Consortium.
The LISTEN Consortium consists of 5 project partners from four EU Member States:
Greece, Portugal, Italy and Bulgaria. All project partners bring diverse experience and expertise to the project, bearing high-level skills in the field of civic participation and community engagement, and elevated knowledge about the local context and the community dynamics in each country.
Active in field work and well-connected with the local communities of focus, the partners have established impactful synergies with national, regional, and local civil society organisations in order to address complex social issues, especially regarding the needs of disadvantaged and marginalised populations.
Coordinator
The South-East European Research Centre (SEERC) is a non-profit research centre of CITY College, University of York Europe Campus, established in Thessaloniki, Greece in 2004. SEERC conducts multidisciplinary research in Digital Transformation, Sustainability, and Well-Being & Inclusion. SEERC’s mission is to support the stable and smooth development of South-East Europe by conducting pure and applied research throughout and for the region. To accomplish this, SEERC employs the existing research capacities of the University of York and CITY College by facilitating the collaboration between their research staff, and by developing multi-disciplinary networks of researchers from across South-East Europe.
Team members:
Nikos Zaharis is the Project Coordinator, and the Director of SEERC since 2006. He has more than 30 years of experience as a consultant and manager working for industrial as well as public sector organizations on issues ranging from management of science and innovation to sustainable economic and regional development in Greece and in a series of eastern European countries.
Faye Ververidou is a Research Associate at SEERC, a research centre of CITY College, University of York Europe Campus, and a part-time lecturer at the Business Administration Department of the institution. She has a legal academic background, holding an LLB and an LLM in International Law. Her research interests lie within EU and international law, with a focus on human rights and migration. She has several years of experience in the management and implementation of EU funded projects (Horizon Europe, Horizon2020, JUST etc.), and she is experienced in the organization of capacity-building activities at national and international level.
Giannis Saltaris is the Communication Manager at SEERC, a research centre of CITY College, University of York Europe Campus. He brings an exceptional academic background and a keen digital insight to the forefront of global communications. His academic journey includes earning a First-Class Honours in Business Studies from the University of Sheffield, coupled with a Master’s degree in Digital Marketing & Social Media from the University of York, achieved with distinction. Giannis excels in devising digital strategies and narratives that captivate audiences worldwide, underpinned by his unique blend of strategic foresight and digital expertise.
Dr Alexandra Prodromidou is an Assistant Professor at the Business Administration and EconomicsDepartment of CITY College, University of York, Europe Campus and a Research Associate at the Southeast European Research Centre (SEERC). She is also a Research Associate at the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI) of the University of Sheffield. She holds a PhD in Russian Foreign Energy Policy in the Caspian region (University of Birmingham, UK) and has published on energy vulnerability in Greece. Dr Prodromidou has also worked and published on post-2014 migration in Europe. She is a member of the stirring committee of the MIGREC Centre of the University of Belgrade inside the framework of the H2020 Twining Project for the establishment of a Centre of research excellence in the field of Migration Studies in Serbia (2019-2022). In the past she has worked on various EU funded projects focusing on migration, such as the Jean Monnet Networks Erasmus+ funded MIGRATE project (2016-2019), the Jean Monnet Networks Erasmus+ funded BORDEUR project on EU integration (2019-2022) and the World Bank Legal Vice-Presidency, Secretariat of the Global Forum on Law Justice and Development funded project INTEGRATE on refugee integration in Greece (2020-2021). She has published with Palgrave and SAGE.
Partner
The non-profit organisation Light Trees was established in Athens, Greece in 2011, aiming at the empowerment of vulnerable and excluded social groups, especially families, parents, and children, with a focus on parental consulting, protection of people with a refugee/migrant profile, the inclusion of people with disabilities, intercultural education, community engagement, and empowerment. Light Trees is missioned to design and implement impactful and meaningful projects, following a participatory, community-based approach. Light Trees professionals design innovative social actions and services that respond to the realistic needs of the most vulnerable, by embracing their autonomy and resilience. The main areas of interventions evolve around Community Engagement & Social Solidarity, Integration & Intercultural Education, Intercultural Development & Exchange, Mental Health & Well-being, Living Systems & Environment. The mandate of the Light Tree organisation is to address the cause roots of social injustices and drive social change, by fostering families’ and individuals’ resilience and promoting individual and collective well-being.
Team members:
Lambrini Stamati is the Project Co-coordinator, a certified Group Psychotherapist and has attended extensive training in Systems Psychology. She holds an MA in Communications Policy from City University of London, Department of Sociology, and a BA in Communications and Mass Media from the University of Athens. She has a long, people- centered, working experience in the media industry and in the humanitarian sector, and has held managerial positions, working for UN agencies and International NGOs, where she applied strategy design and project coordination skills. She currently works for Light Trees as Growth & Innovation Lead.
Panagiotis-Georgios Moysidis is a certified adult educator with extensive experience in intercultural education, skills development, design of curricula and educational materials and tools, using gamification and interactive learner-focused methodologies. He is a Linguistics graduate, with post-graduate studies in New Technologies in Education and Teaching and Analysis of First and Second Languages. Panagiotis has facilitated a series of interactive learning projects for children, youth, and adults; he has an excellent knowledge of National and EU-funded projects and extended research experience. He is currently working as Research Lead for the Light Trees non-profit.
Georgios Vellis has been involved in Community Engagement, Non-Formal Education, and Skils Development programming for refugees and migrants with the IOM mission in Greece. A Business Administration graduate from the Hellenic Open University, he has also been trained as a Special Education Teacher and has experience in working with children and adolescents with disabilities. He joined Light Trees as an Administrative & Operations Lead, bringing field experience and expertise in Community Engagement.
Partner
CONTEXTOS stands as a cultural cooperative with its headquarters situated in Faro, Portugal. Its primary objective is to address societal challenges through the implementation of tailor-made projects and initiatives. The core mission of CONTEXTOS revolves around promoting community development as a pivotal factor in driving societal change. To achieve this, the team employs participatory tools that foster the development of competencies and capabilities within both individuals and organizations. The organization’s project portfolio encompasses a diverse range of focus areas, including culture, media, education/training, participatory democracy, active citizenship, human rights, intercultural dialogue, non-formal learning, social entrepreneurship, and social inclusion. CONTEXTOS has been collaborating with Faro Municipality since 2021 in the planning, facilitation, promotion, and evaluation, of the Faro Participatory Budget, engaging and fostering the participation of citizens from Faro council (including Faro city, rural areas, and island communities) in the development, presentation and voting of proposals.
Team members:
Jorge Machado holds a BA in Social Education from the University of Algarve and has vast experience of transnational working and extensive knowledge of European Programmes. He plays a key role in the development and implementation of Contextos programs and has an excellent track record of partnership working, successful project management, implementation, and delivery of EU funded projects. He has a full understanding of non-formal and informal learning practices to support disadvantaged individuals into training and employment including self-employment. He has experience in employability, social enterprise, and entrepreneurship support programs.
Beatryz Schneider is a Project Manager at Contextos in Faro, Portugal, where she integrates her studies in Psychology with experience in project management, social psychology, and data analysis. Originally from Brazil, she has a strong background in educational programs, volunteer coordination, and community development, with a focus on social integration and training initiatives.
Salomé Marques is a passionate advocate for arts and social inclusion, currently serving as a Project Manager at Contextos. With a background in theatre, dramaturgy, and creative writing, she is committed to advancing gender equality and better laws for artists. Her experience spans Erasmus+ programs and collaborations with theatre companies across Europe, where she applies her expertise to drive positive change through the arts.
Andreia Martins is a Project Manager with a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture, specializing in sustainability, heritage, and community participation. At Contextos, she manages EU-funded projects and has played a key role in Faro’s participatory budgeting initiatives. Her work is centered on fostering community engagement and improving quality of life through cultural and environmental projects.
Partner
The association Oriel APS was founded in 2017 and its main office is in the province of Verona, Italy. Its mission is to promote the active participation of young people in their local communities and to give them the chance and the tools to exploit fully their potential and to provide them a support in discovering their path and developing their skills by using non-formal education and intercultural learning methods. To pursue these goals Oriel organizes cultural events, seminars, workshops, and study sessions to promote mostly creativity, entrepreneurship, youth employment, volunteering, youth democratic participation but also about several different topics according to needs and situations. Nowadays the association counts more than 150 members. Oriel provides several training courses to the local community about human rights, gender issues, entrepreneurship, health care and sustainable development, focusing especially on the social aspect and on the long-term sustainability one should point at while developing his/her ideas.
Team members:
Sillian Ferrari is the founder and President of Oriel. He graduated as Business Administrator and Foreign Language Expert is the founder of Oriel; he has a strong passion for international cooperation and foreign languages in fact he can speak Italian, Spanish, German, French, Portoguese and English. From March 2019 until the end of July 2019 he did his Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs at Permacultura Cantabria. Now is active a project manager, facilitator and trainer. He is a member of the board of the Italian Network Europiamo ETS.
Matteo Tessaro: Matteo is a youth worker from Verona with national and international experience, having participated in various Erasmus projects, including training courses, the European Solidarity Corps and Erasmus for young entrepreneurs. He has been volunteering since 2020, dedicated to fostering cross-cultural connections and community development. In his latest European Solidarity Corps project in England, he helped students with digital design and theater methodologies for the association ‘Creativity Work Preston’, which provides work-based learning opportunities and individualized lessons using formal and non-formal learning approaches.
Evelyn de Luca is involved in project management, project writing and facilitation at the ORIEL association. Always interested in journalism, she started as a freelance in different Italian newspapers. After she won different prizes for journalism and literature, she enrolled at Sapienza University for a Bachelor’s degree in Languages and modern literature (110/110 as the final score) simultaneously carrying out a study program focused on Cybersecurity and corporate security. In 2020 she enrolled at the International University of Rome at the master’s degree in “Investigations, Crime and International Security”. She did different kind of jobs, stages and internship in Data Analysis, Anti-Radicalization and Anti- Terrorist Departments, geopolitical newspaper and think tanks such as Analytica for Intelligence and Security studies (now being a junior analyst there).
Partner
PCO was established in 2020 and has gained a significant experience and capacity, fully sufficient to successfully to carry out all planned activities and to provide post-project sustainability. The project team consists of senior and junior researchers and analysts with complementary organizational, theoretical, and practical experience. The support that will be provided throughout the project by senior analysts with solid expertise will be extremely important for the formulation of effective and sustainable conclusions and guidelines regarding the situation of vulnerable groups. The organization is a think tank addressing the major challenges, crises, and innovations of the 21st century – migration, digitalisation, climate- from the dual perspective of policies and citizens. It aims to develop activities and analyses in support of the development of democracy, including digital and new forms of civic participation, citizenship, human rights, and intercultural dialogue. The team includes migration and asylum experts, political scientists, and anthropologists with experience as researchers in European (H2020, Erasmus+), national and international projects.
Team members:
Prof. Anna Krasteva is doctor honoris causa of University of Lille, France, editor-in-chief of Southeastern Europe (Brill/ Schöningh), professor of political sciences and director of CERMES/New Bulgarian University, president of ‘Policy and Citizens’ Observatory’. She takes part in numerous European projects (Horizon2020, Erasmus+, Europe for citizens, etc.). She has experience in trainings, organization of trainings, assessments, capacity- building events on topics including human rights, vulnerable groups. Through her recent Horizon 2020 projects , and Refuge-Ed on refugee and migrant children, and Matilde on migration and local development which was implemented in a remote region in Bulgaria, she had the opportunity to build a large network of local stakeholders in the focus area.
Chaya Koleva holds a BA in Political Sciences (Sciences Po Paris), and MA in International Security (Sciences Po Paris). Currently, she is pursuing a PhD in History of International Relations under joint supervision as part of an academic collaboration between the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Pantheon Sorbonne University. Her research interests range from contemporary history, international relations and security studies to migrations and national identity. Chaya Koleva has experience in working with local and international organizations on migration issues (Bulgarian Red Cross, Sécours Catholique Paris). She has worked as Media Montitor and Senior Operations Expert Assistant with the OSCE/ODIHR EOMs to Bulgaria. Over the past 10 years, Chaya Koleva has led two projects focused on youth connectivity and mobility. She has worked as a research assistant on several projects under European programs such as Horizon 2020, Erasmus+, and the Joint Research Center and as a project manager at the Bulgarian Winemaking and Export Association.
Dr Mina Hristova is an assistant professor at the Balkan Ethnology Department, Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with the Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Science. Her research interests include nationalism and identities, anthropology of borders, urban anthropology, memory and migrations. She has experience in project management and organisation of events, among which are film festivals, workshops, conferences, lectures, etc. for almost 10 years. At the end of 2021, she published the second edition of her first monograph: We are Bulgarians, but not Quite. In- between spaces and hybrid identities in the Balkans in XXI Century (PH: Paradigma, Sofia). In January 2022 the book was awarded the first place in the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences award for young scientists on the name of Academician Azarya Polykarov.
Vanina Ninova is a political scientist and Research Associate at Policy Citizens’ Observatory: Migration, Digitalisation, Climate. She has several years of experience in the implantation of European research projects on topics related to migration, integration of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, education, local development, disinformation, and fake news. Vanina is also experienced in the organization of trainings, information events such as regional and national round tables, scientific conferences and cultural events. She led the youth project ‘They are like us – volunteering for tolerance towards migrants’ funded by Sofia Municipality and was coordinator of the project ‘Empowerment of young migrants and refugees through innovative practices for more inclusive (post) pandemic, (post) crisis Bulgaria 2021-2022’ funded by Active Citizens Fund under the EEA Financial Mechanism.