Open Cultural Center Youth

21/05/2025

“Language is the key that opens all doors”

Meet Amani, our adult teaching supervisor and language interpreter and translator at OCC Greece 👋

By translating between English, Turkish, and Arabic, Amani plays a fundamental role in our center. She helps people feel comfortable, understood, and included, fostering a more accessible and inclusive space 🌟

🎥 Watch to learn about Amani’s day-to-day at OCC Greece and why her role matters.

Amani is part of our volunteer team through the European Solidarity Corps programme, funded by the European Union.

21/05/2025

Team building has proven to be a cornerstone of successful volunteering, particularly in the context of humanitarian initiatives such as those carried out by OCC Greece. Focused on the reception and integration of refugees and asylum seekers, these projects require cohesive, empathetic, and well-coordinated teams to address the multifaceted challenges of refugee assistance. From managing emotional trauma to overcoming logistical hurdles, team building plays a pivotal role in fostering collaboration, improving communication, and ensuring the sustainability of project outcomes.

One of our ESC short term volunteers reflectson her experience at OCC Greece, highlighting the importance of team-building.

17/12/2024

A través de este mensaje, nos gustaría informarte que solamente quedan 2 días para poder apoyarnos a través de un donativo y ayudar nuestro proyecto a seguir creciendo en 2025.

¡Además, para agradecerte tu gesto, te regalamos un libro para Navidad!

✅ Si donas más de 20 euros te enviaremos un libro Amigo mío! escrito por niñas y niños sirios del campo de personas refugiadas de Cherso.

✅ Por 10 euros podrás venir a recogerlo a nuestro local en Barcelona.

✅ Por 100 euros te enviaremos un libro y esponsorizarás a 1 día de transporte en autobús desde el campamiento de refugiado a nuestro centro en Grecia, apoyando a más 100 personas para que asistan a clases.

Este donativo se podrá desgravar fiscalmente (más detalles en la página).

Agradecemos tu confianza en Open Cultural Center y esperamos contar con tu participación:

Somos una organización sin ánimo de lucro activa en España y Grecia. Junto con nuestra comunidad de voluntarios, trabajamos para apoyar la inclusión de las personas de origen inmigrante. Todo nuestro trabajo se lleva a cabo en estrecha colaboración con nuestros socios locales e internacionales....

30/11/2023

🔊 We would like to introduce our new ESC long-term volunteers in Barcelona!

Coming from Catalunya, England, France, Italy, Ukraine, Pakistan, Portugal and Scotland, this is a very diverse bunch! 🌏
They all joined our team in Barcelona at different moments since July.

Angelica will be working in Corporate Fundraising. 💸

Anna B is working within the CodeWomen team. 🖥

Anna C is working in EU program management. 🇪🇺

Mathilde in Language Lab. 🗣

Tom and Joanna are part of the Communications team. 📳

We are so excited to have them on the team 🎉 Let's give them a warm welcome! 👏🏼

Our volunteering program is funded by the European Union through the European Solidarity Corps.

24/11/2023

Sadly, OCC Greece has to say goodbye to another highly valued member of our team 😥

Our volunteer coordinator Chiara is leaving us after many months of amazing work! We wish her lots of luck and success for her future and thank her for everything she did for OCC and the volunteers! 💕

22/11/2023

Happy World Children's Day!!! 🧒🏼👧🏽🥳

Yesterday we celebrated the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It entails all international children's rights that the UN member states have committed to uphold.

According to the preamble of the convention, it aims towards

"Recognizing that the child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding."
and towards

"Considering that the child should be fully prepared to live an individual life in society, and brought up in the spirit of the ideals proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations, and in particular in the spirit of peace, dignity, tolerance, freedom, equality and solidarity."

The convention offers 54 guidelines to governments and individuals on the needs and rights children have and on how they should be treated.

OCC is committed to supporting the convention and to supporting the children in our community in knowing their rights and making use of them. Therefore, we celebrated the day by offering special activities to the children yesterday afternoon.

We wish every child out there that their rights and freedoms are respected and that they will grow up in a safe and loving environment! 💕

17/11/2023

Have you heard about our Bike Space? 🚲

In the Bike Space, we hand out bikes to residents of Nea Kavala camp near Polykastro in the north of Greece.

Nea Kavala camp is located 6 kilometers away from the nearest town Polykastro, where OCC Greece is located. To buy food, medicine, go to a doctor, or come to OCC's classes, the residents have to come to Polykastro. Currently, our bus is the only way for them to come to the town. Unfortunately, we cannot offer the bus service to the residents besides the ones that come to our classes. So most residents have to walk to Polykastro, which takes about one hour. This is especially horrible in the summer, as it gets very hot, and in the winter, when it's very cold.

Therefore, OCC tries to support residents' mobility by providing them with bikes. They can loan them, free of charge, and have them fixed in the Bike Space if they're broken.

Unfortunately, running the Bike Space is quite expensive, as we invest a lot of money in bike parts, tools and in buying new bikes. At the moment, we don't have nearly as many bikes as we would need to provide a sufficient number of residents with bikes.

Mobility is an essential aspect of the inclusion of newcomers into society! Please support us in our efforts and donate through the link in our bio! All donations will be invested into our Bike Space directly and will have big impact for the residents of Nea Kavala camp!

15/11/2023

Last week, the children's classes at OCC Greece were dedicated to making cookies! 🍪

The Falafels 🧆, Eagles 🦅, and Pirates 🏴‍☠️ learned vocabulary related to cooking and baking, and on Thursday all the classes had a cooking workshop organized by our short-term volunteers.

In OCC Greece, we value the creativity and initiative of our students, community members, and volunteers and we are glad that the new flow introduces their ideas from the very beginning of their volunteering. 😊

08/11/2023

OCC Advice: Mar ✨

Mar was OCC Greece's Monitoring and Evaluation volunteer until recently. She spent a year with us and was a very valuable staff member, as she not only took over a big portion of the management of OCC Greece when it was needed but also had a great relationship with the community.

From all these experiences she had here in the past year, she learned that one of the biggest mistakes volunteers can make is not to listen. Supporting people requires volunteers to listen to them and more experienced colleagues. Without actively engaging with and listening to those, a volunteering experience will not be as valuable as it can be, both for the volunteer and for the community.

🗣️ Mar's advice is, therefore, to listen closely to the staff members, long-term volunteers, and especially the community members, in order to learn about their needs.

Thank you, Mar, for one year of hard work you invested in OCC Greece and for being a source of support for volunteers, staff members, and community members! 💕

Our volunteering program is funded by the European Union through the European Solidarity Corps.

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