The objective of the “Relief Fund For Non-Governmental Organizations And Civic Initiatives” Program, launched in March 2020, is to support initiatives of non-governmental organizations aimed at mitigating and/or counteracting the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and offering aid to organizations in difficult situations resulting from the pandemic.
The program is addressed to organizations both involved in the implementation of PAFF’s programs (e.g. Act Locally Centers) as well as those that haven’t cooperated with the Foundation before but whose activities match its mission.
Under the first round, carried out from April 2020 to the end of 2021, grants of over PLN 5 million went to 158 organizations, including 15 acting as PAFF Program Managers, 36 PAFF Regional Partners (Act Locally Centers and organizations involved in the “Study Tours to Poland” Program) as well as 83 other foundations and associations that submitted their applications in two open competitions. Grants awarded under the “Relief Fund” helped adjust the program beneficiaries’ activities to the pandemic situation; first of all to implement new projects, often of an intervention nature, addressed to people who need assistance the most. Organizations also received institutional support in the form of donations to cover administrative and payroll costs.
As a result of the “Relief Fund” many important initiatives have been implemented in various areas and forms. Their participants have been children, young people, teachers, caretakers, and parents. Half of the grants went to communities in villages and small towns of up to 50,000 residents, and the other half to local communities in larger towns. They enabled the implementation of such initiatives as the Big Brother, Big Sister peer volunteering campaign, securing comprehensive support for prisoners’ children, providing psychological support to pupils of socio-therapy centers, developing the School for Parents initiative, and preparing a report on the situation of Roma students in schools in Kraków during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As PAFF, its partners and other NGOs’ experiences show, the pandemic and resulting social isolation have had an especially negative impact on the education of children and young people, primarily those living in villages and small towns, and from environments at risk of social exclusion. Therefore, the main objective of the program’s new round, for the years 2022-2023, is to support civic initiatives in the following areas:
- Counteracting and minimizing learning losses,
- Improving effectiveness of teaching and learning in the pandemic situation,
- Ensuring security and improving mental and physical health of children and young people,
- Counteracting their social isolation.
The second edition of the program, launched in 2022, consists of two rounds of open grant competitions and a competition for projects that improve and implement good education practices developed in the first edition of the program. This includes holding webinars with experts in children’s and young people’s problems, workshops, and meetings enabling the networking of organizations. It is also planned to create an experience-sharing forum for organizations to share the knowledge they have gained and establish cooperation.
