At the evaluation seminar that took place at the seat of Polish-American Freedom Foundation in Warsaw on October 9, 2023, the participants of the 8th round of the “PAFF Local Partnerships” program discussed what the strength of partner activities consists in, and how to plan further development.
President of the Academy for the Development of Philanthropy in Poland Paweł Łukasiak and the Polish-American Freedom Foundation Program Officer Kalina Grzeszuk-Zajączkowska in their welcome addresses congratulated the participants on their successes and emphasized the significance of cooperation within a partnership.
Next, the partnership leaders presented the results of their activities and shared their successes, which made a space for mutual inspiration and learning the unique specificity of each individual initiative.
Bibliogród in Nowy Tomyśl, the Trail of Mazurian Legends at Pozezdrze commune, or Memory Archives in Ustronie Morskie, are just a few successes that PAFF Local Partnerships can boast. In Wołów municipality and commune a tourist trail joining two localities was built, and at Bieszczadzka Bircza they created a live Eco-Museum. Residents of Wojcieszków commune may use the common space – W.P.A.R.K, which is the abbreviation of Polish name: the Common Space for Activity, Recreation and Culture, while in Mosina commune MOST, that is Mosina Social and Creative Center was set up. The partners of Janowice Wielkie commune have created the local memory of the region archives website that is co-created by the residents. In Łubniany commune a place for informal meetings of young people has been built, and residents of Oborniki Śląskie municipality got a common space, open for everybody and inspired by the nature. Caring for the Noteć Valley natural environment was the main objective of the Partnership of Drawsko municipality, while Edward Fiszer, a poet and songwriter, was the inspiration for the Partnership of Słupca commune. In Ćmielów a silicate and porcelain route was built on the basis of local resources, and the Partnership of Wojkowice focused their activities on professional activation of residents, including the refugees from Ukraine.
The second part of the meeting, conducted by the Shipyard Foundation experts Katarzyna Wójcikowska and Aleksandra Piechcińska was on evaluation and led to the discussion on the strong points but also difficult stages of building partnership process.
The participants had also the opportunity to get ready for developing an individual Partnership Development Plan in the form of a matrix, a special tool prepared for the needs of the program. The introduction to this part of the seminar was presented by expert of Academy for the Development of Philanthropy in Poland, Tomasz Schimanek. The work on Partnership Development Plan will be continued in form of individual consultations with experts of the Common Good Lab, who are the program alumni.
The meeting was held as part of the 8th round of the “PAFF Local Partnerships” program, aimed at initiation and development of cooperation of various PAFF programs participants and establishing partnerships that will implement projects important for local communities. They use local community animation method that allows to build the common good on the basis of earlier social diagnosis.
To date, 75 partnerships (including 17 start-ups) covering 121 municipalities and communes have been set up under the program. A total of 165,000 residents and over 1,200 partners participated in their activities. Only under the 8th round, 14 partnerships were set up, with participation of 224 partners and over 500 volunteers. These activities were joined by almost 9,000 residents.
