Support for migrants in Poland

Who we are

The Spoko Polish foundation is a team of 10 passionate activists striving to make learning Polish as an additional language more achievable and accessible for people with migration experiences residing in Poland. Since 2016, we have been developing our own, innovative teaching methods based on state-of-the-art knowledge in linguistics, neuroscience and psychology of language acquisition. We organise various integrational, language and cultural events and run free-of-charge courses for refugees living in Poland. Our curricula are designed in a way that makes learning Polish easier for people from diverse language backgrounds or those who feel they have no ‘talent’ for learning languages. Backed by an inclusive atmosphere and anti-discriminatory content (our materials are based on feminist, anti-racist and queer ideas) providing safe space for people from groups vulnerable to exclusion, it allows us to co-create a modern, better integrated, multicultural society in Poland.

Commercial classes of Polish as an additional language have so far been our main source of income. Currently, due to a significant decline in the number of potential students since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia against Ukraine and the subsequent inflation, our capacity to realise social projects has also dropped to a large extent. Due to these reasons, we need your support.

What will your funds go to?

1. Ensuring the financial stability and capacity building of our organisation

The main goal of the fundraiser is to enable the continuation and development of support for people with migration experience, which can only be continued if we ensure financial stability and capacity building of our organisation.

We believe that in the current situation, where there are millions of refugees from Ukraine in Poland, the government does not provide integration programs for people from all over the world receiving temporary residence rights, and many travelling people still cross the green border, our work is more important than ever before. Increasing financial liquidity will allow us to implement our ideas and projects, which will significantly increase the sense of adaptation and integration and the general well-being of people coming to Poland.

2. Open Language meetings in Cracow, Wroclaw and Torun

Since 2016, we have organised almost 100 inclusive open language meetings for people with migration background to practise Polish and support their integration in the local community in 3 Polish cities: Wrocław, Kraków and Toruń. In 2022, we received a grant from the Alight Foundation and resumed meetings after the pandemic break. At the moment, we have finished the project, but we still run meetings on a voluntary basis.

We want to continue our activities because there are very few opportunities to practise Polish in a safe space as a learner and we see how important meetings are for their participants.

Participants come from all over the world, including from Belarus, the United States, China, Argentina, Italy, Indonesia, Guatemala and others. Nevertheless, most of the participants were women from Ukraine who moved to Poland after the start of the full-scale Russian aggression in Ukraine. Meetings are held every 2 or 3 weeks and last 2 hours or more. They are free-of-charge, inclusive and open to everyone able to co-create the safe space we strive to create. The aim of the meetings is to help migrants practice their Polish language skills by giving them confidence in using the Polish language and supporting their integration with the local community, as well as creating a support network.

3. Courses for LGBT+ people from Ukraine

From May 2022 until July 2023, in cooperation with the Kultura Równości Association, we have run free Polish language courses for LGBTQ+ refugees from Ukraine. Unfortunately, the third and final grant to run these courses has ended. Participants are very keen to continue their education, because it allows them not only to integrate better and be more competitive on the labor market, but also to continue their volunteer work, creating cultural projects for children, etc. We constantly receive applications from new people who would like to start such courses, but we don't have funding for it.

4. Creating modern teaching materials

For 7 years, we have been creating modern teaching materials based on the latest knowledge in such fields as learning psychology, neurolinguistics, etc. We have developed curricula for levels A1-A2 based on a direct interpretation of the definitions of CEFR language levels. They are based on an innovative approach, ensuring effective learning of our complex language in a practical approach and teach practical language, ensuring the ability to use acquired skills in everyday life. They are created taking into account feminist, anti-racist and queer ideas.

We want to create new materials, publish them and make them available to people with migration experience living in Poland. We are also planning other activities, such as social campaigns encouraging foreigners to learn Polish and dispelling false stereotypes about how difficult it is to learn Polish.

https://spokopolish.pl/ 
https://www.facebook.com/SpokoPolish 
https://instagram.com/spokopolish
https://www.youtube.com/@spokopolish3756
https://pl.pinterest.com/SpokoPolish/