Social Innovation & Urban Togetherness, Start-up Lab goes to Kypseli

Working on Social Innovation; rebels with actual causes.

Now, more than ever, society needs all of us to work together, in order to restore it.
In troubled corners of the world and of the city, we as people need to see beyond profit and materialistic goods, for a greater good.

The Project

As a team in one of our classes in school (Startup Lab of Ad&PR Lab, Panteion University, Athens), we had to make a bold decision on which challenge to accept. Among the projects, there were challenges from Coca-Cola Company, about Ad blocking prevention and Internet of things.
What caught our attention though, was a social challenge by Impact. Hub Athens, about the neighbourhood of Kypseli, a controversial small part of the city centre that was once one of the greatest neighbourhoods in Athens. Nowadays, after some years of downgrading to what it seemed an infamous neighbourhood, Kypseli is starting to gain people’s trust again, to be a place to visit and to nostalgically appreciate its neoclassical beauty.

For most of us, Kypseli has a strong emotional connection. Personally, all my life I have been listening to family stories about its streets, its cafes, about the difficulties my mother faced there as a child yet now wants to return to her old, loved memories.

As a team, after some thought, we decided that the project from Impact Hub was the perfect fit for us, youngsters striving to make a school project into actual change for the community. A difficult project, with many bureaucratical setbacks that had a very optimistic goal: Improving people’s life in Kypseli.

After many discussions with both our mentors and the people from Impact Hub, we decided to focus on three problems that the neighbourhood and its people face and provide one solution for all the problems combined.

Problems:
-Culture is not accessible and known to all. There are more than 10 theatres and cultural hubs in Kypseli, yet its citizens either don’t know about the events that are hosted there or they can’t pay the fee to be a part of it.

-No interaction among the diverse groups. It is known that in Kypseli live a lot of diverse groups of citizens, which is not a bad thing, rather a good one since it provides the sense of acceptance and belonging in a multicultural world. The three major groups of citizens are: older people, migrants and refugees and University students. These groups though, do not really interact with one another, neither in their daily life, nor in community activities.

-Public Opinion for Kypseli still persists to be the one of the infamous neighbourhood, with not good transportation and hardly any choices. All these, of course, have changed. Kypseli is accessible by train and many buses, there are a lot of bars, restaurants and tavernas and a neighbourhood like any other one in Athens.

Solution

After brainstorming we thought that the best way to bring people together is through art and culture. Our main idea was to create a collaboration of theatres in the area of Kypseli. The theatres will be a meeting point for the residents of Kypseli and the surrounding areas, aiming to spark a fruitful interaction among those people.

To make this happen we came up with the idea of a festival that will last for a week, twice a year with various theatrical shows for every day. To ensure the equal involvement of everyone, after communicating and agreeing with the individual theatre owner, the institution of “Εισιτήριο σε αναμονή” / “ Ticket on hold” will take place (For every full priced ticket, the person buying it, has the option to buy another one for half the price. The half priced ticket will be available for those who can’t afford a ticket at all — unemployed, students, the elderly etc.). At the beginning of the festival a big party in and around the Market of Kypseli will take place, where everyone will have the option to bring homemade food and drinks and interact with each other.

Insights

People’s opinion matter the most. In this case, the opinion of people from different backgrounds that both live there or elsewhere, was very valuable to coming up with our solution.

We interviewed older people, a woman that has lived in Greece for 15 and the last 5 in Kypseli, citizens that visit Kypseli frequently and young people around the age of 25 that both live in Kypseli or in nearby places.

They all said that it would be very nice if there was a cultural event in their neighbourhood, concerning food, music and theatre. Regarding the “Agora” of Kypseli, few noticed that they miss the smell of the food, vegetables and spices, when the Agora used to work as a food market. That is why we combined the Theatre Festival with the Kick-Off Party and its food aspect.

In our next steps, we will continue to work regarding the Festival. We have already contacted production companies and the local Theatres in Kypseli and we have the green light to proceed with the organisation of the Festival.

During this 3-month process, we were very lucky to meet with the officials of Impact Hub and contribute to this project. It would be a honour for us to continue working on such cause, since it has an actual and important impact to the community of Kypseli.

Team: The Bakers
Frossini Drakouli
Charis Zarbalas
Jason Verbis
Martha Davari
Asimina Christodoulatou
Danai Kontitsi

Our Mentors
Betty Tsakarestou | Katerina Vlassopoulou | #SpyrosKapetanakis| #DimitrisKokkinakis

#ADandPRLab #StartupLab #ImpactHubAthens