The representatives of three partnerships from Warka, Szadek and Główczyce implementing projects as part of the 5th edition of the “PAFF Local Partnerships” Program met at a workshop on building a sustainable partnership based on the common good and local resources. The meeting took place in the Stara Warka Village Center on October 21, 2016.
Local products – traditional bread baked in Szadek and apple trail in Warka, as well as an idea of good self-governance with the participation of people in villages of Główczyce commune are the partnership initiatives whose authors met at the first out of a series of three workshops held for participants of the 5th edition of the “PAFF Local Partnerships” Program. The workshops were conducted by experts and their objective was not only to transfer knowledge on development of partners’ activities at their early stage but they also made an opportunity for partnerships to meet each other and share experiences.
The meeting was opened by Paweł Łukasiak, President of the Academy for the Development of Philanthropy in Poland (ARFP) and Kalina Grzeszuk-Zajączkowska, PAFF Program Coordinator. Next the ARFP President conducted the workshop on the role of the common good in the process of partnership building and relations between the partners based on values, emphasizing that “building of the sustainable partnership must be based on the common good benefitting all residents”. The participants of the workshop had also a lively discussion on ways of motivating the project participants to remain active in projects.
The next workshop was conducted by Agnieszka Pytlik, a representative of the Civil Initiatives Development Center (CRIS), an animator of the Common Good Lab, who based on the experiences gained during implementation of the partner project as part of the 2nd edition of the program) and using the problem method, made participants of the workshop pay attention to difficult moments in the process of partnership building. She also encouraged them to incorporate the local resources effectively and at the same time foresee difficulties: “Partnerships are real but also demanding,” she emphasized.
The afternoon part of the meeting was devoted to the issue of internal communication and the external promotion of the partnership as well as eternalizing the project activities on photographs. The issue of quality of internal communication in the partnership, useful tools and promotional strategy was presented by Katarzyna Kunert, a PR Specialist at the Academy for the Development of Philanthropy in Poland, while photographer Krzysztof Kuczyk lectured on the technique of taking good reportage photographs.
At the end the participants of the meeting spoke about their partnerships present activities and W.A.R.K.A. Association presented a prototype of a contact box – one of the elements of a project whose author is Małgorzata Dąbrowska of the Cultivator Association, a PAFF Leader. The box placed on the Apple Trail under construction shall play the communication function in contacts with Warka residents.
The next workshops will take place in Niemce, Lubelskie voivodeship, on October 26.
Participation in the “PAFF Local Partnerships” Program is the form of an award for communities whose involvement in implementation of the Polish-American Freedom Foundation programs is outstanding. The Program serves initiating cooperation between their participants through joint implementation of projects. Over five rounds of the program a total of 38 partnerships have been established in 85 communes with participation of almost 500 partners.
