Global Shapers Athens Hub, ReGeneration

I am applying for the Elevate Prize with a 2-pronged approach, touching on the organizational and personal level. As a Greek nonprofit, ReGeneration remains nationally significant and impactful despite the macro risks of a post-crisis reality and COVID-19 repercussions. Due to our bold ambitions and to continue our positive effect on the socio-economy, we need resources to plan and implement our strategic innovations, and to ensure that the know-how collected in Silicon Valley is effectively transferred to the core operational ReGeneration ecosystem. Receiving this grant will allow us to build upon the existing infrastructure in order to raise more support and engage more global partnerships. The sustainability of our funding depends upon the direct involvement of the Founder, this grant will ensure my continuous involvement in making ReGeneration more sustainable and allowing resources to increase our impact. Participating in the mentoring and training workshops will enable me to transfer my insights to the team, and learn from others and the MIT Solve ecosystem to raise awareness for Greece and ReGeneration. This will have a signalling effect on our reputation and will help unlock further global resources, so that we can continue to elevate opportunities for all by raising others!

My vision has always been to democratize access to opportunity and help maximize human potential. ReGeneration lies within this intersection, boosting the ecosystem of economic mobility via up/reskilling programs in the education to employment pathway. With a healthy dose of delusional optimism, I founded ReGeneration with a vision to transform the lives of youth and permanently change the trajectory of modern Greece. Balancing a country on the verge of entrepreneurial extinction and the innovation drive at large, we have extraordinary promise and huge societal risks. I strive for ReGeneration to become the catalyst for augmentation of opportunity and positive social outcomes, hedging against all risks and distributing fair infrastructure for diversity, equity, inclusion. Our goal for the future is to utilize all opportunities that AI/Deep Technologies offer, while helping shape public policies so that self-made success stories are possible. Growing up, I was a product of public schools, and dependent on grants to complete my studies. Now as a self-made man, I have an extra layer of understanding and respect for the importance of supporting youth. This grant is crucial in equipping the next generation of professionals to offer Greece a new narrative of resilience and economic mobility.

We are lifting barriers to opportunity and economic mobility for youth, counteracting obstacles to tech adoption because of lack of skills, recognized by WEF as the most significant barrier across all industries (Future of Jobs Report 2020, WEF). Greece ranks extremely low (23rd/28th) in EU Skills Development, and youth unemployment is skyrocketing (34%). New startup entrepreneurship and innovation is blocked, as there is no talent to supply and stimulate progress. Last-mile training programs throughout EMEA lack maturity in awareness and infrastructure. ReGeneration is the only and largest multistakeholder talent accelerator, one-stop-shop personal and professional development program in Greece, that empowers young people in their first career steps and ultimate economic empowerment and mobility. We design and implement up/re-skilling initiatives where young graduates gain new skills to architect their bright futures. Through a holistic blended approach, beneficiaries receive digital training, soft skills, mentoring and coaching by market experts, and a wholesome introduction to ReGeneration’s vast ecosystem - and are placed within the domestic market. In addition to economic empowerment for the individual, this has byproduct effects on the socio-economy: the skills gap narrows, youth employability increases, brain drain is minimized, and Greece’s digital and innovation transformation is continuously improved.

A harbinger of innovation, ReGeneration builds programs that are future-proofing the Greek youth and industry. We apply innovation into every aspect of the pathway: the program design, delivery, and in our team; from the skilling to building social capital to creating an innovative ecosystem, we create a platform that aligns corporate interests in recruiting and retaining talent, with social impact for youth. As a nonprofit, ReGeneration has cultivated multistakeholder partnerships that inject inspiration and progressive action into a suffering socio-economy, while leveraging a vast network of 800+ hiring partners. Introducing a horizontal impact across industries and demographics, we are revolutionizing the status quo of vertical-specific program models. Our programs are STEM-related and forward-thinking, i.e. on Cloud Tech, Computer Science, Digital Transformation. We are the only regional organization with a presence in both Silicon Valley and EMEA. Hence, ReGeneration is a global case-study of how knowledge-transfer networks function. We have had the unique capability to implement for the first time in the region partnerships such as Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, and World Economic Forum – drawing from our experience in California’s innovation hub. This allows for measurable direct and sustainable impact, including measurable ripple effects in the socio-economy of Greece.

ReGeneration as a program is a pilot role model in an emerging economy for sustainable know-how and innovation transfers. It represents how to create exponential societal impact, creating avenues of economic mobility for populations at the bottom of the pyramid. Corporate partners like Coursera or governments around the world can use ReGeneration as a case study – we are creating best practices of know-how exchange which can be replicated at the regional and global level. We implement a 2-pronged push-pull approach to achieve our planned impact. There are several core programs that are effective and sustainable, which we roll-out consistently as a base. Simultaneously, we look to constantly expand the core program in an effective and pragmatic manner, adding features to deal with external issues such as COVID-19 recovery. By following this push-pull strategy, we democratize access to technology and that by and large creates economic mobility and social capital for those most in need. Looking ahead, we push to introduce innovations and new programs that reflect the most effective solutions to socio-economic challenges that have stuck with us for so long - optimizing the base, expanding the innovation centric initiatives, and consistently improving our programming while scaling  positive impact.