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Description
The project addresses the need to involve foreigners living in the City of Lodz in civic activities and to raise awareness of residents’ rights. It will also help solve the problem of foreigners not being taken into account in city policies. According to the analysis undergone for the Strategy of the City of Łódź 2030+, as many as 20% of permanent residents are foreigners. These data do not take into account the current political situation and migration from Ukraine. People arriving in Lodz in an unplanned way, e.g. as a result of forced migration, have difficulties with adaptation. They do not know residents’ rights, education system, health care, or labour market, which makes their everyday life difficult. In this project, we aim to involve foreigners in civic activities and urban policies in 3 areas: ‘the resident’, ‘the neighbour’ and ‘the citizen’. We will launch the ‘Resident''s Academy’, which will include training on migrants'' rights and a Polish language course for foreigners. We will create Intercultural Neighbourhood Activity Zones, through which we will strengthen neighbourhood integration. We will organise seminars and set up a team to include foreigners in city policies in Lodz (with the participation of officials, NGO''s and foreigners). Our partners are: Foundation Belarusians in the Lodzkie Province, with which we work for the Belarusian community, and Association Together from Kristiansand (bringing together Poles in Norway), which supports us with its practices of including foreigners in civic activities and urban policies.
Summary of project results
The "Foreigner-resident-neighbor" project responded to the need to involve foreigners in Łódź in civic activities, raise awareness of resident rights and will help solve the problem of the lack of the topic of foreigners in city policies. According to the analysis for the strategy of the city of Łódź, by 2030 ⅕ of permanent residents are foreigners. At the time of submitting the application, the group to which our activities were primarily directed was the Belarusian minority gathered around the project partner of the Belarusini Foundation in the Łódź region. We identified adaptation difficulties, lack of knowledge of residents'' rights, the education system, health care, and the labor market. We drew attention to the lack of visibility of foreigners in municipal policies. The reality changed on February 24, 2022, when war refugees began to arrive in Poland overnight.
The full-scale war in Ukraine changed the needs, level of preparation and openness to including foreigners in public policies. During the project, we carried out the following activities:
1. Opening seminar - 31/05/22, during which we discussed how foreigners can / are involved in the use of participation tools
2. Launching the Belarusian Center in Łódź, launching and conducting information and advisory activities, carrying out 2 editions of 4 meetings as part of the Resident Academy and a Polish language course for foreigners.
3. Launch and implementation of 3 International Neighborhood Activity Zones in cooperation with 3 branches of the City Library. 90 hours were completed as part of MSAS. language cafes, including neighborhood initiatives, lots of meetings and workshops for residents.
4. Preparation of recommendations regarding public policies as the result of the work of the team for incorporating public policies.
5. Project closing seminar – 30/05/23.
The project was carried out in close cooperation with the Belarus Foundation in the Łódź region and with the substantive support of the Razem z Norway Association. In implementing individual activities, we cooperated with the City of Łódź Office and the City Library in Łódź.
As a result of the project, the following were created:
1. 3 International Neighborhood Activity Zones - MSAS were created as intended in cooperation with branches of the City Library in Łódź. A total of 176 people of various nationalities and ages are continuously involved in the activities of the 3rd MSAS.
2. information materials for foreigners to support the activities of the Resident Academy: https://bialorusini-lodz.pl/category/poradniki/
3. The Center for Belarusians in Łódź and a hotline supporting foreigners, which was used by 76 people during the reporting period.
4. recommendations regarding the inclusion of foreigners in public policies in the form of a report in 5 thematic areas.
As a result of the project, the following were created:
1. 3 International Neighborhood Activity Zones - MSAS, in which a total of 176 people of various nationalities are continuously involved
2. information materials for foreigners to support the activities of the Resident Academy: https://bialorusini-lodz.pl/category/poradniki/
3. Center for Belarusians in Łódź and a hotline supporting foreigners, which was used by 76 people during the reporting period
4. recommendations regarding the inclusion of foreigners in public policies in the form of a report in 5 thematic areas
Results achieved:
1. Training of 20 Belarusians as part of the "Resident Academy" - the first edition of the Resident Academy took place in the reporting period.
2. Involving 176 residents of Łódź in social projects within the intercultural framework of SAS and 27 people in work for the Belarusian Center in Łódź.
After the project is completed, the OPUS Center will continue to implement the following activities:
1. in cooperation with the branches of the City Library, we will continue the activities of the International Neighborhood Activity Zones. Libraries have included MSAS activities in their offer and continue activities in cooperation with residents - e.g. meetings on various cultures inspired by language cafes, regular meetings planning joint initiatives.
2. we intend to use the recommendations regarding public policies created as part of the project when designing further activities for foreigners in public policies, we have established cooperation with organizations in Austria and Croatia that conduct similar activities.
3. initiated activities related to institutional development, such as CRM and cooperation with business, are continued and developed at the OPUS Center.
4. as a result of opening up activities to foreigners, a large part of the OPUS Center''s communication on social media is conducted in Ukrainian.
Summary of bilateral results
As part of bilateral cooperation with a partner organization from the Donor State, we cooperate with the Polish-Norwegian Association Total = Sammen. Activities implemented as part of bilateral cooperation:1. participation of a representative of the Association in planning the seminar and delivery of an opening, introductory lecture experiences of building a new identity after moving to a new country;2. participation in the recording of podcasts showing different perspectives of being a foreigner and getting involved in social activities, working for community, integrating residents, building identity, etc., (sample podcast available here: https://opus.org.pl/o-byciu-soba-w-nową-kraju-wopusowego-podkascie-rozujemy-o-organizatorich-cudzoziemcow-38196 ),3. creating a series of articles showing activities integrating foreigners in Norway (available on the project subpage:https://opus.org.pl/cudzoziemiec-sasiad/aktualnosci),4. support for MSAS animators and people working in library branches in planning activities - participation in working meetings.5. participation of experts from the Razem Association in a webinar ending the project.Bilateral cooperation runs smoothly throughout the entire project. Actions appear to be inspired from both sides. We''re not the only ones learning from Norwegian partners, but also the project coordinator Jolanta Woźnicka participated in the online meeting of the Razem = Sammen Association presenting the MSAS concept and Polish experiences of cooperation with residents, which inspired Razem=Sammen to expand integration activities in Norway.Additionally, the duration of the project coincided with a period of strong involvement by Razem=Sammen in activities aimed at including foreigners in the creation of public policies in Norway, which gave us a common perspective on these issues.