President of the Academy for the Development of Philanthropy in Poland Paweł Łukasiak and Polish-American Freedom Foundation Program Officer Kalina Grzeszuk-Zajączkowska welcomed the guests and spoke about challenges facing the participants of 13th round of the program. They also pointed to the success of activities run by Act Locally Centers in 2021 and 2022 which resulted in implementation of almost 2,000 local projects, including 200 of them aimed at helping refugees after the outbreak of war in Ukraine.

Dr. Katarzyna Iwińska of Collegium Civitas spoke about “What can we do locally in response to the threat of climate change”. The lecture was on global changes that have occurred in environment since the Industrial Revolution, and their consequences at the local scale. After that, Director for ESG at ENERIS Surowce Sławomir Brzózek informed about the new standard of business and NGO cooperation.

There was also the discussion panel on “How to wisely help the refugees? cooperation of all-Poland and local organizations” participated by: Katarzyna Sawko representing Polish Migration Forum, President of the Education for Democracy Foundation Martyna Bogaczyk, Zuzanna Komornicka representing the Federation of Local Funds in Poland and the Śnieżnik Massif Local Fund, and President of the Czajnia Association Marcin Rechulicz. They discussed about assisting refugees from Ukraine, the most important challenges and needs related to it, and building the network of organization cooperation.

At the same time the following workshops were held: on refugee integration with local community conducted by Iryna Oleksyiuk of Ukrainian Home, “How to get young people involved using local community potential” workshop conducted by Justyna Turek and Henryk Stawicki of Change Pilots, and Conflict Develops conducted by Konrad Sobczyk of the Association of Family Mediators. After that there was the workshop on legal changes to NGOs conducted by Tomasz Schimanek, an expert of Academy for the Development of Philanthropy in Poland.

Also, the winners of the Tell Us competition for the best videos on projects implemented under Act Locally program were presented. A total prize fund of the competition was PLN 37,500; the winners got 7 main prizes of PLN 5,000, and those awarded a honorary mention got a prize of PLN 2,500 each.

The winners in the Tell us Competition 2021 are:

In the Man category

The main prize: a video made by Dawid Wojtyła about the Discover With Us project implemented by the Paramus Association and Creative Stop informal group, nominated by the Żywiec Development Foundation.

In Place category

The main prize: We are for Folk-Up! video made by the Bree&Zespół Chwila informal group, nominated by the Żywiec Development Foundation.

In Motif category

The main prize: a video on C Type, B variant or a Deadly Sandwich project implemented by the Kastor Association – Initiative for Development and Zygzak Theater informal group, nominated by the Wołomin Plain Local Action Group.

Honorary mention

A video made by DW FILM of Dawid Wojtyła on Round the Tree project, implemented by the Art Forge Culture and Art Support Association, nominated by the Żywiec Development Foundation.

The winners in the Tell us Competition 2022 are:

In Our Place category

The main prize: a video made by Łukasz Wachowski about Intercultural Patchwork project implemented by the Seamsters Group – Act Locally Initiative, nominated by the Kociewie Hut Local Action Group.

In The Making Of – History Of Making A Project category

The main prize: a video made by Olga and Jakub Firlej about the Photo-We -Ukraine. Women. Portraits project nominated by the Żywiec Development Foundation

In The Hero category

The main prize: a video made by Łukasz Jurkowlaniec about the Nordic Walking – I walk because I like project implemented by the Senior Council as an Act Locally initiative, nominated by the Local Action Group Foundation – The Necklace of North.

In Impact category

The main prize: a film made by Maja and Mat Kwiatkowski Foundation about the Culture At The Edge Of The (Small) World project implemented by Cultural Chicks informal group, nominated by Żywiec Development Foundation.

The second day served mainly for sharing experiences, both by Act Locally Centers and representatives of other programs run by the Polish-American Freedom Foundation. Paweł Walecki of the Civis Polonus Foundation spoke about including young people in local activities and the method worked out in “Equal Opportunities” program. Maria Wiśnicka and Judyta Łuczyńska of the Sendzimir Foundation gave a lecture on how Act Locally Centers can act for the benefit of the climate and natural environment using “Green Leader’s” experience. And Piotr Henzler of the Academy of Civic Organizations Foundation shared his expertise on the ways of keeping the team engaged.

How to involve residents to implement joint initiatives? How to effectively invite people to the meeting so that the participation is high? – these were the subjects presented by Agnieszka Ganiek of the Social Activity Center in Mikołów. In turn Anna Jafernik of the Żywiec Development Foundation and Dawid Jarząbek of the Coalition for Young People Foundation presented Orange Energy social product for solving local problems worked out on the basis of fundraising model developed in the “PAFF Local Partnerships” program.

The meeting was conducted by Dorota Kostowska, a coach and facilitator of social projects.

“Act Locally” is a program of Polish-American Freedom Foundation managed by Academy of the Development of Philanthropy in Poland in cooperation with a network of 77 Act Locally Centers. It supports and activates local communities in rural areas and small towns through the civic projects that are important for residents and serve stimulating developmental aspirations and improving the quality of life and contribute to build social capital. Since 2000, almost 14,000 local projects were supported. These projects were implemented by 5.3 m participants, including ca. 250,000 volunteers.