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Description
For 28 years we have been supporting community animators in the Pomorskie province, by providing training, workshops, socialising events, consultations, and individual supervisions. Our observations show that these are individuals who are highly engaged in activating their local communities and organising grassroot social initiatives. Based on meetings and talks to them we know that they also face the problem of being left alone in their activism, professional burnout, poor integration around animation activities, as well as insufficient self-confidence and the lack of confidence in their own competencies. We can also see the need for gathering the existing knowledge and methods of work with animators to support them even better.We will address these problems by preparing the diagnosis of the animator community in the Pomorskie province to identify and describe the needs of such individuals. We will organise a series of integration meetings allowing animators to exchange their experience, challenges at work, and best practices. We will invite volunteers to a workgroup that will jointly work on the Compass of the Pomorska Community Animation - a catalogue including the key animation tools and methods. The document will be consulted with social activists from the region, representatives of local authorities, NGO employees, and then will be promoted during informational meetings organised in the entire province.We will be supported in our project by Forum Animatorów Społecznych, which has long-standing experience in local community animation, in educational and evaluative activities. Our partner will offer supervision to animators willing to undergo the training and will then evaluate our endeavours.
Summary of project results
For 28 years, we have supported animators and community workers in the Pomeranian Voivodeship, including through training, workshops, integration events, and individual counseling and supervision. According to our observations, these were people deeply involved in activating their local communities and organizing grassroots social initiatives. From meetings and conversations with them, we learned that they were, however, struggling with problems of loneliness in their activism, professional burnout, poor integration around animation activities, and insecurity about themselves and their competencies. We also saw a great need to bring together existing knowledge and methods of working with animators and amateurs to support them even better.
We responded to these problems by developing a diagnosis of the animation community in the Pomorskie Voivodeship, in which we identified and described their needs. We organized a series of integration meetings where people working in action animation exchanged experiences, work challenges, and good practices. We invited willing people to join a working group, which together developed the Compass of Pomeranian Social Animation - a catalog containing the most important tools and methods of work for animators and animators. This document was consulted with community workers from the region, people from local government or working in NGOs, and then promoted at information meetings throughout the voivodeship.
The project''s partner was the Forum of Community Animators, which has many years of experience in animating local communities conducting educational and evaluation activities. The partner provided supervision for willing animators and conducted an evaluation of our activities.
As a result of the activities carried out, the willingness and commitment of people coming to the integration meetings have increased. This is especially noticeable from the increasing number of participants, as well as from the fact that with each meeting, there were more people willing to make videos. We have noticed similar changes in attitudes among those developing the Compass - at first, they were quite skeptical, but over time, they have become involved.
We are also very pleased that the people in the working group were extremely diverse in terms of gender, age, location, and job position. In total, we managed to involve as many as 80 people.