Two years of activities involving over a thousand teachers and several hundred schools – this is the current balance sheet of the “Fostering Resilience in Children and Youth” program, which was summarized on November 17-18, 2025 during a nationwide conference organized by the Education for Democracy Foundation (FED).
The conference, which took place in Warsaw, brought together dozens of participants – representatives of non-governmental organizations, schools, libraries, cultural centers, and local leaders.
“Fostering Resilience in Children and Youth”, implemented since 2024, is a program of Polish-American Freedom Foundation aimed at strengthening the mental resilience of children and young people. Its goal is to develop the skills of teachers and educators who are increasingly faced with low mood, low motivation, loneliness, and lack of self-esteem in the youngest children they work with.
So far, the program has been implemented in cooperation with the School with Class Foundation (offer for schools) and the Education for Democracy Foundation (grant component for NGOs, libraries, and cultural centers).
The first day was devoted to summarizing the program’s results. After welcoming speeches by Marianna Hajdukiewicz (PAFF) and Agnieszka Świeczka (FED), Michał Romanowski talked about how the challenges facing teenagers are perceived today and what they mean for us, adults. Magdalena Tędziagolska then summarized the results of the program’s evaluation studies.
The participants shared their experiences of working in their communities, talked about challenges and successes, and how the activities of the “Fostering Resilience in Children and Youth” program had affected young people. Many speeches emphasized the importance of relationships and a sense of community, which proved to be key in building mental resilience.
The second day of the conference took the form of workshops. The participants could take part in thematic sessions on topics such as working with groups, methods of supporting young people in crisis, and the role of local institutions in creating a safe space for young people. The meetings were conducted by program participants in an interactive format, which allowed for exchange of ideas and the establishment of new contacts.
An important element of the event was the presence of representatives of another PAFF program, “Equal Opportunities”, who showed how different initiatives can complement and inspire each other. This allowed participants to take a broader look at activities aimed at young people and see that the common denominator is strengthening their sense of agency and building resilience to the challenges of today.
“The results of the ‘Fostering Resilience in Children and Youth’ program so far show that activities supporting the well-being of young people bring real change to local communities. Children and young people gain access to a safe space where they can develop their social skills, and the communities themselves become more resilient, open, and ready for challenges. This would not have been possible without the high-quality work of the Education for Democracy Foundation, which also created a safe space for organizations implementing projects. The Foundation remains a supportive and professional partner, which was highly appreciated by the program participants,” summarizes Marianna Hajdukiewicz, PAFF Program Director.
In 2024–2025, over 90 educators from extracurricular institutions took part in the program, 65 of whom implemented grant projects with a total value of PLN 1 million. The program also covered 1,250 teachers from nearly 500 schools.
