Project to support the inclusion and continued education of children through the creation of an integration and educational club for Ukrainian young people – „A Step Towards Polish Education” has been running since 1 January 2024 as part of the priority „Supporting the inclusion and continued education of refugee children in Polish schools”. In
During the period from 1 January 2024 to 30 April 2024, support was provided for integration into the Polish system
education and measures to prevent 72 refugee children from dropping out of the Polish education system
residing in the city of Katowice and the surrounding area. The meetings take place once a week for 4
on Mondays from 3.00 pm to 7.00 pm at the Spilno Hub Centre in Katowice, on ul.
Morcinka 5.
The main objective is achieved through:
- Running an integration and educational club for young people from Ukraine and Poland, with a focus on
young people studying remotely within the Ukrainian education system, with a view to integrating them into the Polish education system; - Support for young people from Ukraine who are completing the stages of education specified in the Polish Education Act
education, by helping students to choose and acquire knowledge about the next stages of their education within the system
education in Poland; - Measures to prevent pupils from leaving the Polish education system due to difficulties they may encounter;
- Providing Polish language tuition for club members;
- Specialist support, where we have so far provided participants with the support of a psychologist, an educationalist, a coach and a careers adviser;
- Psychological support for parents of children, where our main aim is to educate parents on issues such as violence in schools, coping with children who have experienced violence, and supporting children as they settle into Polish schools.
As part of the project, a youth worker has been employed (who has the necessary knowledge and qualifications in
has a degree in education and speaks Ukrainian, Russian and Polish) and
the project coordinator, who is also responsible for documentation and reporting, and who is
responsible, amongst other things, for documentation, reporting and budget accounting.
Between 1 January 2024 and 15 May 2024, the following capacity-building activities took place
psychosocial and educational support for young people, including:
- sessions on conflict (including how to resolve conflicts and how to work together in a group, and an explanation of what conflicts are and why they arise),
- integration workshops (including workshops on decoupage, florarium and board games), and, where required, individual sessions with a psychologist,
- team-building workshops (including discussions on teamwork, conflicts and mutual understanding),
- psychological training in interpersonal communication and team-building,
- integration workshops involving Polish and Ukrainian young people,
- intercultural coaching training on stereotypes and communication,
- psychological training for parents on the topics of „Adapting to Polish schools” and „Violence in schools”,
- Polish language tuition,
- career guidance for young people.
At present, we wish to continue providing career guidance for young people; we are organising meetings with universities in Katowice to help young people explore their own educational pathways, and we are preparing for a meeting with the Katowice Youth City Council. Throughout the entire duration of
This project is funded through the POP Fund. Throughout the project, we are assessing the needs of the youth club participants in order to overcome the barriers to starting or continuing their education within the Polish education system.