Refugee Youth Empowerment in Athens
In 2020 we started a long term project in Athens/Greece to support the well being, personal development and inclusion of refugee youth. Therefore our Team of local greek HipHop dancers hosts regular HipHop classes at different spots in the city and creates monthly community events to built bridges between the refugee youth and the local HipHop scene.
Since 2020 our team provided 27 events for over 750 children, youth and adults from 21 countrie as well as hosted over 200 regular classes for groups of youths.
The youth are growing up in an unpredictable environment and are traumatized by the journey of fleeing from their home countries. These experiences affect their understanding of themself as well as the world they live in extremely negatively. Therefore we decided to use an approach which focuses on developing five fundamental values and principles to regain personal strength. The approach we are talking about is called TRICK and stands for Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration and Kindness.
Trust:
Building trust within yourself as well as to trust others.
Respect:
Respecting yourself and others. Getting respect from others is a two-sided process. We have to give respect to get the respect we are looking for.
Independence:
Is about realizing that we can act independent from others and we can create our life. Means making independent decisions. A part of being an adult means achieving a specific level of independence.
Collaboration:
Collaboration is key. No matter which vision someone has for his life. Coming together as an unity to learn and empower each other on the way is a fundamental principle to learn as a human being.
Kindness:
Being kind to others is in general a positive character trait and opens doors. You get what you give.
Our experience of the last two years showed that building and developing these values and principles inside the youth changes their following journey radically in a positive direction. The culture of HipHop is our tool to reactivate the potential which are already inside the youth.
