The 2nd upper secondary school of Nea Ionia-Volos is located in the Nea Ionia suburb of the town of Volos in central Greece. Volos is located almost halfway between Athens and Thessaloniki on Greek mainland and is a port city- departure spot of the Argonautic expedition. Our school is a general secondary school with 32 staff and more than 300 students- medium sized for Greek standards. Age range of our students is from 14-15 to 18 years. We are in the same building complex with a vocational upper secondary school and we share part of the facilities, like the conference and theatre room as well as the gymnastics hall. Both Greece and Greek society have undergone a transformation in the last 30 years and those changes are reflected in our school which, when founded in 1985, was a pilot school, very innovative for that time. Not any more though. Recession has hit the area hard and the unemployment figures have risen in the last few years, as one after the other big factories closed in the town’s industrial zone. Due to lack of a better option in the job market, pupils tend to continue their studies, hoping for a better future. Teachers in school form now a young team of enthusiastic and committed people who try to do their best and give their all in a difficult situation, when all one hears is about economic and social crisis and spending cuts. We receive students from two lower secondary schools in the area. The first one is located in a working class district in the town centre whilst the second is in a newly built area in the suburbs. Therefore our students´ background is extremely varied. Still, the majority of our students generally come from low and middle socioeconomic status families, so they are deprived from getting to know other cultures in their natural and social environment.

Here is a brief CV of the contact person and local coordinator of the project: Dimitrios APOSTOLOU: Post Graduate (MA) in Adult Education, Greek Open University. Post Graduate (MSc) in Urban and Regional Planning and Development, University Of Thessaly, Greece. Post Graduate Erasmus Scholarship in Classical Archaeology and History of Art in LudwigMaximilian Universität Zu Műnchen, Germany. Degree in History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology, Aristotle’s University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Full time teacher in the 2nd Upper Secondary School of Nea Ionia in Volos. Director of Social and Cultural Council of the Region of Thessaly, Responsible For The Implementation Of National And EU-Funded Projects (1997- Now) In Fields Such As Employment, Women, Youth, Health, Health At Schools, Sustainable Development, Culture And Tourism, Social Economy. Expertise In Counselling And Support Services For Unemployed, Immigrants And Underprivileged Facing Social Exclusion. Expertise In Vocational Training, Has Worked As Trainer In Many Seminars. Polyglot, Fluent In English, French, German, Italian, Finnish.