The European Union Network of Institutes of Culture (EUNIC)-Athens Cluster is pooling its resources in order to contribute to the task of ensuring the social and cultural integration of migrants and refugees, as well as helping local communities to deal with this challenge.
The EUNIC-Athens Cluster organized a conference and workshops with the title “European values revisited. The role of culture in refugee integration to local communities" in November 2016.
As a follow up of this conference it has of January 2017 initiated a two-years-project called “The Culture of Integration” funded by EUNIC Global. The project is embracing selected actions focusing on the integration of refugees and migrants based on the idea of European values.
In this framework the following actions are being implemented.
- “Let’s keep in touch” is a library project that aims to facilitate refugee integration through cultural exchange and one-to-one communication and to establish the first refugee-run library in the refugee settlement of Skaramangas. Coordination team: Margarita Pita, Mattia Carbone.
- “European values in motion“ aims at the production of videos providing information about human rights and freedoms and the promotion of principles and values of the Greek and European culture and spirit. The videos will refer to the sections of the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights. Coordination team: Dr. Christos Michalakelis, Styliani Lyberopoulou, James Konstantinides, Arash Hemati.
The main purpose of EUNIC is to create effective partnerships and networks between the participating organisations, to improve and promote cultural diversity and understanding between European societies, and to strengthen international dialogue and co-operation within and outside Europe.