Together with Fundacja Pole Dialogu and the Center for Citizenship Education Foundation (CEO), we are implementing the project Engage school! in Poland as part of the program Active Citizens – National Fund, financed by the EEA Funds.
That is: a research report, a debating card game Engage the change! and education about the Third Sector and a lot of tools, materials and trainings. We want to create space for good cooperation between schools and social organizations and define clear conditions and rules of such cooperation.
GOALS
The project aims to educate about the social organization sector in schools and to involve schools in the activities of social organizations, as well as to include organizations in joint activities with schools for the benefit of school and local communities.
ACTIVITIES
The project is implemented from March 2021 to the end of April 2023 and includes activities:
1. Diagnosis (III-VI 2021)
First, we will examine what school-NGO cooperation looks like now, what supports it and what hinders it? What do schools and organizations need in order to benefit more from such collaboration and what do they expect from it? What are the concerns and potential risks and how can they be minimized? We will also look for good examples of such cooperation – both in Poland and abroad. The report from the survey will be published and available on our website.
2. Engage the change! (III-VIII 2021)
Together with the Facilitating Support (Pogotowie Facylitacyjne) we are developing a country-wide version of a card game called “Game of Change”, which we used in the Non-governmental School Officer project as part of education about the third sector in Warsaw schools (financed from the funds of the capital city of Warsaw).The discussion game shows diversity of organizations sector in whole Poland and opens discussion about their actions and effects of their actions. The game will be used in schools participating in the project alongside other materials. Together with 3 copies of the game, teachers will also receive a guidebook about the sector and the game.
The game in change can be seen here: link
And a short video with the instructions of the game: link
3. Expert group (IV 2021 – IV 2022)
We want to be accompanied in the process by experts from various regions of Poland, both from schools – teachers, principals, students, parents – and from social organizations – people who have experience in cooperation with schools and would like to take part in the process of consulting project materials and creating the CODE OF GOOD COOPERATION that will be the final result of the group’s work, distributed and promoted both in schools and in social organizations and municipalities. We assume that the group will work online.
Recruitment for the expert group is in progress! If you are interested, please contact us via e-mail.
4. Activities with schools and social organizations (2 cycles: IX 2021-III 2022 and IX 2022 – III 2023) including:
- Opening meeting for participating schools – 6 such meetings in each cycle are planned to be held live in different locations in Poland (depending on the number of schools registered), and 6 will be held online. Due to pandemic constraints the form of planned meetings may still change.
- Activities in schools – each of the schools participating in the project will conduct lessons about the Third Sector along with the gameplay of the game Engage the change!, using film materials (study visits, online lesson) and lesson scenarios.
- Online activities for schools – we will provide 3 webinars/online trainings (along with training materials) per cycle for teachers and school leaders.
- Online activities for ngo’s – we also plan 2 webinars/online trainings (along with training materials) in each cycle for leaders and employees of social organizations interested in starting cooperation with schools.
- An online collaboration festival for students at the end of each cycle of activities for the school year, including various types of tasks and activities for student groups to complete.
Recruiting schools for the project will begin in June 2021.
5. Summary and evaluation (III-IV 2023)
At the end of the project, a summary publication will be created, including a description of good practices and cooperative activities with schools from Poland and abroad, which will be published together with the research report and the CODE OF GOOD COOPERATION.
Who is the project addressed to?
The project is addressed to elementary schools (mainly 7th and 8th grade) and secondary schools (high schools, technical high schools and specialized schools) all over Poland. The main topic of the project concerns social organizations and is therefore related to the core curriculum of civic education. However, we would also like to encourage teachers of other subjects as well as educators, teachers of pedagogy and school psychologists, people involved in volunteer work at schools, and student council leaders to join in.
We also invite leaders and employees of social organizations interested in working with schools to apply – we will be preparing a series of trainings, webinars and training materials for them. Organizations will also receive their own copies of the Engage the change! game and a guidebook to use in their work with young people.
Our project partners:
More informations about the project (in Polish): https://poledialogu.org.pl/wlacz-szkole/