It's a great pleasure to present You this short publication promoting projects, carried out by our collaborators and friends, which we had a chance to support as a part of activities undertaken by the team of Continent Warsaw – Warsaw of Many Cultures portal within the framework of Pilot Project of Warsaw Multicultural Canter implemented by The Other Space Foundation in the year 2010. It was already a long time ago, when we had a chance to collaborate with many representatives of cultural minorities in Warsaw, that we noticed what a great number of their ideas and initiatives are left unrealised forever and what a big potential for Warsaw cultural life is left unrecognised. Projects focused on multiculturalism are financed only occasionally and mainly with the sources from public contests for NGO sector, most of which have hardly anything to do with cultural diversity. Another common obstacle for foreigners is the necessity of acting as a legal person, i.e. a non-governmental organisation registered in Poland, to have a possibility to apply for a public grant. Without the knowledge of the possible sources of public funds and the procedures, it is extremely difficult to boost the quality and professionalism of the projects focused on promoting culture. We hope that the series of our workshops was one of the answers for the problems. Sometimes, it is only a minimum of support what clarifies the initial concept.

It was in October 2010 when we invited foreigners for a four-day training focused on raising funds for cultural projects. It was a wide scope – from the needs analysis of immigrant communities and also working on the specific projects to learning how to manage and evaluate NGO projects. Besides, we presented the map of sources of funds for culture in Poland as well as we helped to develop theoretical and practical skills of writing application forms (what also included creating a budget and schedule) and how to prepare reports. Furthermore, a whole day was dedicated to the basics of journalism and PR.

For participants not to let their knowledge go with the wind, and also to turn to practice right after the trainings, during the workshop sessions five projects were chosen to be implemented by participants and the funds for carrying them out were provided. They are the projects we want to present to You in this publication and we want to give our infinite thanks to people who contributed to their implementation. We also hope to have another chance for a fruitful collaboration in the future.

Projects:
Marinera Party
Dzień Somalii
Fajna Jukrajna
Świat bajki
Zaproszenie do Warszawy

Anna Tomaszewska and Zuzanna Dłużniewska
Continent Warsaw – Warsaw of Many Cultures



Besides, we would like to give special thanks to the following people thanks to whom the project had a chance to be implemented:

Izabella Wojtaszek, Witek Hebanowski, Emilia Skiba, Ganna Szałecka – our trainers
Beata Baduchowska – interpreter
Collegium Civitas and Warszawskie Centrum Innowacji Edukacyjno-Społecznych i Szkoleń
Krzysztof Wittels, Piotr Cykowski – the team of Pilot Project of Warsaw Multicultural Centre
The team of Continent Warsaw – Warsaw of Many Cultures portal



The activity by Continent Warsaw implemented within the framework of 'The Pilot Project of Warsaw Multicultural Centre' managed by The Other Space Foundation. The project is co-financed by European Fund for Integration of Third Country Nationals (EFI) and the state budget.