A Week in Kozani: Jody Ray’s Journey into Young Adults Empowerment and Education

In this blog post Jody Ray tells about her job shadowing mobility in Greece. Jody works as a Team leader for the services for young adults whom we support in non-formal learning and find their own path. This mobility was a part our Erasmus+ Accredited mobility project in the field of adult education.

I had the opportunity to visit GO Alive – European Initiative for Youth Empowerment, Mindfulness and Wellbeing, in Kozani, Greece for a week. GO Alive was founded by Maria Stefanidou and Markos Chinios in 2020. The areas they work in are:

• Offering European educational opportunities, such as youth exchanges, training seminars, and voluntary services.
• Working on the training of Youth workers and the recognition of this profession.
• Promoting non-formal learning educational programmes and cross-border mobility.

Their target group is:

• 18-30-year-olds
• People with fewer opportunities due to social, economic, or geographical barriers
• People not in education, employment, or training (NEETs)
• Youth of Kozani, where the headquarters of the organization is, and the wider region of Western Macedonia.

They promote mindfulness, wellness, health, and a balanced lifestyle as well promoting social entrepreneurship and developing research for innovation. They aim to facilitate youth’s employability and transition to the labour market.

Kozani founders and me. From left to right: Maria Stefanidou, Jody Ray, Markos Chinios

Their staff consists of: project managers/workers, interns, long-term international volunteers (around 10 months) and short-term international volunteers (around one month). The interns are university students and work for about three months at a time. A few of them have had several internships with the organisation.

The working environment is relaxed and friendly, but the work gets done. Working languages are English and Greek. It is not required for the international volunteers to speak Greek. The working days are from around 9.00 to 14.00. They break for lunch between 12.00 - 14.00 and then come back to work at around 16.30 until around 21.00. They take their lunch breaks at separate times, so that someone is always in the office. Some of the staff work full-time and some work part-time. The offices are open from 9.00 until 21.00 Monday to Friday. They hold workshops in their offices and people can also pop in whenever they want, which is why someone is always at the office. There are seven staff, which include three international volunteers.

Kozani is small enough to be able to walk wherever you want to but it is also large enough to feel like there are a lot of people. The population of Kozani is just over 67 000 people. 

Kozani's central square seen from above. Mountains in the background. 

There is a lot of graffiti around the city. It was the same in Thessaloniki. Youth unemployment in this region is at about 65 % even for those, who have gone to university. The best employment opportunities are in tourist areas, but those only last about 4-5 months of the year. Other issue the youth face is mental health issues, but whether they occur because of the youth unemployment or for other reasons, my hosts couldn’t say.

The short-term volunteers were there to help put together the Kozani youthfest. They Kozani youthfest was three days long and workshops were held in either just Greek or Greek and English. English isn’t spoken widely in this region, but English was used alongside Greek as the international volunteers didn’t speak Greek. I was told that it was hard getting the youth involved in the Kozani youthfest. The event was promoted very well but young people didn’t seem interested in joining in. A couple of young people even asked about what was happening. They said they had heard about it but were not interested in joining in.

International volunteers in a workshop

I visited the local square where everyone comes together. The GO alive offices are located just off of the square. Kozani is a student town, there are two universities, and it is visible in the street scene. A lot of young people out and about. The centre square has a clock tower and an orthodox church. 

Clock tower on Kozani's central square

I also visited the local museum. It was quaint even though is was large. I was the only person there and they switched the lights on for me. It started with natural history before going onto local history. Not a lot was in English but it was still very interesting. I didn’t realise that the Kozani region, western Macedonia was under Turkish rule until 1912.

I also visited the local library and the nearby park. The library was modern on three floors. Very inviting and calm. They had an exhibition in the entrance hall with artwork by local school children. In the library, they had wonderful pieces of art all over the place. I’m not sure who they were by, but they were very good.

Art in the library

The park was lovely. It had a play area for children and lots of benches, a couple of water fountains and a field area for ball games.

Overall this was a wonderful visit. I learnt a lot Greece and the culture. I also think that I improved my skills in inter-regional European cooperation and am better able to establish and maintain effective partnerships between organisations. I learnt a lot about what type of projects serve that region of youth well. I learnt about good cooperation methods with local secondary schools. I learnt a lot about youth unemployment in Greece and the methods that GO Alive are using in trying to combat it. I was told about a digital literacy project they have running for young people and the different subject areas they are teaching in their workshops. They are helping the youth of Kozani to improve their employability through improved literacy. This job-shadowing trip was fantastic and I learnt a lot.

Street art and statues in the streets of Kozani

Written by: Jody Ray, Team Leader, Valo-Valmennusyhdistys ry