“Ones of the most valuable things each of you can share are time offered to each other and relations started today and kept till the end of your lives if you care for them,” PAFF Program Director Radosław Jasiński told the participants in his welcome address.

On importance of feedback and its impact on the group the PAFF Leaders could learn at the workshop conducted by Justyna Czarnota, Justyna Józefowicz and Agnieszka Szymańska. In turn Agata Gajda, a Coach and Coordinator at the School of Leaders Foundation, the President of F like Everybody Association and Łukasz Słoniowski, the Vice President of Krakow Technology Park held the workshop on introduction to leadership on the example of moderating Oxford-Style Debates. Apart from that, the leaders took part in workshops on development planning. In groups they discussed with their tutors on objectives they have set for themselves, such as responsibility sharing or team inclusion into key processes of organization or institution operating.

At the same time, Head of the “PAFF Leaders” program Agnieszka Szelągowska conducted a meeting with tutors aimed at careful look at their work, consisting among other things in building enhancing relations with leaders and proper defining their development objectives. “At the beginning of work we usually try to answer such questions as: what group we work with and what its characteristics are new to us. We talk about it, and at the same time the reality keeps surprising us and revealing new, interesting subjects to work on,” pointed Agnieszka Szelągowska.

The meeting made also an opportunity to share leader experiences by participants who spoke about their activities aimed at building social capital during their Pecha Kucha Presentations.

Also, Izabela Sopalska-Rybak, an alumnus od 15th round, the President Fundacja Kulawa Warszawa (Lame Warsaw Foundation) spoke about the way to leader’s self-awareness by presenting the process of her development from a blogger, rebel and warrior, through building the Foundation team, to the role of a leader managing an NGO active for people with disabilities. Jakub Kochowicz, an alumnus of 9th round shared his method of including residents in local activities as seen from the perspective of local government member and local activist at Lisewo commune, Kujawsko-Pomorskie province. These stories spoke about critical for leaders issues related to development areas, such as team building and uniting people around a shared vision, as well as building trust and introducing changes.

Knowledge and skills acquired at the workshops the PAFF Leaders used during the Oxford-Style Debate on the Long-term Planning Doesn’t Make Sense These Days thesis. It was an opportunity to formulate arguments and learn how to carry out a substantive discussion.

The objective of the “PAFF Leaders” program, implemented by the School for Leaders Foundation, is to support the development of skills and qualifications of individuals working for the benefit of their local communities. This is achieved mainly through the tutorial method consisting of regular cooperation between an experienced tutor and a local leader. The program is addressed to active participants of projects funded from various programs carried out by the Polish-American Freedom Foundation. The main part of the program is the 12-month leader-tutor cooperation and the training cycle adjusted to user needs and priorities consisting of planning their own development, team building, organization management, communication, engaging the community, and building a local partnership. Skills acquired during the program help leaders act for the benefit of local communities.

The results of 17 rounds of the program that were held so far are the improvement of qualifications of almost 800 local leaders from all over Poland, and establishment of their active All-Poland network, as well as educating 67 experts in tutoring method.