Fundacja FUNDUSZ WSPÓŁPRACY

The Partnership operates in five residential quarters of Cracow which belong to Nowa Huta district, a marginalised area facing many problems. Unemployment is one of them. The objective of the currently implemented project is to foster entrepreneurship among those women and men who are underprivileged and at risk of social exclusion. In addition, the project aims to establish and reinforce organisational structures on the local market by organising "integration manufactures" and a Social Entrepreneurship Centre to operate as entrepreneurship laboratories within the framework of the new concept of social economy.

The project will encompass 110 beneficiaries: 70 unemployed people who are not entitled to unemployment benefits, 30 disabled people who are physically able to work, 10 young people (aged 17-23) who are supported by the Municipal Social Welfare Centre, as well as people who completed their education at Voluntary Labour Corps Training and Education Centre. The target groups will be covered by various forms of support, such as counselling, advice service, job placement, and training, as well as gaining practical work experience.

Eleven integration manufactures will be created in Nowa Huta within the framework of the project. They will operate as social entrepreneurship laboratories and will employ people who are at risk of exclusion from the labour market. At the initial stage of their operation, the manufactures will form an integral part of their founding institution. The beneficiaries will be their employees, who will have to abide by the rules set out by these institutions. At this stage they will learn entrepreneurship both by actual work, and by participating in trainings in the field of market principles, marketing, obtaining funds, grants, developing business plans. A very significant feature of the project is that the beneficiaries will be able to pursue their passions. This model is addressed to people who are able to indicate their professional aspirations but do not know how to translate them into actual work. At the same time they cannot find any other role for themselves on the labour market. The partners who establish workshops will manage them based on agreed concepts, budgets, and fixed assets lent for use for the implementation period in such a way as to have the manufactures transformed into independent social enterprises upon the completion of the project.

The Social Entrepreneurship Centre which will be established during the implementation of the project will have the task of developing a sustainable method of technical support for all initiatives under the EQUAL Programme in Nowa Huta. It will also establish a social entrepreneurship centre in the local community to support the final beneficiaries and the new structures created by the partners during the implementation. The Centre's responsibilities will include assessing the beneficiaries' ideas, confronting these ideas with social needs and the local market, identifying the actual potential of the beneficiaries as well as assisting in the definition and establishment of the organisational and legal framework for integration manufactures and in their promotion. Upon the completion of the project, the Centre will continue its operations as an association integrating the local community. It will make use of the potential of universities - partners of the Nowa Huta Initiatives Partnership, jointly developing a unique method for sustainable social animation. This will focus on entrepreneurship, providing equal opportunities, and sustainable local development in consideration of the European integration.

After a one-year period of support, training and gaining experience by the manufactures, the Centre will determine an optimum organisational and legal framework for each of them. Thus they will be able to operate on the open market as cooperatives, social enterprises, associations or companies. However, they will still need some limited support, preferential treatment, and ad-hoc assistance. Its scope is to be determined by the local self-government and the Partnership. The main output achieved by the Partnership is the "Partner Intervention for the Development of Local Services Using the Integration Manufactures Method". This will constitute a model for reducing the unemployment rate through the development of services. The output will include training and information materials, such as a model description, a film about the Partnership, publications about the concept of building a Social Entrepreneurship Centre and the "Akademia Inspiracji" (Inspiration Academy) programme. Additionally a programme and a draft of a campaign to implement the model of "Partner Intervention..." through comparable local communities in Gdynia, Warsaw and Wrocław will be created.

The output achieved by the Partnership can be used by the following: local social alliances, self-governments, trade unions, labour offices, NGOs, organisations benefiting groups at risk of exclusion, high schools and universities, local businesses and their representatives. Since the beginning of implementation, complete documentation is being collected on all activities. This includes activity reports, minutes of meetings, photo reports, film reports and literature reports. A regular column in the local press is devoted to the project, which also has its own website, www.pin.nowa-huta.net. In November 2006 the official opening ceremony of BASE' ART will be held to present the European internet platform developed jointly with two transnational partnerships. The premiere of the first part of the documentary which is being produced will take place in the same month.

Scientists from the Jagiellonian University have taken the responsibility to successively disseminate project outputs in their publications and during scientific conferences in which they participate (once a month on average). In 2007 a conference is scheduled for scientific communities to summarise the project.

• Partnership intervention for the development of local services under the method of integration manufactures. Model of limiting unemployment through the creation of new jobs