Region of Crete

Brief presentation

The Region of Crete is a Public Law Entity and a second grade local self-government authority of Geece. Its services expand to the entire geographical territory of the island of Crete provided by four Regional Units: Heraklion, Lasithi, Rethymnon and Chania.
The Region of Crete is responsible for the strategic planning of Crete following the national and EU policies. It plans and implements policies at regional level as part of its responsibility in accordance with the principles of sustainable development and social cohesion.

The Region of Crete, in the context of specialization of the regional dimensions of the National Strategic Framework for Social Inclusion, undertook the elaboration of the Regional Strategy for Combating Poverty and Social Inclusion (PESKE Crete) with the aim to develop an integrated approach for combating social exclusion of focused and vulnerable social groups in Crete.
Priorities of the Strategy include combating extreme poverty, preventing and fighting the exclusion of children, better access to social services and quality social services, promoting active inclusion and work inclusion, and strengthening social policy governance.

Actions within the project

The Regional Observatory for Social Inclusion of the Region of Crete is the Department responsible for:

  1. the effective monitoring and coordination of the objectives, which are specialized in the framework of the Regional Strategy for Social Inclusion (PESKE),
  2. the highlighting of local needs for social protection, welfare and solidarity policies
  3. the mapping of the spatial dimensions of poverty and social exclusion.

Through the Observatory, the Region of Crete can process to a better coordination, monitoring and evaluation of social inclusion and cohesion policies in its territory. The general mission of the Observatory is oriented to the strengthening of national and regional governance for social inclusion of vulnerable and focused social groups. Based on research and empirical data, the Observatory potentially leads to an evidence based policy making in the sector of social policy in Greece, both at national and regional level.
The Observatory is in charge for the “Includ-EU” project pilot implementation in Crete.

Contacts

Website: www.socialobservatory.crete.gov.gr

Focal point: Katerina Vlasaki – avlasaki@crete.gov.gr