Debuts Network (pl. Sieć Debiutów)
The project was aimed at youth leaving foster care. Its goal was to support 30 people, mostly from Warsaw, in the process of becoming independent by building long-term relationships, support networks, and initiating action based on self-advocacy.
The youth created an Instagram profile, connecting those leaving foster care and serving as a source of information. They also engaged in three events that allowed for inclusion of topics of particu;ar importance to them: an interactive performance by Forum Theatre and Playback Theatre, as well as a youth debate involving at least 60 participants. The process of initiating self-advocacy activities was supported by developmental and creative workshops. We also provided continuous, individual psychological and coaching support for each participant, as well as monthly support group meetings.
In the project, each participant spoke on behalf of children and youth from children’s homes (a type of foster care), discussing important and often difficult issues that affect their group. They demonstrated these difficulties, sought solutions, even beyond institutions, shared their successes, and good practices.
Each participant in the project was assigned an empowerment guardian, whose main goal was to support their mentee in achieving their goals by building a partnership based on trust and respect. This was facilitated by monthly individual psychological/coaching support provided to each participant from the beginning of the project. Each participant built their Individual Development Plan with the guardian, which included not just goals they wanted to achieve throughout the program, but also specific actions the individual wanted to pursue to reach these goals.
Guardians also supported participants in carrying out daily activities, including the simplest ones.
During the project 34 Individual Development Plans were created.
As part of the project, a support group for participants was launched, which was led by psychologists from our organization. It served both receiving support and networking and provided a safe space for participants to exchange experiences. In total, 30 hours of support group sessions were held for the youth.
In the project, monthly creative workshops were conducted for a group of participants, who created and managed an Instagram profile @bidulowe. These workshops served as a networking space for the foster care youth community and provided a space for sharing successes and useful information.
In total, 15 hours of workshops were held, along with 8 hours of consultations with a social media expert who shared knowledge on how to effectively reach the target audience and create posts that engage a wider audience.
Click here to see the profile: https://www.instagram.com/bidulowe/
Forum Theatre is an interactive form of theater where the audience has the opportunity to change the course of the story. Spectators not only reflect on what happens in the play but also have the chance to take on the role of a character and alter the events, thus shaping the storyline.
Our staff trained in this method and prepared a play based on the real stories of our beneficiaries, focusing on the challenges of foster care. The youth performed the play. In their own voices, they shared their challenges and participated in trying to solve the depicted problems.
As part of preparation for the play, workshops (34 hours of training) were conducted by our staff, aimed at developing public speaking skills, coping with stress, voice projection, and engaging in dialogue with the audience. The play was performed at the Ochota Theatre on November 30, 2022, and attracted an audience of 40 people.
The idea behind Playback Theatre is to create a performance based on stories told by the audience. The youth had the opportunity to come up with the main theme of the entire performance and bring it to life on stage, by performing and engaging the audience. The method of Playback Theatre is a new addition to Atalaya’s activities, and so workshops (March 18-20, 2022) were conducted with experts in this relatively unknown method in Poland (and completely new to our group), as well as workshops focused on developing storytelling skills, improvisation, and collaboration (9 hours), led by our staff.
The play was performed on June 11, 2022, at the Ochota Cultural Center and attracted an audience of 36 people.
W ramach przygotowania do debaty odbyły się warsztaty (20h) nakierowane na rozwój umiejętności wystąpień publicznych, sztuki argumentacji, wyrażania opinii, budowania pewności siebie, prowadzone przez naszą kadrę oraz p. Gracie Wiczanowską (5,5h). Był to też czas na sformułowanie przez uczestników i uczestniczki ważnego dla nich tematu, który chcieli przedstawić szerszej publiczności (21 osób).
As Atalaya’s staff, we feel the need for constant growth and development of our professional competencies. Thanks to the trainings we have undergone, it will now be possible to provide new, necessary services for our youth. We completed the following specialized training:
– Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) (Level I);
– Psychodramatic Seminar – Monodrama;
– Psychodramatic Seminar – Working with Masks in Psychodrama;
– Sandbox Coaching Certification Course;
– Sexual Attitude Reassessment and Restructuring Training;
– Nonviolent Communication Training;
– Diagnosis (team mental resilienc assessment) MTQ48 and a workshop for the team;
– Training on mental health disorders.
- We met monthy for a group supervision with an expert, where we could monitor our work and discuss our difficulties. Thanks to this we were able to be much more helpful to our youth.
- We implemented a CRM system, which helped manage remote communication and collected participant data in one place.
- We purchased specialized literature to deepen our knowledge. During workshop meetings with our youth, we use a new coffee machine together.
The project was financed through a grant from the Active Citizens program – National Fund, financed by Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway through the EEA Grants.
