Local workshops for representatives of local partnerships give their participants the opportunity to broaden their knowledge not only on how to communicate about joint actions that have been carried out but also on how to care for cooperation sustainability and create the space for residents to get involved in civil initiatives.

The participants of the workshop, who met at the offices of Tikkurila company – one of the partners in the initiative carried out in Dębica, whose leader is Dębica Business Club Association – learned how a company operating on a global scale can develop interesting CSR actions at a local level. Magdalena Olszewska, the manager of corporate communication, told about Tikkurila activity at the local level and its consistent implementation of the CSR strategy. For several years, the company has launched a number of actions uniting residents around the idea of common good, that is around volunteering. The examples of such actions can be renovating rooms of children from low-income families by the company employees-volunteers in cooperation with the Good Angels Foundation of Kraków, a joint campaign of planting trees or charity runs. “It all started with the support of “Act Locally” program and now in cooperation with Dębica Business Club Association and numerous other partners we implement a project as part of the “PAFF Local Partnerships”,” Magdalena Olszewska said.

Next Katarzyna Kunert of the Academy for the Development of Philanthropy in Poland addressed the issue of effective communication in the partnership activities. Her presentation was about the presence in social media and strengthening PR activities serving better recognizability. The participants of the meeting also learned about the tools which they can use to enhance external communication, among other things.

The sustainability of the partnership was presented by Gabriela Gibas-Psuturi, the President of the Żywiec Development Foundation – Act Locally Center and the leader of local partnership in Żywiec. She spoke on the basis of the social campaign implemented in the first round of the program. Clean air as the leading motif and common good got many of the participants interested. It turned out that the issue of polluting air by residents is present also in other towns and villages. Many ideas of how to apply experiences of the partnership in Żywiec in other projects were voiced.

At the end, Przemysław Dziewitek of the Citizen Workshop Association carried out the “Social Participation – what is that?” workshop where representatives of partnerships discussed among other things how to use the participation budget best and when to launch the social consultation process on that subject.

The next workshops will take place in Stoczek Łukowski, Ełk and Milicz.

The “Polish-American Freedom Foundation Local Partnerships” program is managed by the Academy for the Development of Philanthropy in Poland and its objective is to initiate and develop cooperation between participants of various PAFF programs for establishing partnerships in order to implement projects important to local communities. Their actions use the method of local communities animation that serves building common good on the basis of the previously carried out social diagnosis.