Creating Safe Spaces by Sharing Synergies and Good Practices

Creating Safe Spaces by Sharing Synergies and Good Practices From June 3 to 5, 2025, SafeSpaces partners gathered in Athens, hosted by the Velos Youth center, for a deep dive into the methodologies and challenges related to creating safe and welcoming spaces for young people, recognizing refugees, migrants, and displaced persons simply as youngsters. The main objective of this intense three-day event was to discuss and deepen methodologies for implementing « safe spaces » in the diverse contexts of the partner countries. The study visit was a fundamental opportunity to align strategies and share best practices among partners from different social, cultural, economic, and political backgrounds. One of the most valuable aspects of the study visit was the direct interaction with the young people hosted at the Velos Youth center. Their testimonies generated a profound reflection on the essence of a « safe space. » Furthermore, the meeting included the involvement of external stakeholders. Their experiences and perspectives in the daily work of creating safe spaces provided fundamental insights, allowing the team to further refine the training program currently under development, to ensure its maximum impact and responsiveness to real needs. SafeSpaces continues its journey towards creating environments that not only offer physical protection but also promote psychological well-being and social integration. We invite all those interested in this cause to follow our progress and join our community of members to promote increasingly inclusive, cooperative, and safe spaces.

Europe’s Forgotten Children: The Persistent and Urgent Need for Safe, Dignified Solutions for Unaccompanied Minors

Europe’s Forgotten Children: The Persistent and Urgent Need for Safe, Dignified Solutions for Unaccompanied Minors Across Europe, thousands of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UAMs) are living in unsafe, precarious conditions—held in detention-like facilities, left in homelessness, or forced into exploitative situations. Those children who do receive proper care are typically unprepared for turning eighteen, when they are left to fend for themselves. While headlines often focus on numbers or border policies, these children and young people are not statistics. They are individuals—many fleeing war, persecution, and economic collapse—who have a legal right to protection but are met instead with indifference or hostility. Greece, at the edge of Europe’s border regime, is a striking example. A country that receives disproportionate numbers of asylum seekers, it continues to struggle with a fractured protection system. Despite efforts such as the National Guardianship System and the “Network of Care” initiative by UNICEF, thousands of UAMs remain without proper accommodation, guardianship, or access to education and mental health support. Many are forced to sleep rough, survive in squats, or rely on unsafe networks to meet basic needs. Instead of offering sanctuary, Greece has increasingly criminalised migration. Children are caught in mass arrests, detained without legal justification, and subjected to inhumane conditions. The Guardian recently reported on teenage refugees imprisoned after being forced to steer boats—coerced by smugglers, and then prosecuted as smugglers. These prosecutions contravene the UN protocol on migrant smuggling, which establishes that a migrant cannot be prosecuted for facilitating his or her own smuggling. Yet this isn’t just about Greece. Across the EU, child protection is often subordinated to border enforcement. Italy and Bulgaria continue to push children back violently from borders. In northern Europe, children are housed in isolated, overcrowded facilities with minimal support. Even in states with stronger welfare systems, like France or the Netherlands, children face lengthy asylum delays, housing shortages, and racism. Meanwhile, EU member states continue to fund violent border policies and offshore processing, instead of investing in systems that safeguard children’s rights. The failure to equitably share responsibility across Europe—leaving border states overwhelmed—is political, not inevitable. A rights-based approach is possible. It requires redistributing responsibility, ending detention of children, and ensuring legal pathways for reunification and protection. Projects like HELIOS Junior in Greece offer a glimpse of what a better system could look like: focusing on integration, education, and social inclusion or those ‘ageing-out’ of the supports and protections they are entitled to as children. But they are underfunded and far from the norm. Civil society groups and local communities often step in to fill the gaps—offering language classes, safe spaces, and legal aid—but they cannot substitute for state responsibility. We must move away from a policy framework that views refugee children and young people as a “burden” to be managed. They are not a threat, they are part of our shared future. Europe’s commitment to human rights means little if it abandons the most vulnerable at its borders. Instead of walls and criminalisation, we need care, solidarity, and structural change. A Europe that truly upholds its values would ensure every child and young person—regardless of origin—is safe, supported, and free to thrive.

Focus group in Bulgaria

Focus group in Bulgaria In September 2024, Association Follow Me organized a deeply meaningful focus group with refugee children in Secondary School “Stefan Karadzha” in Varna, Bulgaria. This was an important milestone in shaping our 12-Module Integration Program as part of the Safe Spaces project.Our team, including two psychologists and one professional trainer, was there to present the program, create a welcoming environment and listen closely to the voices of the young participants. Their insights, emotions and honesty brought the content to life in powerful ways.The young people explored the full range of the modules and engaged actively with them, offering valuable feedback and suggestions, while also sharing personal stories of resilience, adaptation and hope. They explored essential topics such as access to healthcare and social services, individual goal setting, mental health, community belonging, education, employment, housing and legal support. The session encouraged open dialogue and the children responded with valuable feedback, personal insights and powerful stories drawn from their own journeys. Their reflections highlighted the importance of cultural sensitivity, emotional support and practical tools that truly reflect their day-to-day realities. Many shared how meaningful it felt to be included in shaping a program designed for their needs and several emphasized how themes like identity, well-being and opportunity resonated deeply with them. Their feedback helped us ensure that the modules are not only informative but also practical, empathetic and empowering.One participant shared: “It helps just to know someone understands what it’s like and that this is made for people like us.”This focus group was more than an evaluation, it was a shared moment of connection, trust and learning. It reaffirmed our belief that true impact begins with listening and that the voices of young people must be central in shaping any support framework intended for them.We are deeply grateful to all participants and to Secondary School “Stefan Karadzha” for hosting us so warmly. As we finalize the modules, these voices will continue to guide and inspire our work – toward creating safer, more inclusive spaces for youth across Europe.

Focus Groups in Spain

OpenEurope, during the research phase, organised several focus groups with both unaccompanied minors and professionals working with them. These groups were informally organised but followed a detailed structure in terms of topics and issues to cover and be discussed. Professionals (youth workers, educators, physcologists…) working with unaccompanied minors explored the primary concerns and effective strategies related to the integration process of minors in Spain, and especifically in the Province of Tarragona. Other focus groups included unaccompanied minors from diverse backgrounds and mentors experienced in social work, education, and community engagement. Some of the key topics discussed included Education and Language Learning, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Legal and Administrative Support, Social Integration and Community Engagement, and Employment and Vocational Training. Participants highlighted the many challenges faced by these groups and by their mentors as well in the process of integrating into European societies. The discussions underscored the importance of comprehensive support systems that address educational needs, mental health, legal assistance, social integration, and employment opportunities.

Partners start working on the Research Methodology

After the kick off meeting in Brusselss, partners started working on the methodology they would follow for their national research. This document will guide research activities of the Safe Spaces project and is being developed by the BK CON with the contribution of all partners. It considers the main assumptions underlying proposal development, Consortium capacities and envisaged impact. The presented document provides insights into selected approach, techniques, and procedures to be used by Partners during first project phase. Though, the mixed methods research approach (analysis of primary and secondary data) combining qualitative and quantitative methods will be used to allow for identification of synergies and overlapping aspects of youth centers operations. At national level, primary data will be collected directly from the two main target groups for profiling purposes. Different approaches will be adopted given target group characteristics: Questionnaires distributed among youth center professional staff to acquire relevant information on the level of education and training, skills and competences, work environment, licensing and certification and personal characteristics and challenges faced in daily professional practice. Focus groups will be organised in each implementation country always considering different educational level, language barriers and unique needs, circumstances, and vulnerabilities of unaccompanied minors of each community. Professionals in charge of these groups will follow the recommendations stated in the Research Methodologyin terms of the depth of issues to be covered and will focus on main difficulties, fears, challenges as well as unique competencies, future aspirations, and goals of minors.   A second level of data collection will be through Desk research (mainly conducted by BK Con and supported by information by each partner organisation), gathering basic data on youth centers activity, legal framework within which they operate, inner capacities (number and type of staff employed, type of contract applied), target groups, and relevant stakeholders (local authorities supporting youth centers, donors, collaborating ONGs inter alia), among others. The final result will be soon published in the project website!

Thrilled to Share Highlights from the SafeSpaces Project Kickoff Meeting!

#SafeSpaces #EUproject #EUYouthStrategy #RefugeeRights #RefugeeVoices #InclusiveCommunity The partners of the Safe Spaces project met last March. The Safe Spaces project was attended at the Kick off meeting by the coordinators of EVBB and the organisations BK CON, Yyouth, Velos Youth, Fundación Scalabrini de México AC, Open Europe, and the NGO Follow me from around the globe. As a reminder, this project aims to assist unaccompanied refugees, combating the 37 million displaced youth worldwide. Partners are committed to providing equal support for all young people, recognizing refugees, migrants, and displaced them simply as youngsters. The aim is to overcome the lack of access to fundamental needs and combat discrimination. The consortium had the opportunity to discuss the working packages, develop research methods, dissemination, and exploitation strategies, as well as management approaches, to ensure our project comes to fruition and performs optimally.