The West Athens Functional Urban Area (WA FUA) faces significant social challenges in the light of traditional key risks related to unemployment, poverty and housing insecurity. In addition, the demographic ageing and the awakening of family support leads to the development of the so-called social care crisis, not adequately addressed by the current fragmented national social care model in Greece. Social care is managed by the state through a decentralised system with public and private non-profit providers, but this structure lacks standardisation, effective monitoring and sufficient funding, leading to inadequate coverage for basic needs and inconsistent access to services.
In response, the WA FUA designed the Resilient West Athens 2021-2027 Strategy to address these gaps. This Strategy covers nine municipalities with shared socio-economic characteristics and will be implemented during 2024-2029 under a 76.000.000 € financial mechanism, monitored by the West Athens Development Agency (a legal body of private law created by Municipalities in the West Athens area) and its nine founding Municipalities, with the support of the University of West Attica and relevant public bodies and civil society actors.
