Project Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE HOSTING ORGANIZATION: The Bona Fides Association was founded in 2003 in Katowice. Association is an independent, non-profit and politically un-involved non-government organisation. In the beginning of its activity, Bona Fides was realising aid, educational and cultural ventures, aiming in children and young people development in all areas. In 2004 Association joined forces with the Katowice Civil Group (KGO), which was aiming in education in the human rights area focusing on civil rights, increasing of the public information access, public spending control and counteracting for corruption in public institutions. After several years of working on such different projects members of the association decided to focus their efforts on watchdog activity. Since 2008 association is mainly focused on its watchdog activity plus it works as an organisation which is sending young people as volunteers abroad as part of the Youth in Action Programme. Most projects of the association are realised in Katowice, where actions aiming to increase the quality and transparency of the local public life are taking place; also development and reinforcement of the civil participation in taking important decisions regarding the city. Association realises also national projects mainly focused on increasing of the public information access and public information bulletins. There are three main activity levels of the association: A. Watchdog activities in Katowice The aim of that activity is to increase the quality and transparency of Katowice public life on the level of local government communes units and also to develop and to strengthen the citizen’s participation in the process of undertaking important decisions. A starting point of that activity is an assumption that an openness of local government authorities to the social partner is increasing civil activity and self-involvement and eventually development of the commune, through accepting the right regulations which set the place of citizen’s in taking decision process and deciding about the public spending. At the beginning of every project the association monitors certain areas of functioning of local government. When we already have the whole view of the situation we write the report from the monitoring where we describe everything we know and, at the end of the report, we also write our propositions for changes. The last step of every project is to take action which aims at improving the situation in the controlled area. B. The activities focused on increasing the access to the public information The idea of that activity is concentrated on promoting freedom of information as a human right, necessary for everyone to use their own human rights. Freedom of information is not really well known and not too many people realize what does it mean and how they can and should use it. The active citizenship is tightly connected with the freedom of information, as access to information is necessary to be an active citizen – one can't do too much, when one doesn't know. The activities focused on increasing the access to the public information are realized in the whole region of Silesia. From one side the association promotes and multiplies the freedom of information ideas in order to stimulate spreading such ideas like democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms. From the other side we monitor and control how these rights and duties are realised by public institutions. C. Community organizing in Katowice The aim of the community organizing is to actively engage large number of people to powerfully solve community problems. Community organizing follows a three-step process of: a) Systematically listening to residents and citizens in order to select and prioritize problems and visions, b) Research to identify potential solutions, and c) Solve these problems and achieve these visions through self-help approaches and engaging key government and other institutions. Community organizing can be done in a large number of contexts and with a variety of constituents: individual members, organization of organizations, neighborhood or issue based, with tenants, seniors, youth, etc.

PROJECT ENVIRONMENT Bona Fides Association is a young organization run by a group of young people. The actions and activities of Bona Fides Association are aimed especially at the local society of Katowice, but the range of these activities is broad and each volunteer working in Bona Fides can find a field where she/he can realize himself/herself. The association cooperates with different organizations and institutions, not only from the region, but also from other parts of Poland and from abroad. Bona Fides Association has its own office where some of the activities take place – the other ones are held outdoors or in other institutions. The staff of the Bona Fides Association consists of young enthusiastic people and a group of about 20 local volunteers help in the current activities of the association. The Bona Fides Association is located in the center of a big city - Katowice - in Upper Silesia in the South of Poland. 4 million people live in this part of Poland. Katowice together with bordering smaller cities form one of the most industrialized region in Poland. Katowice has a good connection with other cities by the tramlines, there is also a possibility to travel by bus or a train. There is a small international airport in Pyrzowice (20 km away from Katowice) and a bigger one in Kraków. The Upper Silesia is a very attractive region thanks to various possibilities of spending free time, for example: a beautiful park in Chorzów with zoo and planetarium, theatres, cinemas, modern libraries, antique alloys mine in Tarnowskie Góry, water parks, Beskidy Mountains (80 km away from Katowice) etc. As there are five main universities in Katowice and in a neighbouring city Gliwice, the region is inhabited by a lot of young people, also foreigners studying at Polish universities. A lot of activities and attractions are aimed at young people and organized by students and the local communities. PROPOSED ACTIVITIES FOR THE VOLUNTEERS The actions and activities of Bona Fides Association are aimed especially at the local society of Katowice, but the range of these activities is broad and each volunteer in Bona Fides can find a field where she/he can realize himself/herself. During the first month, a volunteer will participate in an intensive course of Polish and will also take part in workshops concerning both human rights and, in particular, an access to public information, where a volunteer will learn his/her rights in this field. Aside from this, a volunteer since the first days of his/her stay will be involved in the association`s projects currently in process. Depending on the volunteer`s interests he/she will be able to participate in projects and actions, which are carried out by the association: watch dog activities, activities connected with increasing the freedom of information, community organizing etc. Besides the volunteer will be engaged in the promotion of the organization itself and of the Youth in Action Programme (p.ex. by organizing conferences, meetings with local people, establishing partnerships with other organizations, creating and maintaining the websites of the organization etc). The volunteer will become a member of the association’s working group from the beginning of her/his stay in Poland and she/he will participate in all the actions with Polish volunteers and Bona Fides Association’s workers. At the beginning the volunteer will be introduced to the activities and accompanied by other volunteers, so she/he will get accustomed with the project’s environment. Later, step by step she/he will maintain more and more independent duties. The volunteer will also be able to realize his/her own ideas for the local community. He/she will get any personal and essential support that will be needed to run his/her own projects. The international volunteer will be a very important member between the association’s workers and volunteers. Her/his presence on the project will help to monitor public institutions with regard to providing foreigners with public information and checking how Polish state is keeping its duty of abiding civil rights, which are stated in European Convention of Human Rights and in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. During her/his stay on the project the volunteer will gain new knowledge in the topic of watch dog activities, community organizing, human rights, European Union etc. She/he will learn how to write the official requests to different institutions and the reports; how to prepare and run a good project and how to draw up strategies for solving local problems. She/he will be also able to develop his/her personality, gain new social competences and understand the Polish culture, while meeting during her/his activities a lot of people from different social backgrounds.

VOLUNTEERS’ PROFILE As the Host Organization we would like to host in our projects young people 18-30 years old who are open-minded, creative and have big motivation to work with people and socialize easily. Each volunteer should be aware that he/she will work both individually and in a group depending on the kind of the activity and the realized project. We would like to host 2-3 foreign volunteers simultaneously and we would prefer to host volunteers from different countries at the same time. Because of the fact that Bona Fides’s office is on the first floor and some of our association’s activities demand constant moving outdoors, we cannot host volunteers with mobile disfunctions. We are ready to work with any Sending Organization, however we would appreciate that the Sending Organizations have a similar profile to Bona Fides Association.