Fighting boredom!


We help establish Young People`s Funds in small towns of the Mazovian voivodship. Those are organisations raising funds locally to implement young people`s ideas and initiatives. Thanks to those Funds young people can open their own Initiatives Factories, which produce satisfaction, free energy for further action, and teach responsibility and rational thinking.

The Mazovian voivodship has a 13.1% share in the Polish population. Regretfully, the proximity of Warsaw - though very advantageous to voivodship statistics - does not bring prosperity on an all-voivodship scale. The unemployment rate in the Warsaw county has reached 4.7%; in the Szydłowiec county it is as high as 28.1%. The situation is particularly painful to children and YOUNG PEOPLE - their access to educational facilities has become more difficult, not to mention cultural institutions or libraries. Charity organisations have no money to support young people`s initiatives either; their early days in life are thus entirely different to that enjoyed by their peers from large cities.

Thanks to the Initiatives Factory, young people shall be encouraged to become active. Young People`s Funds are to be formed in small towns: organisations raising money locally to implement children`s and young people`s ideas. By attending workshops and competitions for the most interesting educational and cultural projects, young inhabitants of small towns and villages will be able to open their own Initiatives Factories PRODUCING joy and satisfaction, releasing energy for further action, and teaching responsibility and rational thinking. Young people will make their own ideas take on shape, with adults helping them to make their DREAMS come true.

Furthermore, the purpose of the Programme is to improve activities of local organisations. Another is to provide them with motivation in their constant search for local partners, in getting to know their own community, in offering efficient support to work benefiting children and young people, and in working together with them. The Academy shall provide financial assistance to organisations successful in raising funds locally. Our experience in forming community foundations in Poland proves that this is a great method to develop hundreds of young people`s initiatives as an attractive alternative to "street life". Support is to be provided for more than 200 education and cultural projects. Moreover, a web site will be set up, to be updated by young people as a forum for the exchange of experience gained in implementing their own ideas.

Programme partners include the N-ART Agency, the Open Academy for Young People (Powszechna Akademia Młodzieży), and the Local Philanthropic organisations Network.

The Programme is funded by the Mazovia (Mazowsze) Foundation with contributions from the Mazovian Social Policy Centre (Mazowieckie Centrum Polityki Społecznej), and by private donors: Autorex, BRE Bank S.A. Foundation, REMO CAR, Shell, Produkty Poland, Renault, MAN, DAF Truck Poland, Toyota Wiśniewski, Siemens, DaimlerChrysler Automotive Poland.

We have no doubt whatsoever that the grant programme has boosted the local community, and - most importantly - set off an avalanche of children`s and young people`s ideas. These programmes have made it possible for the young generation to believe that you can be useful to the community and have a great time as well.

Dorota Komornicka, Chairman of the Śnieżnik Mountain Range Community Foundation

For more information please contact:

Programme Co-ordinator, Jarosław Lepka

No. 16/7, Poznańska Street, Warsaw 00-680
Tel. No. +48 22 622 01 22, Fax No. +48 22 622 02 11
e-mail : jarekl@filantropia.org.pl