Fundacja "Zielony Słoń"

Our activities are aimed at target groups in need of support, adults who activation on the labor market, students who need vocational development, youths in the need of non-formal support, people at the risk of social exclusion etc. For the needs of this application, we would focus in the youth sector. Our youth activities are often aimed at youth workers or youths to prevent racism, radicalizm and hate speech, including online hate speech.

Our youth target group with fewer opportunities are graduated youths of local highschool in Wisznice town, in eastern Poland. That is a remote rural area. The participants often are facing economical and geographical fewer opportunities as they come from remote rural areas and poor families. There are around 50 graduates each year and many of them with sufficient English skills and motivation to participate in a youth project. They are aged around 19. The youths are involved often in our initiatives which we undertake in that region and they are aware of our presence there, thus we believe there wouldn't be needed open recruitment, but only selection of present candidates. Five of them have already submitted their own application under ESC Solidarity Projects Call. We have worked with them within our Youth exchange located in that town and KA3 projects also located there and involving local young people, entrepreneurs and politicians. We are also sending these youths abroad within KA105 projects where we are partners in. We have also experience in working with a similar target group in the town of Krasnystaw in eastern Poland. Those participants were students of vocational school and we organized for them vocational placements in Italy and Spain under VET projects.

In the same time we are a cultural organization which is proud of supporting literacy and reading. We have a number of old books under our care including unique printouts which dates back to XIX and XVIII century. We promote the culture of reading and preserving the books. We also promote other traditional activities like local handcrafts - often organize workshops with people who make homemade foodstuffs.
We use our networks of social media contacts, mailing lists and cooperating institutions and media which include: association "Stowarzyszenie Aktywne Pogranicze", vocational schools in Krasnystaw (ZS no. 1) and "Lider" in Lublin, mayor of the Wisznice commune, Piotr Dragan, the mayor of the Sławatycze commune Arkadiusz Misztal, the head of the Piszczac commune, Kamil Kożuchowski or even lower ranks, such as the mayor of Żeszczynka, Krystyna Karpiuk. We work as a social partner on the basis of an agreement also with the Department of Social Initiatives and Programs of the City of Lublin. We have contacts within regional networks of social and civic organizations. We cooperate with Słowo Podlasia or RadioBiper in Biała Podlaska.

We have organized several week-long training events in our resorts in Poland for almost 400 youth workers and young people from all over EU and the partner countries.
We cooperate with schools in remote rural areas and in the city if Lublin. Our aim of cooperation is to involve young people in the process of self development to make them more open-minded, more critical thinking, more communicative and more active members of society. We have supported them in the field of vocational development by sending them to traineeships abroad and in non formal education by organizing foreign mobilities with our youth workers. We have involved so far over 250 people into foreign mobilities to international projects under Erasmus+KA1 youth and adult sector, so they were able to develop themselves in multicultural environment.

We organized foreign vocational mobilities for almost 50 Polish students Italy and Spain. We implemented VET project in 2016-17 with workplacements in Sicily for students of vocational school in Krasnystaw, POWERVET-2016-1-PL01-KA102- 024895). Currently we are providing career consultancy, vocational courses and workplacements unemployed people in the region of Lubelskie (RPLU.10.04.00-06-0029/18) and the disabled (national range, „(Od)Ważni na starcie!” ABS/000004/03/D). and in 2018-19 VET project with workplacements in Spain or students of the vocational school in Krasnystaw and "Lider" in Lublin (2018-1-PL01- KA102-048055). Regarding this field of work, within our projects we address our support to students of vocational schools in Lubelskie region, particularly to students of the Vocational school in Krasnystaw (ZS nr 1) because their students are often people with fewer opportunities due to living in remote rural areas, poor living standard or other obstacles. Due to location of their homes and the school, there is huge need for this sort of support. We also cooperate with the private vocational school "Lider" in Lublin. We involve there also people with fewer opportunities due to migrant/refugee background. They are often Ukrainians forced to move from Ukraine due to the recent war. Apart from that their learners are often also with fewer opportunities due to economical reasons.

With our capital of know-how we also belong to the authors of the Polish National Agency publication about youth projects https://wymianymlodziezy.frse.org.pl/przewodnik-dla-wnioskodawcow-juz-d…

We have implemented 2 international Erasmus+ Key Action 2 strategic partnership project aimed to share good practices to create educational guide and toolpack for youth workers in the field of preventing hate speech and discrimination online and aimed to work with youths on their start-ups in rural areas. Now we are implementing Erasmus+ Key action 2 strategic partnerships: one aimed for women empowerment and equal rights and 2nd one for sustainable development and reduction of plastic in the environment. We are also implementing Visegrad+ strategic partnership to empower young people to set social enterprises using modern technology and intangible cultural heritage to support rural areas.
We have implemented local projects in Erasmus+ KA3, projects of structural dialogue. These projects embraced over 70 schoolkids and were aimed to increase heir social, civic awareness and make them more active members oft he democratic society of the European Union.
We have also organized youth projects for local youths in eastern Poland meant to raise awareness of the youths in area of entrepreneurship and new opportunities given by social media, internet journalism, European programmes and its reference to the youth policy in the region. We have involved local politicians, journalists and other specialists to share their experience, knowledge and create new products, new quality in the dialogue with the youths.
Within Erasmus Adult Education sector we implement project aimed to send adult educations staf for courses abroad to institutions sharing good practises in the field of folk universities and 3rd Age Universities.