Highlights

Activity Highlights 1994 - 2003

1994

Summer: Zbigniew Pelczynski's concept of a summer leadership course in Poland wins financial support ($60,000) from the Open Society Institute in Budapest (a Soros organisation); technical support from the Stefan Batory Foundation in Warsaw

September: First Summer School for Young Social and Political Leaders (3 weeks)

Autumn: Summer schools become an autonomous programme of the Polish Robert Schuman Foundation in Warsaw

1995

February: First specialist skills workshop for alumni (1 week)

July: Second summer school for young leaders (4 weeks)

September: Second specialist skills workshop for alumni (1 week)

1996

July: Third summer school for young leaders (3 weeks)

September: Fourth summer school for young leaders (3 weeks); Ukrainian participation begins

1997

February: "School for Leaders Association" registered as a NGO in a Warsaw law court; fully independent existence begins. (27/2/1997)

July: Fifth summer school for young leaders (3 weeks): Ukrainian and Belarusian participation specialist skills workshop for alumni

1998

February: Winter school for young Yugoslav leaders and trainers in Poland (3 weeks) -groundwork for a "School for Social Action" in Belgrade

July: Sixth summer school for young leaders (shortened to 2 weeks) specialist skills workshop for alumni

May/June: West Pomeranian regional leadership school (2 weeks) [*NOTA BENE]

1999

August: First Ukrainian school for young leaders (Lviv region - 2 weeks)

November: Autumn school for young leaders (vice summer school - 2 weeks)

2000

July/August: Second Ukrainian school for young leaders (2 weeks)

September: Eighth school for young leaders (2 weeks)

October: Local government school for Ukrainian leaders (partly in Poland -10 days)

2001

June : 'Baltic-Black Sea Bridges"

October: ninth school for young social and political leaders

November: "Rainbow of Changes"

December: "Beskid Mountain Streams"

2002

"School for Young Women Leaders": A programme of leadership workshops for young women in select rural areas.

Tenth summer school for young leaders: where participants from Belarus took part

"Local Partners": beginning of the programme which was then continued in 2003

2003

Belorusian School for Leaders (BSL).

11th School for Leaders of Civil Society

"What kind of state?"

"Local Partners"

"Beskidzkie Strumyki"

Some others activities and events organised by the SLA

Conferences and seminars:

May 1996: "Civic education in high schools";

November 1996: "Poland and NATO";

October 1997: "Comparison of leadership training in Eastern Europe" (in Budapest);

April 1998: "Polish countryside in the 21st century";

January, April 1998, January 1999: "NATO yesterday, today, tomorrow";

December 1998: "Business in civil society", "National security and civil-military relations in USA";

December 1999: "Ukraine and NATO enlargement";

February 2000: "How to fight corruption".

Local government workshops (for councillors, officials and spokesmen:

June 1996: negotiations and conflict resolutions;

March 1996: communication with local citizens;

May 1996: PR and media contacts;

November 1996: local economic development and co-operation with German local authorities;

March 1998: electioneering techniques in local government elections.

Workshops for NGO and local community leaders:

February 1996: PR and media contacts;

June 1996: women in public life;

February, March 1997: social assistance problems;

February 1998: social issue movements;

March, April 1998: community entrepreneurship in rural areas;

November 1999: ethnic minorities' culture in Poland.

Civic education and youth problems workshops:

December 1995-June 1996: 9 workshops on civic skills;

April 1996: debating workshop;

April- May 1997: democratic participation;

October-November 1997: social voluntary work;

July, October, November/December 1999: counteracting violence in schools.

European integration workshops:

February, March/April 1998, February, April 2000: challenge of EU for rural communities;

January/February, May, November/December 1998: EU knowledge for high schools.

Study visits abroad for alumni:

Spring 1995, Spring 1996: local elections in Britain;

Spring 1997: parliamentary election in Britain;

June-July 1996: internships in US Senate;

October/November 1996: US presidential election;

October/November 1997: federal and state governments and politics in USA;

April 2000: federal and state governments and politics in USA.

(In the framework of exchanges with the American Council of Political Leaders delegations of American state politicians visited Poland in April 1997, November 1999 and November 2001.)

Main activities in 2001:

June : 'Baltic-Black Sea Bridges" - study and training visit in Poland for civic and political education NGO representatives, student activists and local councillors and officials from Russia (Kaliningrad Region), Belarus and Ukraine, followed up by assisted local projects in the three countries (completion: December 2001).

October: ninth school for young social and political leaders, with emphasis on small communities.

November: "Rainbow of Changes" - a visit of Serb activists to study Polish experience of student and local self-government and to apply it in Serbia through approved local projects (completion: February 2002)

December: "Beskid Mountain Streams" begins - a project of short training courses for secondary school pupils in two Krosno districts, preparatory to drawing up and realising grant-assisted small school and village projects (completion: May 2002).

Main activities in 2002:

"School for Young Women Leaders"

A programme of leadership workshops for young women in select rural areas.

Tenth summer school for young leaders: where participants from Belarus took part

"Local Partners": beginning of the programme which was then continued in 2003

Main activities in 2003:

International programme:

Belorusian School for Leaders (BSL). Partners: Belorusian Association of Resource Centres (BARC) and the European Dialogue. Project was financially assisted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom and supported by Polish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and by the Office of Polish Prime Minister. Programme of the BSL included:

Workshops, lectures and seminars, as well as study visits which aimed at the acquaintance of participants with the rules and functioning of democratic country and the civil society,
"My local initiative" micro projects competition,
Sum-up conference where all realised micro-projects were analysed and evaluated. Discussed were also problems of youth activation, development of voluntary work and local councils, as well as possibilities of development of mutual co-operation and further transfer of Polish experience into the Ukrainian ground.

Conference "What kind of partnership: Polish-Ukrainian co-operation of local councils"

The conference, dated September 28-29, 2003, was held in Lviv, as a part of the project called Ukrainian School for Young Local Councillors. It was realised by School for Leaders Association, in co-operation with the European Dialogue from Lviv and financially assisted by PAUCI foundation. As a result of the conference the participants - young councillors from local governments all over Ukraine - compiled a "Recommendation for development of Polish-Ukrainian partnership programmes", where they enumerated all problem areas and expected forms and standards of Polish-Ukrainian co-operation for the sake of development of Ukrainian local governments.

Conference "What kind of partnership: Polish-Ukrainian co-operation of local councils"

Nationwide programme of civic education:

11th School for Leaders of Civil Society

A subsequent edition of training for public activists from various social and political organisations, including classes on key public issues and workshops dealing with core social skills and abilities (among participants were also five Polish public activists from Ukraine's Zhytomir region and 3 representatives of national minorities in Poland);

"What kind of state?"

Programme of social debates on the shape of country, aimining at initiating debates on core public issues in local communities all around Poland.

Regional activation and development:

"Local Partners"

This programme is addressed to various sectors of state in selected regions of podlaskie and podkarpackie voivodships. The programme comprises: workshops and training sessions for social organizations, as well as joint meetings of representatives of local government, business and social initiatives where the problems of co-operation and common projects are to be tackled and discussed.

"Beskidzkie Strumyki"

This programme is a series of activities aimed at making young people more socially active - workshops, group work on the participants' own projects aimed at helping others, grant contest, work with students on helping them carry out their own projects and to finish off a summary seminar during which we will showcase the accomplishments of the young people who took part in "Beskidzkie Strumyki" to their peers, guardians, teachers and regional NGO and local government representatives. We want to teach young people to work together on behalf of their local communities. We expect that participants will work together with their peers and younger students from rural areas on their individual small projects. They will help with homework, organize classes and field trips, as well as theatre and dance workshops. We are especially happy with the fact that the knowledge and experience that will be acquired by these young people will help them to work on behalf of others in the future.