Description
Ithaca is the first mobile laundry unit in Greece and Europe for homeless people since April 2016. Our aim is to raise social inclusion of homeless
Our goal is twofold:
i)raise homeless people’ s hygiene standards,living conditions and restore their dignity
ii)social reintegration
Our mobile unit operates in different spots within Attica region in order to reach as many people as possible.
At the same time, we provide job positions for them in order to help them reintegrate professionaly in a safe enviroment. Our employees are provided with job counselling and psychological support by our external network of partners, which will later help them find a full time job position that suits best in their profile and previous experience
Competence and Expertise Offered
Ithaca operates a mobile unit for more than 3 years.
We have gained knowledge and experience regarding outreach operations and building trust relationship with our beneficiaries.
As for the reintegration part, we involve our benefeciaries by working in the field of operations and become an active part of our impact.
Regarding funding we have strong support from CSR activities and we have managed to create strong long-term partnerships with big companies that beleive and support our cause.
Expertise sought
We would like to gain more knowledge regarding reintegration and best practices. Housing first is a very interesting model and could help us think of more ways to achieve our goal.
Another important area is raising awareness and advocacy for homeless people and their human rights.
Last but not least, we need to learn how to create partnerships with the state because in Greece NGO’s and the state are not used to work together, but we strongly believe that this should change.