OCC started as a volunteer-led initiative and over the last years has grown into a relatively large organisation, still mainly powered by volunteers and a community-led approach where we not only work for migrants and refugees, but also closely together.
The beginning
Early 2016
Open Cultural Center (OCC) was established in 2016 at the height of the refugee crisis in Europe. Refugees and international volunteers at Idomeni refugee camp worked together to give classes and create a safe environment for children and adults, to learn and take part in cultural activities. OCC quickly became an important resource in the camp and organised events such as music and art workshops, open mic nights, performances and more.
Registration as nonprofit
June 2016
Following the closure of Idomeni, OCC relocated to refugee camps in Cherso and Sounio, bringing experience and resources to continue offering classes, workshops and activities led by refugees themselves. OCC formally registered with the Greek Ministry of Migration and Asylum as a non-governmental organisation in June 2016 and moved to Polykastro, near Nea Kavala refugee camp in Northern Greece, in February 2017. Operations shifted away from reception and emergency support in camps, towards inclusion and integration.
Development of our book
Early 2017
In an effort to raise awareness through youth education, while also gathering funding to grew OCC as an organisation, the book Amigo Mio was developed with stories and drawings from refugee children. The book has been a great success and until today is used in schools to make people at a young age aware of the situation of refugees in Greece and in Europe.
Extension to Catalonia, Spain
Late 2017
As OCCs founders were Catalan, and as there were many advantages in managing a part of administration from Catalonia, OCC also opened a location in Barcelona. While at the start it was mainly an administrative office, it slowly turned into a cultural center comparable to the work we do in Greece, offering educational and cultural activities to both locals as well as to newcomers.
Start of a tech academy in Barcelona
March 2019
As part of a European collaboration between various international NGOs, OCC Spain started with a small code course to support refugees and migrants with upskilling and finding a job in the tech sector. This course grew in a full tech academy called MigraCode Barcelona, and today is having regular batches of students, with many jobs found for our graduates.
First corporate funding (our CSR programs)
October 2019
Together with the start of our first MigraCode coding course, we started collaborating with companies to fund parts of our work. Through so called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs, we managed to work with great partners from the technology sector such as Glovo, Lenovo and Adaptive to fund MigraCode courses, and we have been working with them until today to further extend and improve our CSR programmes.
Our response to the global pandemic
February 2020
As for all organisations worldwide, Covid forced us to change the way we work, especially during local lockdowns in Polykastro and Barcelona. We shifted many activities online, our teams started working remotely most part of the week (and completely during the lockdowns), and we had to teach many of the people we work with to use online tools to be able to continue benefiting from the resources and activities we offer. Until today, we offer many online activities and our team continue to keep working remotely when necessary.
Rebranding and professionalisation
March 2021
With a brand-new communications team and renewed efforts to further professionalize our organisation, we streamlined our branding to be consistent and more recognizable, while internally using new tools such as Slack, Airtable and Trello to create a larger social impact in the most (cost-)effective way possible.
New (European) projects and further upscaling of OCC
2021 and onwards
Both in OCC Greece and in Spain we keep working to support refugee and migrant communities through our activities and additional support, and through many new and upcoming (European) projects such as ITFLOWS, MigraCode Europe and a new program in the north of Catalonia, we continue to increase our social impact on a local, regional, national and international level.
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