During March 8-10, 2022, representatives of all MoreThanAJob Partner’s had the opportunity to meet in Athens, Greece to discuss the project’s progress and plan next steps. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic this was the first time that the partners could all meet in person after the kick-off meeting in 2019.

The meeting was held at EUROTraining facilities, the Greek partner, and the sessions were chaired by ANNU – An-Najah National University, the lead beneficiary. The first 2 days focused on technical and financial issues regarding the project implementation and progress on all Work Packages. The partnership was able to align priorities and define the next steps of the Project in order to achieved the biggest impact for the social and labour inclusion of the target groups. The main topics of discussion were the monitoring of the 10 winning sub-grants, the involvement of public institutions, as well as the new version of the MoreThanAJob portal.

Meeting in person was a great opportunity to also organize field visits to two successful examples of Social Economy and Social Inclusion in Greece: the Municipal Market of Kypseli and the Romantso Creativity Hub and Incubator.

The Municipal Market of Kypseli is the first market of Social Entrepreneurship, following a participatory model of management and revival of the urban commons. The Market hosts several businesses that promote culture, innovation, creative entrepreneurship, while upgrading the quality of life in the local community.

The MoreThanAJob partners had the chance to get to know 3 businesses and the entrepreneurs behind them: a second-hand shop, a computer repairing business, and a social grocery shop with local products.

The Romantso Creativity Hub and Incubator is situated in the historical center of Athens and functions both as an incubator for start-up companies within the creative industry and as a cultural center, organizing and hosting a variety of, accessible to the wider public, events, on a daily basis. Romantso has also implemented dozens of activities and actions to help the social inclusion of migrants and refugees.

Another interesting element of the in-person meeting was the ability to take part in a capacity building training as a team. The training was designed to advance skill for the social economy, with a focus on fostering engagement for social inclusion actions.

At the end of the training, the partners took part in social awareness and team building participatory activities.

Finally, a synergy session was organized with other ENI CBC Med Projects promoting social inclusion. Besides MoreThanAJob, 5 other ENI CBC Med projects with Greek partners had the chance to present their actions and exchange best practices.

The session was held on-line to facilitate all participants. A small presentation was made by representatives of the INTERNISA, HELIOS, SIRCLES, MedTOWN, and MYSEA Projects.

For more information on the project and its activities, visit the MoreThanAJob webpage on the ENI CBC Med website and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.