Almost 50 participants representing PAFF Local Partnerships established all over Poland attended a two-day meeting held in Warsaw on March 18-19. The best projects of the 8th round of PAFF Local Partnerships program were awarded, the agenda included also numerous presentations, workshops, and debates of experts.
“We would like to thank all those who establish and develop local coalitions for their involvement. Acting as partners your organizations get strong and are ready to take up new challenges,” said Polish-American Freedom Foundation Program Director Joanna Lempart at the ceremony of opening the meeting hosted by her and President of Academy for the Development of Philanthropy in Poland Paweł Łukasiak. In their addresses, they both emphasized the meaning of activities taken up by participants of the 8th round of the “PAFF Local Partnerships” program for building sustainability of partnerships and acting for common good. They also invited them to continue cooperation under the Common Good Lab alumni initiative and collaborate in preparing PAFF Local Partnerships Congress next year.
The opening lecture given by Professor Marcin Napiórkowski, a semiotician of the Institute of Polish Culture, University of Warsaw was titled Stories as Bridges and was on the idea of partnership. The participants of the meeting could learn that although it poses a lot of challenges, the variety of ideas in the end gives the best chance to hit the target.
What questions on environmental protection to ask candidates to local government in the forthcoming elections? We ask about Green Civic Action was presented by Przemysław Radwan-Rohrenschef.
On the first day, the PAFF Local Partnerships representatives also took part in two simultaneous workshops. Supported by Aleksandra Belina of Good Network Foundation, they were sharing their experiences, looking for inspiration, and discussing new volunteering models, including e-volunteering. At the same time Katarzyna Wągrowska of Poznańska Po-Dzielnia, the founder of Ograniczam Się (I limit myself) blog, told the meeting participants about sharing economy.
The gala organized to sum up the 8th round of “PAFF Local Partnerships” program was an opportunity to celebrate achievements and thank partnerships for their efforts to build common good. The host of that part of the meeting was Radosław Mróz. The winners of the competition for the best plan to develop a partnership were awarded. The symbolic cheques for the amount of PLN 15,000 presented to the winners by Joanna Lempart and Paweł Łukasiak went to Ćmielów municipality and Janowice Wielkie commune.
The diplomas were also awarded to the representatives of eight partnerships that carried out activities supporting refugees from Ukraine as part of their involvement in the alumni initiative.
A performance by Marta Król and her band added splendor to the gala.
On the second day, there were workshop sessions on which the participants could improve their practical skills. There were three rooms, six different topics, and a possibility to choose the most interesting issues individually. That allowed constructive ideas sharing and learning how to use effective tools. Thanks to involvement of experts and openness of participants, each group was able to work out some practical solutions.
The workshop on shared leadership conducted by Agnieszka Szelągowska of The School of Leaders introduced an innovative approach to team management and motivating in a partnership.
The perspective of partner cooperation under the European Green Deal presented by Izabela Zygmunt of Representation of the European Commission in Poland gave way to a discussion on the role of local coalitions in achieving global goals of sustainable development.
The workshop conducted by Paweł Walecki (the “Equal Opportunities” program) allowed the participants to share experiences gained in involving young people in local problems, with the emphasis on young people empowerment and allowing them to decide.
The issue of empathy in a partnership was presented by Przemek Dziewitek of Pracownia Praktyki Autentyczności (Authenticity Practice Lab), who spoke about the High Quality Contact Model and carried out an attentive listening training.
Practical aspects of fundraising for partnerships were discussed by Andrzej Pietrucha of the Academy of Civic Organizations Foundation. He also presented examples of effective NGO fundraising campaigns.
Bartosz Łopiński of Propsy PR agency focused on effective and practical cooperation with media.
The meeting participants also had an opportunity to present strong points and key values of their partnerships. Among the most often mentioned were cooperation, involvement, empathy, trust, openness, energy, development, and common good.
The objective of the “PAFF Local Partnerships” program managed by Academy for the Development of Philanthropy in Poland is to initiate and develop cooperation among participants of various PAFF programs to promote establishing partnerships capable of implementing social projects important to local communities. The program uses the local community civic activation method to build common good on the basis of a diagnosis of social needs.
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.
