 | |
| Type | Civil Society Organization |
|---|---|
| Location | |
Founder | Yiannis Laouris |
Main organ | Board of Directors |
| Affiliations | Institute for 21st Century Agoras |
Budget | 1,000,000 Euro annually |
Staff | 20 |
Volunteers | >50 |
| Website | http://www.futureWorldsCenter.org https://www.FutureWorlds.eu/wiki |
Future Worlds Center (FWC) is a non-profit, non-Governmental independent organization active in programs with future orientation in areas related to positive social change, social entrepreneurship and transformation.
Future Worlds Center was founded in 1991 as Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institute. In the late 1990s, it expanded its operations pioneering in a number of humanitarian, multicultural and peace related projects. [1] [2] At the end of 2005, with a new Constitution, it evolved into a larger organization with a pure international orientation integrating all humanitarian, peace, and multicultural activities under one umbrella.
According to its new Constitution, Future Worlds Center is an incubator of ideas, projects, social entrepreneurs and organizations committed to socio-technical reforms. [3] Since its inception it has envisioned, designed and implemented more than 100 projects, employed more than 200 young scientists, and founded several organizations, including CYBER KIDS, Technology for peace, the Cyprus Safer Internet Center along with the Cyprus Safer Internet Hotline and Helpline, the Cyprus Community Media Centre [4] funded by the United Nations, Youth Power, [5] Cyprus NGO Platform "Development", the Cyprus Refugee Council. [6]
The organization has developed the curriculum for CYBER KIDS, a chain of computer learning centers, that started in Cyprus and expanded in 7 countries in the early 90s. CYBER KIDS was a mass-scale experiment to achieve massive social change in a whole country.
Future Worlds Center also implements many EC-funded projects that conduct research and inform societies about the safer use of the Internet; Cyberethics, [7] Cyprus’ Safer Internet Center, which includes a Hotline [8] and a Helpline. [9]
Future Worlds Center pioneers in envisioning, designing and implementing projects that promote the culture of peace and reconciliation in Cyprus, the region and the globe. The Technology for peace, [10] [11] initiative in 1997, founded by Yiannis Laouris and Harry Anastasiou members of the Cyprus Conflict Resolution Trainers Group aimed to capitalize on the proliferation of the Internet as a means to break the communication barriers between the northern and the southern parts of divided Cyprus. Other notable peace projects include the Youth promoting Peace, [12] Civil Society Dialogue, the Act Beyond Borders, Everybody's song, [13] and many projects funded by HasNa Inc.
Future Worlds Center is leading a number of pan-European efforts, which aim to promote the Millennium Development Goals within Europe and in Sub-Saharan countries. It was a founding member of the Cyprus Islandwide Development NGO Platform [14] and the Cyprus Community Media Centre. [15] The Accessing Development Education project [16] has collected teaching materials or guidance books on topics like Development Education, [17] Global citizenship, Human Rights, Millennium Development Goals and many others from across Europe into one central depository. The Teach MDGs project [18] focuses on increasing awareness and public support for the Millennium Development Goals by actively engaging teacher training institutes, teachers and pupils in developing local oriented teaching resources promoting the MDGs with a particular focus on Sub-Saharan Africa and integrate these into the educational systems of countries across Europe.
Future Worlds Center is the implementing organization of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Representation in Cyprus. Its Humanitarian Affairs Unit implements projects that aim strengthening asylum for refugees and asylum seekers on the island. This Unit has founded the Unit of Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture. As of January 2018, a spin-off was created and the Cyprus Refugee Council was created.
Internet activism, hacktivism, or hactivism, is the use of computer-based techniques such as hacking as a form of civil disobedience to promote a political agenda or social change. With roots in hacker culture and hacker ethics, its ends are often related to free speech, human rights, or freedom of information movements.
A crisis hotline is a phone number people can call to get immediate emergency telephone counseling, usually by trained volunteers. The first such service was founded in England in 1951 and such hotlines have existed in most major cities of the English speaking world at least since the mid-1970s. Initially set up to help those contemplating suicide, many have expanded their mandate to deal more generally with emotional crises. Similar hotlines operate to help people in other circumstances, including rape, bullying, self-harm, runaway children, human trafficking, and people who identify as LGBT or intersex. Despite crisis hotlines being common, their effectiveness in reducing suicides is not clear.
Human rights education (HRE) is the learning process that seeks to build up knowledge, values, and proficiency in the rights that each person is entitled to. This education teaches students to examine their own experiences from a point of view that enables them to integrate these concepts into their values, decision-making, and daily situations. According to Amnesty International, HRE is a way to empower people, training them so their skills and behaviors will promote dignity and equality within their communities, societies, and throughout the world.
SaferNet is a Brazilian non-governmental organization that combats Internet crime in partnership with the Federal Public Ministry. It facilitates anonymous reporting and provides information and training about Internet safety and security. Safernet operates in three strategic arms simultaneously: the National Center for the Denouncement of Cyber Crimes (hotline), the National Guidance Channel on Internet Security and Brazil helpline, and the actions of Education in digital citizenship.
Alexander "Aleco" Christakis is a Greek American social scientist, systems scientist and cyberneticist, former faculty member of several Universities, organizational consultant and member of the Club of Rome, known for his "study and design of social systems".
The Elders is an international non-governmental organisation of public figures noted as senior statesmen, peace activists and human rights advocates, who were brought together by Nelson Mandela in 2007. They describe themselves as "independent global leaders working together for peace, justice, human rights and a sustainable planet". The goal Mandela set for The Elders was to use their "almost 1,000 years of collective experience" to work on solutions for seemingly insurmountable problems such as climate change, HIV/AIDS, and poverty, as well as to "use their political independence to help resolve some of the world's most intractable conflicts".
The Grameen family of organizations has grown beyond Grameen Bank into a multi-faceted group of both commercial and non-profit ventures. It was first established by Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning founder of Grameen Bank. Most of the organizations in the Grameen group have central offices at the Grameen Bank Complex in Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Grameen Bank started to diversify in the late 1980s when it began attending to unutilized or underutilized fishing ponds, as well as irrigation pumps like deep tubewells. In 1989, these diversified interests started growing into separate organizations, as the fisheries project became Grameen Fisheries Foundation and the irrigation project became Grameen Krishi Foundation.
988 is a telephone number used in some North American (NANP) countries for a suicide prevention helpline. In the United States, it is known as the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. In Canada, it is known as the 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline.
Cyberethics is "a branch of ethics concerned with behavior in an online environment". In another definition, it is the "exploration of the entire range of ethical and moral issues that arise in cyberspace" while cyberspace is understood to be "the electronic worlds made visible by the Internet." For years, various governments have enacted regulations while organizations have defined policies about cyberethics.
Insafe is a European network of Awareness Centres promoting safer and better usage of internet. It is co-funded by the Safer Internet Plus Programme.
The Civil Society Dialogue Project followed the negative outcome of the referendum in Cyprus for the re-unification of the island, which took place on the 24 April 2004. A number of Cypriot peace pioneers launched the Civil Society Dialogue Project aiming to provide opportunities for disengaged peace builders to assume new initiatives. They have used the Structured Dialogic Design process as described by one of the fathers of the science, Dr. Aleco Christakis in his book. The project engaged more than 300 Cypriots from both sides of the Green line in structured dialogues. The first dialogue explored the obstacles which peace builders faced in their work. The participants developed a shared understanding of factors contributing to the perceived widening of the gap between the two divided communities in Cyprus. They came up with 121 ideas, which were structured using the science of dialogic design to highlight the five most influential: Media as puppets of political parties; The personal and financial interests of politicians and ordinary people on both sides; Leaders on each side do not want to share power; Disempowerment of the NGOs in north Cyprus and weak NGOs in the south who are suppressed; Provocative statements made by the leaders on both sides.
The Unit of Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture (URVT) has operated in Cyprus since 2005.
The Cyprus Safer Internet Helpline is a service provided by the Cyprus Safer Internet Center project, coordinated by the Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institute (CNTI). The Helpline ensures that not only children and adolescents but also adults have the opportunity to converse with experts in case they experience something negative on the Internet. Educated psychologists provide support and essential advice so that the crisis is overcome and the situation is confronted. Members of the public can reach the helpline at the number 7000 0 116. The communication is completely confidential and anonymous.
The Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institute (CNTI) is a non-profit, non-Governmental independent organization active in programs with future orientation in areas related to human brain-modern technology-social transformation and the repercussions of relevant research for humanity.
Access Now is a non-profit organization headquartered in Brooklyn, New York City, in the United States. It was founded in California in July 2009 and focuses on digital civil rights. The organization issues reports on global Internet censorship, and hosts the annual RightsCon human rights conference. It is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Its headquarters moved to New York at the beginning of 2022.
The Cyprus Conflict Resolution Trainers Group was founded in 1994 by about 30 Cypriot peace pioneers. Because this group has introduced conflict resolution and structured dialogue concepts to a few thousand Cypriots, it is credited for the formation of an embryonic peace movement.
SAWA is a Palestinian, non-profit civil society organization established in 1998 by a group of female volunteers active in women's issues.
Basic human rights in Italy includes freedom of belief and faith, the right of asylum from undemocratic countries, the right to work, and the right of dignity and equality before the law. Human rights are the basic rights of every citizen in every country. In Italy, human rights have developed over many years and Italy has education on human rights. In addition, Italy has specific human rights for women, children and LGBT people.
Womankind, formerly known as the New York Asian Women's Centre (NYAWC), was founded in 1982 by a group of volunteers led by Pat Eng. In 2017, the NYAWC changed its name to Womankind. It is a non-profit organization which aims to empower Asian survivors of gender based violence. Womankind was initially a community awareness program designed to educate families about domestic violence in Chinatown, and then developed into a 24-hour multilingual hotline that now includes 18 different Asian languages and dialects. Womankind also provides Asian immigrant women confidential services including an emergency refuge, shelter services, crisis counseling, 24-hour online free multilingual hotline, welfare promotion, support groups, parenting workshops, children's services, volunteer training, community education, and some English courses. Each year, the organization receives over 3,000 hotline calls.