Together on Interculturality

The April networking meeting was devoted to activities supporting the Roma community in Wrocław

The meeting was held on the eve of International Roma Day (celebrated on 8 April). It is worth emphasising that the Wrocław local government began working with the Roma community as early as 2003, as part of pilot activities.

Together with representatives of institutions, organisations and schools, we discussed, among other things, the state of activities for the Roma community in Wrocław in the context of the government’s “Programme for the Social and Civic Integration of Roma in Poland 2021–2030” and of the EU-funded projects approved for implementation (Dom Pokoju, Stowarzyszenie Edukacji Krytycznej and partners).

The second part focused on the situation of Roma pupils in Wrocław schools, with school representatives – including head teachers, a Roma assistant and a teacher supporting Roma children – sharing their experiences.

The autumn networking meeting was devoted to creating intercultural spaces for activity and integration in Wrocław’s neighbourhoods

The meeting was linked to activities carried out under this year’s grant competition “Intercultural Meeting Places in Local Communities – Wrocław 2024”. The competition was launched in response to a strong need for activities that bring local neighbourhood communities together with the many new residents moving to Wrocław.

Representatives of non-governmental organisations – Stowarzyszenie Różnorodności Społecznej UP-DATE, Fundacja Animada, Stowarzyszenie Grupa z Pasją and Fundacja ART-JTM – spoke about the challenges and good practices of organising events that bring neighbourhood communities together. The meeting was also attended by a representative of the Tadeusz Różewicz Municipal Public Library in Wrocław, who presented the range of educational and integration activities taking place in the library’s 39 branches across the city.

The April meeting of institutions and organisations offered a solid dose of knowledge and discussion on which data are key to designing public policies and services.

The meeting opened with presentations by municipal institutions on the available data on the city’s population and migrant communities. Representatives of the Polish Statistical Association and the Statistical Office in Wrocław spoke about the challenges related to the available databases. Researchers from the University of Wrocław, on behalf of their research team, presented a qualitative report from the project “Living Conditions and Quality of Life in Wrocław – New Residents”. Representatives of Stowarzyszenie Edukacji Krytycznej and the Foundation for European Studies spoke about research projects carried out together with people with migration experience.

At our first meeting of 2024, on 21 February, we met with institutions and organisations to discuss school and out-of-school education for children with migration experience.

Topics included the education of children and young people with migration experience in Wrocław schools and the challenges facing teaching staff. We also discussed joint advocacy on behalf of Ukrainian children who remain outside the Polish education system and for the employment of intercultural assistants.

We also talked about the challenges of adaptation, as well as strategies for preventing and resolving conflicts in the school environment.

The December meeting gave a voice to migrant organisations active in Wrocław. The invited activists talked about communities from Nigeria, Cameroon, Ukraine and Arab countries, and about their own activities.

During the discussion, we also heard about the needs of these communities and the challenges of participation and of cooperation with the local community, as well as challenges in areas such as schools.

Representatives of Fundacja Umbrella and FEPS spoke about activities supporting the civic engagement of migrant groups.

The topic of the third meeting was Support for migrants and refugees. Presentations by representatives of institutions and organisations covered key activities after 24 February 2022, as well as ongoing activities aimed at these groups:

• forms of assistance and social support for people with migration and refugee experience,
• the situation in temporary accommodation centres,
• forms of support for individuals and groups particularly vulnerable to exclusion and discrimination,
• psychological support.

On 11 October, the second meeting in the “Together on Interculturality” series took place, focusing on the exchange of information and knowledge in the context of intercultural dialogue in Wrocław.

Topics discussed included:

• municipal information and communication platforms,
• information exchange among civil society organisations,
• communication in local communities and neighbourhoods,
• communication with migrant and multicultural groups, including in the context of how cultural institutions target their offer.

Thank you for coming in such large numbers and for the interesting discussions.

On 14 September 2023, Barbara hosted a special meeting under the banner “Together on Interculturality”, which brought together representatives of more than 30 non-governmental organisations and municipal institutions.

The event was a great opportunity to get to know each other and talk about joint activities, and it was also an important step towards jointly building a coherent, diverse vision of intercultural activities for Wrocław’s communities.

The meeting also served to jointly develop the format of the networking meetings and to map needs, activities and solutions in the topics discussed: Knowledge, Cooperation, Education and Support.