Description of organisation

KEDITH is the acronym for the Community Enterprise of Municipality of Thessaloniki. In November 2011, the planning, organization and implementation of youth actions, projects and events, the promotion of European youth policy at local and national level, the dialogue within Europe’s youth, the generation of structures and actions for children and young people and the creation of youth centers were added to the aims of KEDITH. In accordance to its Statute, the Community Enterprise with a number of 62 employees in total, run a certified lifelong learning training center which provided support for courses on language, professions, technology and whose permit is currently under renewal. KEDITH also runs a creative center for people with special needs, thus highlighting the importance of inclusion of all social groups. Its Special Needs Creative Center operates daily providing support not only to people with special needs but to their families as well, improving their everyday lives, making them more competitive in the work field and cementing a strong and inclusive society. As for creative learning centers, KEDITH operates five addressed to children aged 5-12. The work done there is focusing on their learning, recreation and the support of their mothers, either working or unemployed. Thus KEDITH highlights the need to nurture youngsters on their first steps, from childhood to their early teens, while actively supporting the upgrade of women’s position in the workplace and the professional equality of the two sexes. Admissions are regulated by socioeconomic criteria and KEDITH aims at strengthening the bonds both between family members but also between mothers and their employment. The program, which has been successfully implemented by KEDITH for fourteen years now, has a total budget of 279.000.000€ and is included in the Operational Program "Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning" 2014-2020 of the Ministry of Economy & Development and falls under the Thematic Objective 8,Investment Priority 8iv "Equality between men and women in all areas, including access to employment, career development, reconciliation of working and private life and the promotion of equal pay for equal work ” . Moreover KEDITH operates a Day Care Center for the Elderly, while it implements activities and EU projects in the fields of: social protection and solidarity, education, culture, sports, environment, research and technology development. Particular emphasis is given to the implementation of community programs, providing free social services, care and welfare to the inhabitants ofThessaloniki. The actions of the company’s programs include social care, individual and family support and youth strengthening through the enhancement of their skills, as those can be cultivated through various digital tools of non-formal education. Thus, in an attempt to categorize KEDITH beneficiaries, one would list the following: Seniors 65+, Pensioners on low income, citizens with special needs, the uninsured, the unemployed, single parent families, low income laborers and all youngsters, including those belonging to different social strata and conditions (refugees, school dropouts, etc.). Thematically, the organization implements programs and activities in sectors such as social education, culture and environment, protection and solidarity, research and technology, entrepreneurship, sustainable development, unemployment/employability, Urban/rural development, volunteering and youth policy. In terms of programs and infrastructure, KEDITH operates for five years now the Europe Direct Information Center, liaising local and foreign citizens, implementing educational actions and promoting our European way of living. It is noteworthy that KEDITH uses a prototype methodology which has been recognized as a best practice model, has been adopted by the network of European Youth Capitals as mandatory regarding the organizational and executive procedures for the institution of EYC and the applicant cities and has also been recognized by the Council of Europe as a best practice regarding youth policies. It refers to the conceptual engagement of the youngsters in projects and their capacity building through participation, which is still our reference point for similar actions and projects. KEDITH has already submitted project plans for socially threatened youngsters in order for them to become more active and to find breakthroughs for their inclusion, while being supported by the following stakeholders: Network of European Youth Capitals, Thessaloniki’s NGOs Network, counting more than 100 NGOs, InterCityYouth Network, SALTO Youth, European Youth Forum, AIESEC, Center for Consumer Protection and many more to be presented in the section related to our local bonds. To sum up, the Community Enterprise of Thessaloniki has systematically invested in improving the local scene that pertains to its jurisdiction.

Inclusion topics

This organisation is willing to involve volunteers who face situations which make their participation in activities more difficult, from the following categories for different types of project:

• Cultural differences
• Educational difficulties
• Social obstacles