Onassis
What’s On
Educational program

Safe Steps with Sofia Bekatorou

Dates

Prices

Free

Location

The Ellinikon Experience Park

Time & Date

Day
Time
Venue
Day
1, 4-5 September & 7-8 October 2023
Time
09:30 – 14:30
Venue
The Ellinikon Experience Park, Elliniko

Information

Addressed to

Children and youths aged 8–18.

Program duration

Two meetings of 300 minutes.

Program aims and methodology

This program’s methodology is based on the IOC’s Olympic Values Education Program, and on the methodology applied by the “Building Healthy Intimate Relationships” workshop (Gender Equality Awareness Raising against Intimate Partner Violence project – www.gear-ipv.eu) of the European Anti-Violence Network.

The #SafeSteps program forms part of the broader actions of the SOFIA Project (www.sofiaproject.org).

Once this program has been completed, a program evaluation will be made available to facilitate the implementation of similar initiatives by the academic and broader community.

Prerequisites for taking part

This program is addressed to boys and youths staying at shelters run by the non-profit organization SYNYPARXIS – Integration Center for Migrant Workers – Ecumenical Refugee Program (synyparxis.org).

Where necessary, participants will be taken to the Ellinikon Experience Park venue by coach to participate in these sporting activities.

Each group will be assigned an interpreter who speaks their language, as well as a social worker and a program mentor.

All health measures currently in place for restricting the spread of Covid-19 will be strictly adhered to at all times.

At the end of the program, each child will be given a pair of sneakers to take away with them, symbolically helping them take their next safe steps.

Sports and mental health are the key components of this first interactive educational program by Safe Steps, brought to you and powered by the Olympic champion, psychotherapist, and youth worker Sofia Bekatorou. A program created for unaccompanied refugee and migrant minors.

Engaging in sporting activity helps all children build strength of character, boost confidence, and develop positive body image early on.

Especially when it comes to child/teen migrants/asylum seekers/refugees or victims of domestic/sexual violence, playing sport increases their sense of acceptance and fosters feelings of safety.

The Safe Steps program (#SafeSteps) –the first interactive educational program for mental empowerment in Greece– seeks to tackle trauma by using sport as a therapeutic tool.

Groups are formed during the course of the program and –through therapeutic interventions made by mental health professionals and trainers– each child and teen taking part will, by the end, have picked up new knowledge and skills, while also boosting their confidence and feelings of safety in the process.

This program is being realized by the Onassis Scholars Association in partnership with the European Anti-Violence Network and Sofia Bekatorou.

CREDITS

  • Sofia Bekatorou

    Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist, Founding member of the “To Gramma” Lacanian Psychoanalytic Society, B.Sc. (member of the Onassis Scholar’s Association), Olympic sailing champion (scientific director of project and mentor/youth worker)

  • Antonia Tsirigoti

    Psychologist, M.Sc., at the European Anti-Violence Network (mentor)

  • Melani Vasilopoulou

    Psychologist at the Vima Koino Mental Health Center (mentor)

  • Kiki Petroulaki

    Psychologist, Ph.D., at the European Anti-Violence Network (scientific consultant)

In collaboration with

  • European Anti-Violence Network

More in: