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FELLOWS

Thalia Rizou

2015/16 Thessaloniki

Personal and social development has always been Thalia Rizou’s passion. She learned to appreciate being part of a community with the Girl Guides growing up and AIESEC later on and she chose to study International and European Relationships out of a sense of civic responsibility. During her studies, she explored this by participating in several initiatives (festivals, conferences, events) in Greece and Europe as a volunteer, as an organizer and after graduation as a full-time project manager. She loves motivating others and bonding through hands-on, inspiring hard work. She loves listening and understanding deeply every new challenge. She’d love to see her city grow through entrepreneurship initiatives, social responsibility, innovation, and technology.

Project Progress Phase III Phase II Phase I

Phase III

Scaling the projects in Greece

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Duration

Sep onwards

Project Title

Youthnest

Youthnest supports and inspires social development in Greece. It achieves its goals by empowering youth, shifting mindsets from traditional towards modern and by developing a new, innovative, effective and solution-oriented way of thinking and acting. 

Youthnest strongly believes that providing solutions to current challenges come through cooperation, innovation and meaningful design. Therefore, it implements projects, training and workshops that connect the current establishment with the civil society, social entrepreneurs, companies, organizations and anyone who promotes extroversion, innovation, effectiveness, and development. 

Youthnest designs and delivers interactive workshops that educate, motivate and empower participants in order to become actors of change and find appropriate solutions to current challenges. Together with other Changemakers, it collaboratively designs social urban, cultural and educational programs with significant and measurable social impact. Youthnest creates a community of Changemakers who interact, learn, intervene and push our society forward.

Youthnest is determined to transform Thessaloniki and Greece into a sustainable ecosystem, where new initiatives and actions that can have a positive impact on both society and economy, will be strongly supported. 

Phase II

Project implementation in Greece

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Duration

Dec - May

Project Title

Youthnest

Youthnest provides specialized services, taking into consideration the current challenges faced by cultural institutions. It uses innovative methods that are leading to implementable proposals through youth participation in interactive workshops that utilize collective intelligence.

Youthnest services can benefit Museums, Cultural Foundations, NGOs, Companies and in general institutions and groups which are dealing with culture and seek ways to improve their branding, their audience development, their extraversion & synergies and/or their income sustainability.

1. RESEARCH & PLANNING: In cooperation with experts, we examine each participating institution and we design innovative workshops, adapted to its needs.

2. NETWORKING: We are looking for the appropriate participants, depending on the theme of each workshop.

3. INTERACTIVE WORKSHOPS: We organize the workshop by utilizing its participants’ collective intelligence, by providing them proper tools and investing in their personal development.

4. COOPERATIVE SOCIETY: We contribute to the creation of a society that pays attention to young people opinions and takes full advantage of their creative minds. The workshop’s aim is to strengthen the peoples’ community who are able to collaborate creatively and effectively, by exchanging knowledge and experiences which result in innovative ideas that can be implemented in practice.

 Youthnest
 Youthnest

Phase I

Capacity building in Germany

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Duration

Sep - Nov

Project Title

Visibility strategy for the Opening of the Rechenzentrum Potsdam

More info to follow soon!

Host Institution

Lindenpark

The Lindenpark (supported by Stiftung Sozialpädagogisches Institut) is one of the largest socio-cultural centers in the provincial capital Potsdam and the state of Brandenburg. In addition to its wide-ranging live program, which sets the stage for the experience of (inter-)national and regional music and theater artists, the institution offers a large number of weekly courses and projects for children and families. Within this sphere of Lindenpark’s work, a special focus is laid on effective and sustainable support for single parents and socially disadvantaged people.

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