The Streetwork team of ARSIS has been operating since January 2017 in the area of Thessaloniki with the aim of locating and protecting unaccompanied minors at risk. The team intervenes in the city streets as well as in the wider urban area, where newly arrived refugees, including unaccompanied minors, live in conditions of precariousness/homelessness. The latter is a population with increased vulnerability and specific support needs, which are exacerbated by the precarious living conditions and the fact that they are a population on the move. As they are under age, they also face serious risks of victimization and exploitation.
The team’s activities are supported by the Info Desk, where minors have access to food, showers, clean clothes, relaxation and educational/recreational activities. The services provided include information on their rights, orientation, counseling, legal assistance, psychological empowerment, direct referral to safe housing and liaison with competent services. Additionally, awareness-raising activities for the local community and civil society are organized in the same premises.
In 2021, ARSIS Streetwork became a direct implementation partner of the National Emergency Response Mechanism (NERM) under the Special Secretariat for the Protection of Unaccompanied Minors of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum. In this new context, the team continued to intervene in the streets of the city: with a Mobile Unit for the identification of unaccompanied minors and their accompaniment to emergency shelters, and with an Info Desk serving as a place of reception, proper information as well as the liaison of the minors with child protection services. At the same time, a new action commenced in 2021 through a team of professionals, which undertook the best interest assessments of the minors hosted in the Emergency Accommodation Facility for Unaccompanied Minors - Safe Zone of Vagiochori Volvi. This action was completed in December 2021.
The Streetwork Mobile Unit and Info Desk continued operating within the framework of NERM in Thessaloniki during 2022. In view of the ongoing Ukraine refugee crisis, a further team of experienced and specialized collaborators was added to the regular team early in April and deployed to the Promachonas Border Station in Serres at the Greek-Bulgarian border. Its aim was to identify and protect displaced children from the Ukraine directly upon their arrival in Greece. These children were unaccompanied or separated from their parents as a consequence of the situation in war-torn Ukraine.
ARSIS Streetwork, including all its activities and operations, was implemented up to the end of 2022 in cooperation with UNHCR and co-funded by the European Union, while it also officially participates in the National Emergency Response Mechanism under the Special Secretariat for the Protection of Unaccompanied Minors of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum since 2021.
In 2023, ARSIS Streetwork carries on with its activities as before and is occupied implementing the project: "Operational Assistance to the National Emergency Response Mechanism (NERM) Project”, which is funded by the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism (EEA Grants 2014 - 2021) and still ongoing.
The team of Streetworkers is active morning and afternoon hours in two shifts, thus enabling the provision of its services from Monday to Friday at 10:00-22:00. The Info Desk operates Monday to Friday at 10.00-18.00 on the ground floor of 6 Orfanidou Street, Thessaloniki.
Additionally, the Streetwork team is available from Monday to Friday at 10:00-22:00 under the following telephone number: 0030-6908070490. At the same time NERM operates a 24-hour telephone line for the identification and location of children in need (0030-2132128888 and 0030-6942773030). It is available in six languages seven days a week.
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