Stavros Niarchos Foundation and Basketball Legend Join Forces for Youth Empowerment and Establish Field of Life
ATHENS – On Tuesday, December 17, 2019, SNF and basketball legend Panagiotis Giannakis introduced Field of Life, a new nonprofit organization and initiative anchored in Giannakis’s old neighborhood in Southwestern Attica.
Field of Life was born out of Giannakis and SNF’s collaborative vision for empowering young people, helping them reach their potential, and enhancing their lives in an innovative new recreational, educational, and cultural space. The establishment of Field of Life and rollout of the initiative are the outcome of a landmark founding grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).
Field of Life’s core mission is to serve a critical underserved community—young people—through the creation of an innovative, welcoming physical and social space that encourages growth, development, and transformation by offering a plethora of supportive programs promoting healthy, active, and creative lifestyles. The initiative aims to realize a broader vision for engaging young people by also offering programs in public spaces in many different neighborhoods, such as schools and community centers, serving as many children and young people as possible.
A grant from SNF supports the creation, within the next two and a half years, of a state-of-the-art new facility in Southwestern Attica and, subsequently, its full operation. The new facility will offer a safe, healthy, and engaging space for children and young people ages 6 to 18 to gather daily, from the end of the school day until 9 p.m. The new center’s programs will include recreational, educational and cultural activities such as sports education, homework assistance, wellness programs, academic and professional preparation, arts activities, a daily hot meal and healthy snack, and other skills-based programs.
Panagiotis Giannakis and the Field of Life team aim to begin engaging with young people immediately, introducing the new initiative and piloting its programs through numerous activities and presentations around Athens. Starting with Nikaia, Coach Giannakis’s old neighborhood, in the spring of 2020, Field of Life plans to “take to the streets” by reaching out to schools, community centers, and other public spaces and organizing free activities for young people...