On May 30 and 31, over 30 alumni of PAFF Local Partnerships program - members of the Common Good Lab met at a seminar in Warsaw. The motto of the seminar was: "Ideas and Solutions Serving the Common Good".
During the two-day meeting, the participants shared experiences and learned new trends in the area of expanding and enhancing activities of several Partnerships that were set up several years ago and have still been operating; they also worked on improving their knowledge on cooperation for the benefit of local communities. Their coaches were well-known experts.
On the first day the seminar participants were welcomed at the Polish-American Freedom Foundation seat by Paweł Łukasiak, the President of the Academy for the Development of Philanthropy in Poland, and Kalina Grzeszuk-Zajączkowska, a PAFF representative. The PAFF Local Partnerships team presented the hitherto achievements and offer of the Common Good Lab.
The seminar was opened by Dr. Ryszard Praszkier, an assistant professor at the Social Studies Institute at University of Warsaw, who has been involved for over 20 years in activities of Ashoka Social Innovators. In his address he pointed to examples from various countries all over the world and told about factors that are necessary for making and maintaining the social change. “Although I have been working for many years, I am still convinced that one man can introduce systemic change only if he builds horizontal networks, that is partnerships, just as you do,” Dr. Praszkier said, thus emphasizing the importance of building partnership endurance.
Next there was a workshop conducted by Loic Comolli, the Special Guest from San Francisco, a co-founder and the Managing Director of NESST, the organization that operates also in Europe supporting economic development of social businesses and this way, among other things, helping to achieve strategic goals by the organization. Work in in small groups allowed the participants to analyze readiness of their organizations to launch social businesses, and think over the ways of using various entities partnerships to operate such projects effectively.
Later, Krzysztof Margol, a co-founder and the President of Nida Development Foundation Management Board told about the way to create new opportunities and about advantages of social entrepreneurship and promotion of local attractions, on the basis of Pottery Village and Paradise Garden.
The last event of the first day was a presentation given by member of Common Good Paweł Werbowy of Debicka Business Club on the ways of building sustainable partnership on the example of “Dębica County Painted by Volunteers” project.
The motto of the second day of Seminar was practical use of modern tools that can make work of partnership organizations more effective. Marzena Kacprowicz from Good Network Foundation presented the TuDu.pl, application, the first in Poland e-volunteering platform allowing to assign current tasks through the Internet, which facilitates finding volunteers and coordinating their work. Next Beata Matuszek from Media 3.0. Foundation conducted a workshop on storytelling. The participants could learn there how to tell about their activities in attractive way. They also made their own maps of common good.
Finally, Tomasz Soliński, a film director, culture animator and video coach, presented interesting solutions and innovative tools for video recording and distributing them in social media. He also gave many reasons why promoting various activities in social media benefits organizations.
The Common Good Lab is an initiative for the PAFF Local Partnerships alumni aimed at development and popularization of local communities cooperation, popularization of local community animation method, and enhancing sustainability of existing partnerships.
