THE ASSOCIATION
LOCAL ACTIVITY SUPORT CENTRE
REPORT
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP BUILDING IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN
EUROPE
WARSAW, FEBRUARY 2003
| PLANNED ACTIVITIES OF CAL ASSOCIATION |
- Participation of four representatives of CAL programme (Local Activity Centres Programme) at the regional training course in Hungary
- Development of CAL network all over Poland. 100 organizations and institution should take part in or co-operate with CAL programme.
- Introducing CAL method animation model as a part of University and post-graduate studies curriculum
- Developing and expanding the team of trainers, consultants and others involved into Local Activity centre enforcement.
- Preparation of the programme of the school of Social Animators in Poland.
- Publishing case studies of local community development.
- Setting up a specialist reference library on community work
| THE ACHIEVED GOALS. THE ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN IN THE MENTIONED AREAS. |
- Four representatives of CAL network took part in the Regional Community Development “Trainer Training” Course in Hungary. The course lasted 15 days: ten days in November 2001 and five days in March 2002.
- Local Activity Centre programme is meant to change local institutions such as schools, culture centres and welfare centres by initiating the method and the example of CAL.The Association offers specal training to the representatives of those institutions and constant help and information. In some cases the Association can help with legal problems such as change of status, re-organization, implementing new solutions to the management aspect of the institution.
Last year seven new training groups were created in different areas of Poland. Adding the participants of those groups to the CAL represenantives from the previous years it gives us more than 100 CAL institutions and organizations all over Poland.
- In order to keep all these organizations and institutions in network – meaning being in constant touch one with another, and for each institutions – being in touch with the centre of CAL Association, project Zeszyt Scalony was created.
Zeszyt Scalony is a kind of e-notebook. The e-notebook was a tool of occupational improvement, and a tool of exchanging the information between the participants of CAL network all over Poland. In order to reach the goal electronic and paper versions of the network newsletter were prepared.
General assumptions:
- Title – “Zeszyt Scalony ”
- The style of electronic version of the notebook is related to its name. It looks like a notebook with its all main characteristics.
- Paper version of “Zeszyt Scalony” looks exactly like an e-notebook. It is sent to all members of CAL network, in the form of separate pieces of paper. They can stick the pieces of paper into special file binder. File binders are sent to the CAL network members with the first issue.There are additional pockets in the binders for CDs and floppy disks.
- Newsletter is issued every three month.
Goals, that are being realized by the newsletter:
- Documentation of achievements of CAL programme.
- Discussion over the directions of development of CAL programme, and CAL standards.
- Diemmination of educational and self-educational materials.
- Presentation of individual and institutional members of the CAL network
- Advisory work and consultation, which are important as far as CAL functioning is concerned.
- Integration of all the programme members.
- Promotion of the programme.
- Help with the projects realization (on the basis of partnership agreement between CAL centres
- Work-out on the network projects.
Content of the e-notebook “Zeszyt Scalony”:
Newsletter sections | Regular columns in the section |
| Na dobry pocz±tek For the good beginning | Editorial (Dzieńdoberek ) and the points to discussion (My¶lenie nie boli) |
| Miejsca i Ludzie
Places and the people | Presenta tion of centres, based on materials sent or gathered as a result of research. ( CALe)
Presentation ofthe people – materials gathered as a result of questionnaire. ( CALowicze)
Information and descriptions about other people and institutions that are important from CAL point of view. (Inni) |
| Działania
Workings | Bank of ideas that have never been executed, but are ready to be fulfilled. The ideas are given with the name of the author. (Pomysł do wynajęcia)
Description of plans of the projects ( Szukam Partenrów, Szukam Pomocy)
Information about projects that are being coarried out. (Na tapecie)
Network projects that seem the most interesting. (Aleja Gwiazd) |
| Być i Mieć
To be and to have | Information where we moved our proposals, and if they were effective. ( ¬ródła)
Presentation of organizations; a nd presentation of different ways: how to get money or equippment. ( Cietrzew na dachu) |
| Zaproszenia
Invitations | Information and invitations to the events that take place in CAL centres. |
| Wolna Pagina
Free page | The place to write your own comments, with the mechanism to resent it to every member of CAL network (Piszę)
Review if people’s comments, cleaned up once a month. (czytam) |
| Luzik
Free time | Social column and jokes. |
- Cultural centres in Dobre Miasto and Bisztynek have been working with CAL methods for four years. They have been working according to the rule: “Let’s help people so that they could help themselves.” One of the methods mentioned above is analyzis of need of local community. In this way they have learnt that more and more people needed volutneer help from the others. The help is mainly needed by elder people (in welfere centres, and in palliative help centres), but also by other people in patchwork families, handicapped children, and so on.
To answer those needs the teenagers from schools were activated to help those people in need. For whole school-year the teenagers helped in different ways, but after that time it appeared that there are more and more needs. For example: they had to collect the food for the poorest inhabitants of the towns; preparation of training programmes for volunteers (“By diabeł nie mówił dobranoc ”), Ruch Czystych Serc, prophylactic medical examinations for young girls, and mammography for adult women, and so on.
All those needs and all the people willing to help must be written down, and organized. All these must be co-o rdinated. The best thing to do it was to organise the Bureau of Volunteerism. ( Biuro Wolontariatu ) The best idea to place it was in cultural centres in Dobre Miasto and Bisztynek. There was the database settled down, trainings organised, people’s needs were gathered, and the offer of work for the volunteers was prepared.
In the cultural centres there also are located other associations for youth and adults – so the the most rational idea was to place there a Volunteers’ Office.
All of these assumptions let carry on the projects of settling more Volunteers’ Bureaus in other cultural centres, and work out standards of organization friendly to the volunteers. Cultural Centres from Dobre Miasto and Bisztynek, with the cooperation of CAL Association and Volunteers’ Centre initiated introduction of new training module for CAL training participants. In 2002 training module was introduced in two training groups.
- CAL method and CAL model of social animation was introduced into cirriculum at the University of Warsaw, Institute of Polish Culture. Students of the Institute had a possibility to take part in seminars and workshops conducted by the trainers and consultants from the CAL Association.
- The team of trainers and consultants was developed. Thay are involved into enforcing Local Activity Centre programme. They are strongly interested in self-education and self-development. Both can help them to get better at training the others.
All four representatives of CAL, who took part in a project Community Development Partnership Building in Central and Eastern Europe – are the trainers themselves. What they have been within the project was aslo useful for them as they have been gaining experience that could be used during their training sessions.
The self-educational concept “Let’s share our experience ” for the participants of the training course School as a Local Activity Centre was created. It was organised in a form of a series of practical seminars and study visits in schools that took part in the training course. Tha project was implemented in 8 schools in Podlasie district.
During this course there was also a guideline prepared for the course and educational consultation was carried on. The main organizator of this undertake, except for CAL Association, was the organization from the region of Poland, where the project was being conducted – The Fund of Development of Local Democracy (FRDL) in Bialystok.
The schedule of project realization. Self educational forum – Podlasie.
| February | Group meeting in Gródek (consultation) |
| March | Session of exchanging the experience I.Two days in Tykocin – 4-5.03.2002 |
| May | Session of exchanging the experience II. Three days in Tykocin – 20-22.05.2002 |
| June | Group meeting in Kruszew. (consultation) |
| July | Interdisciplinary session of exchanging the experience (schools, cultural centers, welfere centre, non-govermental organization) in Olecko |
| October | Consultation session in Łapy |
| November | “Avtive School” seminar – 20.11.2002 |
| December | Consultation session in Ciechanowiec – 1.12.2002. Evaluation session – 13-14.12.2002 |
Standards of the School were worked out during the course. The School is run in a formula of Local Avtivity Centre. Prepared material was the basis for the transformation of programming-educational concept in the 8 schools that took part in the project.
Effects of the realization self-educational forum were assessed very well, both by the participants of the training course, and the authorities of education (superintendent of schools).
Standards proposed for schools working as schools of local activities:
Standards were worked out on the basis of functioning Gymansium in Wierzchowo. The participants of the training were encouraged to criticize the standards, and to propose different solutions.
STANDARDS | INDICATORS OF REACHING THE STANDARD | AUTHOR’S COMMENTS |
| I. School recognizes needs of local community. | 1. Students diagnose the needs of local community 2. “Map of resources and needs” is created. | A teacher chooses a group of students who are going to survey. They first learn what the goal of diagnosis is , and they are trained how to conduct the research. Everybody is given a task to conduct 10 questionneires among family members, naighbours, friends. The information is gathered this way. During weekly meetings with the tutors schoolchildren also fill in the questionneire.
A team of a few people (teachers, students, parents) work out results of the poll creating “Map of resources and needs”. |
| II. Avtivities of the school is accepted by the local community. | 1. Concept of a school as a local activity centre is accepted by parents and the community itself.
2. The team of co-ordiators is created. | The idea of school as an activity centre is presented to the parents. If the parents accept the idea, the school is included into the programme. Then the seminar is organised with parents, teachers, teenagers, representatives of firms, NGOs, priests and leaders of other social groups. During the seminar the map and the concept are presented. The important thig is to obtain acceptance and declaration od support.
The team of co-ordinators of working of School as Local Activity Centre is created. The team will compose of representatives of some social groups (one of students, one of parents, one of teachers, one of local community representative, and so on) |
| III. The school works for the solution of local community problems. | 1. New projects are created in order to solve the social problems.
2. Projects are related to gymnasium cirriculum.
3. Teachers, students, parents and other people are involved into those activities. | The important point here is the fact that school activities are associated with what is going on in the community. Projects which are to solve certain problem should be connected with educational path of the school. The problems are chosen by teachers, and are solved by students. The team of co-ordiators works out the plan of activities for the length of time equal to the length of educational cycle (three years). |
| IV. There is the school governmenet in the school.
V. The school promotes the idea of volunteerism | 1. The school government is organized like the local government.
2. The school governement is engaged into school activities for the local community.
1. There are volunteers engaged into school activities (but they are neither students nor teachers)
2. Students learn about the idea of volunteerism and work as volunteers.
3. There is a Club of Volunteers at school | Students’ activity leads to adults’ activity. In natural way parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents are engaged. So the bigger and bigger circle of people working for each other emerges. They are volunteers. At the point they need to be reorganized into fromal group. |
| VI. Rewarding system takes into account students’ activities for the local community. | 1. Avtive work for the local community is one, and important part of general assesment of the students.
2. the best and most prominent work is rewarded in a special way. | For their hard work for the local community students are praized with the special reward “Ognik”, founded by the CAL Association in Wierzchowo, and handed by the presidednt of the Association. Local activity is for those young people the first step on their way to career; it lets them develop their interests. As because local needs are so varied and there are many ways to fulfill them – every young person has a possibility to find something for himself or herslef. In order to make students feel more important with what they have done there is a celebration at the end of school year. During the celebration students are rewarded and appreciated not only by their teachers but also by the representatives of local business, and local government.
This is also a way of teaching teenagers how to be grateful and how to appreciate the other. |
- The School of Social Animators is a programme for the people working and acting in the local community, mainly in the areas of welfare, education and self-government. The school is organized in a long-term educational cycle; its goal is to make a person work as a scosial animator – which means creating a new profession. The professional social animator may work in different institutions, wchich thank tohis or her help join the system of community education and stimulatee community development.
- A new book concerning CAL methods in use (case studies) was published. The book’s title is “CAL as a Method of Development of Local Community” The book gives the most current and complex information about activisation and mobilization of people in the local communities.
- A professional library on community work was developed in the CAL Association Office in Warsaw.
Evaluation:
The were four participants of the project CD Partnership Building in Central and Eastern Europe. The four of them managed to complete all planned activities.
Beata Pawlowicz thought about new formula of trainings, and self-educational seminars there were organized in different CAL centres in Podlasie district . These trainings and seminars were a very effective tool, especially for those of the participants who were taking part in the second year (grade) of our CAL training course. It was effective from financial point of view, but also it appeared to be more motivating and engaging for the participants. Not only were they made to be more avtive, but also idea of CAL was promoted in the community of teachers.
Magda Gutkowska and Elżbieta Bilinska-Wolodzko also started a new course, but it was not the course for social animators, but for the future volunteers and for the people who would like to run a Volunteers’ Bureau. The new groups are now being organized, and they do not n eed our special support as because our regional partners (public institutions) are in constant contact woth those groups. Our partners organize further training sessions in their regions. We have drawn our attention to the new forms of CAL development which could enrich our model of social work. Volunteers’ Bureau became one of the main form of working of Culture Centres.
Jacek Gralczyk has also been successful with executing his project. He has made his e-notebook from the beginning. Now it reaches all CAL network members, it helps us with the communication within the network, and moreover it if a very good tool of self-education with the element of distance learning. The e-notebook is a very important source of information for those of CAL training participants who are finishing their courses, or for those who have already finished them. Due to “Zeszyt Scalony ” they can feel in touch with other participants of the course, and they can continue the learning process, whcih as we all know is very important.
|