ESC: Giving a day of my summer to the forest

Kapnikos Stathmos Katerini (KSK) is an independent organization founded by active citizens to tackle societal challenges through informing, sensitizing and mobilizing civil society on issues of environmental protection, social solidarity and unconditional human rights through means of civil engagement, solidarity and volunteering, setting social responsibility, cooperation, inclusion, respect for individual rights and diversity as its core values. Starting in 2007 with the still running forest protection activity “Giving a day of my summer to the forest” and particularly during the hardship and austerity of the financial crisis in the years 2012 and following, Kapnikos Stathmos has continuously been initiating and implementing solidarity projects and volunteering activities concerning ecologic, economic, political and social issues in order to raise awareness and organize support for people in need, no matter of their cultural, ethnic or religious background. For this, in the midst of the financial crisis the organization has managed to occupy and restore an historically important, yet completely abandoned public venue and transform it into a meeting point, where social engagement and solidarity is lived and shared with others. KSK has achieved this by officially getting the usage rights to the premises for 5 years and afterwards for 25 years with another 10 years extensions, confirmed by two different state governments. For that reason, the now existing Nonprofit Civil Partnership (AMKE) was founded to function as a legal representation, which since then has earned the local community´s trust and built a strong European network of friends and supporters (e.g., Germany, Belgium, Luxemburg, Italy). Despite the societal importance to maintain and preserve public premises of such historical relevance, the volunteer´s actions were at no time supported financially or otherwise by the municipal or other governmental authorities, further exemplifying the importance of active citizens and volunteers. As of now 19 different projects are parallelly managed by KSK promoting civil engagement, solidarity, volunteering, social inclusion as well as environmental protection and support of people with fewer opportunities. Besides the main activities (“Social Pharmacy”, “Social Goods Distribution”, “Solidarity Christmas Village” and “Giving a day of my summer to the forest”) extensively detailed in the following under Standard Activities, this also includes projects like the “Digital Contest of Narrations”, the translation of relevant monographies (for example concerning German reparations after the Second World War) or the “Open-Air Cinema”. In addition to these activities, KSK has a broader scope of goals and vision for the future. Based on the organization´s experiences of working with different societal groups and cultural entities, it is deepening its engagement with the different groups of the civil society (e. g.: young people, people with fewer opportunities, migrants) in order to improve the societal cohesion and to cope with the existing challenges, such as climate change as well as economic, societal and environmental challenges. To our understanding, solidarity and sharing the same values of equality and human rights is the common basis of a united Europe. On that background, our work on local level must be considered in the broader context of enhancing peace and solidarity in the European Union.