank
IBAN: GR83 0172 0180 0050 1807 7868 253

Piraeus’s BIC code is PIRBGRAA

 

Feb 11 2019
0

EUKI YESClima: The “Wind of Renewal” and the Municipality of Agios Dimitrios collaborate on energy efficient schools

By | Actions | No Comments

Schools can be energy efficient and this will benefit the environment, climate and public economy. On the other hand schools can operate as training centers on energy efficiency for youngsters, students, teachers and parents. On this purpose, Wind of Renual/Anemos Ananeosis trains young people in energy saving issues and cooperates with municipalities in order to increase energy efficiency of their schools, as part of the project “YESclima – Young experts for climate friendly scholls in Mediteranian countries”.

Municipality of Agios Dimitrios, in Attica, has expressed its will to colaborate for this progect, and the first meeting took place at the municipality on Wednesday 10th of January, with the participation of:
– Mayor, Maria Androutsou
– Deputy mayor of technical services, Aggelos Gavalas
– Members from the Electical-mechanological Department of Municipality ms Olga Vlachou, Environmental Engineer Msc and Antonis Manolaros, Electrical Engineer.
– President of Wind of Renewal, Nikos Chrysogelos
– The first greek team of 4 young people who are being trained in energy saving issues, Ioannis Kotsalos, technician of heating, cooling and electrical systems, Agapi-Evagelia Tzampazi, Civil Engineer Msc, Sofia Papadopoulou, Energy Sources Msc and Dimitra Apostolopoulou, Engineer of Renovation and Restoration.

The topics of the meeting were:
– Description of the project that will be applied in five schools of Agios Dimitrios
– The participation of teachers and students in energy audits and energy saving proposals
– Collection of data needed to formulate the final proposals for reducing energy consumption and energy upgrading of selected schools
– Public environmental awareness actions with the participation of parents and the school community.

During the implementation of the project energy audits will be carried out in schools – that have been selected – jointly with students and teachers on the basis of a participatory methodology developed under the EUKI “Climate Schools Be.Ath“ project, in which Wind of Renewal is a partner. The energy audits will be carried out by the four trainees in colaboration with the educational communities of the schools. Following the audits, low, medium and high cost proposals  for the energy upgrade of schools, will be drafted.

One of the main tasks of the project is the improvement of the quality of schools spaces and and the energy efficiency in educational buildings with the use of energy efficient and passive systems.

The municipality will collect information and data about schools that will help in energy audits and proposals, using a questionnaire especially drafted for the energy audits.

About the project “YESClima” 

The project is being implemented by ‘Wind of Renewal’, University of Cadiz at Spain, Secretariat for Future Studies of Free University of Berlin and the APEC -Provincial Energy Agency of Cadiz, Andalusia. This project is part of the European Climate Initiative (EUKI) which is a financial instrument by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). The EUKI competition for project ideas is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. It is the overarching goal of the EUKI to foster climate cooperation within the European Union (EU) in order to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.’

The aims of the project are:
– Climate protection and energy saving
– Reduction of energy consumption and the ecological footprint of schools
– Education and training of young people in order to work in energy saving issues, natural heating and cooling systems.
– To familiarize young people with scientific – technical issues, economic issues, entrepreneurship and legislation on climate protection, and more specifically energy saving and energy inspections and interventions.

During the project “YESclima – Young experts for climate friendly schoolls in Mediteranian countries” 11 young people from Greece and 11 from Spain, organized in three groups, will have 6months theoritical and practical education so they can work in the energy saving sector and natural heating and cooling techniques in buildings.

Wind of Renewal will cooperate with the Municipality of Agios Dimitrios, the Municipality of Chania and the Municipality of Sifnos in the framework of this project. The trainees will apply their knowledge and experience in energy audits in a number school of these 3 municipalities, exploring forms of collaboration with students and educators, and conducting studies on what can be done in these schools in order to be upgraded and gradually convert to almost zero-emission buildings (Zero Emissions Buildings, as is now the case for building legislation).

@EUKI_Climate,  #ClimateAction

Project Partners:
    
Supported by: