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Description
In this project we support women who are at risk of social and professional exclusion in the Nysa County. Our main goal is to create self-help groups where women can support each other, exchange experiences and create a network of mutual help. The most important problems that women in the Nysa County face include: unemployment (almost 2,000 women), violence (more than 400 cases of domestic violence), isolation, which has been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, lack of support and comprehensive assistance, and difficult access to public transport for those living outside the city. Our project is following a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, we conduct a social dialogue, show the difficult situation of women in the Nysa County and, together with local institutions, develop an interdisciplinary model of cooperation to support women. On the other hand, we work directly with our target group. We create self-help groups for women and strive to ensure their sustainability. Through regular meetings with specialists, women integrate, support each other, exchange experiences, inspire action and create a network of mutual support. They also initiate activities that engage the local community. Our project draws on the good practices of our Norwegian partner Mangfolk AS, a company made up of young people with a passion for ecology and living in harmony with nature. We encourage women to develop home gardening as a small local business. We inspire them to become socially active and inclusive by joining local civic initiatives for ecology. As a result, participants are given the opportunity for flexible employment and a way out of isolation. At the end of the project, the women will be prepared to implement projects on their own for the benefit of their community and according to their needs, and thus they will increase their self-esteem and sense of empowerment.
Summary of project results
The project aimed to support women excluded from social life in the Nysa district. As part of it, we launched a permanently operating self-help group. The project was carried out in two tracks through activities with project participants and with institutions operating in the Nysa district. The implementation of the project was based on borrowing good practice from the Partner - the Norwegian organization Mangfolk AS. We created a women''s self-organizing group, the goal of which was regular meetings, mutual support of participants, sharing their difficult experiences, and creating a kind of support network. As part of the project, women, with the support of specialists, gained new, positive experiences (including through sharing their passions, mutual help, getting involved in the community or co-organizing events, including charity events), and also created a garden that became a place of intergenerational integration (i.e. with the Senior Club and the Social Community Center, which are located in the same building). With the support of specialists, the participants gained agency, space for development and emerged from isolation. They found jobs, developed their own businesses, began to educate themselves in the fields that interest them and develop their passions. At the same time, we established a dialogue with local institutions and created a Partnership for the Power of which we jointly developed an Interdisciplinary model of support for women at risk of social exclusion from the Nysa district. Each institution that signed a declaration of cooperation within the model declared a minimum scope of support. During the project, the model was tested with positive results.
We have achieved a lasting result of the project, which functions after its completion. We have created a tool based on the specific needs of the target group and in agreement with the instructions providing support for women. It is a kind of innovation. It creates a permanent space for women to self-organize and communicate both in virtual space and in a place prepared for this purpose (garden). The functioning self-help group, with the support of the local partnership of institutions, creates a network of mutual services, inspiration for development, local products.
We have launched a self-help group, which continues to meet after the end of the project, engages in the life of the local community and charity activities. Bonds, trust and a safe atmosphere without judgment have been created between the participants. Women have gained agency, they themselves come up with proposals for initiatives and show a willingness to help with the Grantee''s activities.
We have launched a self-help group, which continues to meet after the project ends, engages in the life of the local community and charity activities. Bonds, trust and a safe atmosphere without judgment have been created between the participants. Women have gained agency, they themselves come up with proposals for initiatives and show willingness to help with the Grantee''s activities.
We have also drawn the attention of local institutions and NGOs to the situation of women in the Nysa district. We have gained them as partners and allies in this matter. The result of joint discussions about the needs and problems of women, possibilities of support - our working team with institutions/NGOs was the appointment of the President of the Foundation to the group of members of the team for the strategy of solving social problems both in the district (Invitation of the District Office based on the established declaration of cooperation) and in the Nysa commune (Mayor''s Order). The first workshops and discussion panels have already taken place, in which the President had the opportunity to talk about the results of the research report prepared as part of the project.
Together we have developed and tested a model of interdisciplinary cooperation, which will serve to improve the situation of women in the Nysa district and to actively assist in the activities of the self-help group.
A participant with a disability registered her psychodietetic service at the Local Product Center. She conducts lectures, workshops (also for charity), cooperates with the local radio, the quarterly Kompas dla Kobiet - she is open to new challenges despite her own disability. She is a motivator for other women and a positive example of change despite the difficulties she has encountered on her own path.
Another woman, after a divorce with three children, decided to establish her own Foundation and, inspired by the project, support women in the neighboring Commune. A team of specialists helps her with the formalities necessary to establish the Foundation.
Summary of bilateral results
We cooperated with a Partner from Norway – Mangfolk AS. Together we have completed task 4 – Inspiration and motivation for self-organization and creation of a network of mutual local services in the Nysa district by including innovative solutions of the partner. As part of the cooperation, the participants and the Grantor were inspired by Norwegian good practices, which they want to introduce and continue also after the completion of the project.The Partner created three films - the first concerns setting up an eco garden, the second shows the variety of attempts that the couple has made in Norway, how they build their small, local businesses and valuable initiatives (in addition to the garden, Tomas from Mangfolk runs workshops at bee apiaries and makes candles from beeswax, and Magda is involved in handicrafts and handicraft workshops - dry felting; among other initiatives, they organize social eco gardens at kindergartens/schools), the third is an instructional film on the dry felting method that Magda uses to make her handicrafts (it was created at the request of our participants).We familiarized the participant groups with the story of our partner, which is an inspiration on how to get out of a difficult, crisis situation in life. We discussed the first film on setting up home gardens and its ecological cultivation, then we connected in an online meeting (06.2023) with the Partner. The topic was the story of Magda and Tomas, gardening and inspiration for self-organization that we can draw from Norway and possible solutions that can be adapted, as well as inspirations regarding play groups for mothers with children.The partner helped develop the eco-garden and inspired the participants who, in cooperation with the Senior Club and the Social Club, want to create an outdoor café in the established eco-garden at the Municipal Support Centre for the Third Sector (an intergenerational project has already been written - application under evaluation).