UNICEF Poland and the Santander Bank Polska Foundation support students’ engagement, social awareness and cooperation skills
Young people have enormous potential, power of action and plenty of excellent ideas, but they do not always have the opportunity to put them into practice. The TO(działa)MY! educational and social project, organised by UNICEF Poland and the Santander Bank Poland Foundation, aims to meet such needs. In its third edition, schools can obtain funding for a project prepared in cooperation with students.
Young people are known for their enthusiasm, willingness to change the world and lack of fear of the unknown. As a result, they are open to all novelties and ready to take on the challenges of reality. They learn by engaging in social activities, they initiate many activities themselves, and they invite peers and adults to participate. Enabling them to make brave decisions is the best way to shape the competences so necessary in the modern world. UNICEF, together with the Santander Bank Poland Foundation, is once again supporting young people as part of the TO(działa)MY! project and give them a chance to act.
The aim of the campaign is to shape an attitude of social engagement among children and young people, as well as to draw the attention of the young generation to the needs of their immediate environment. This builds young people’s awareness in areas related to ecology, environment, education, culture and entertainment. Finally, the campaign aims to support schools with donations for the implementation of a chosen project, in the amount of PLN 2, 5, 10 or 15 thousand, depending on the idea, the scope of activities and the planned budget.
Participating in the project gives students a sense of real empowerment and impact on their immediate surroundings and community. The project approach also means that they gain knowledge and practical skills which will certainly be useful to them in their adult life. I believe that inspired by such a project they will be even more eager to engage in activities for the benefit of the local community.
The thematic range of the project is quite broad, from culture to education and ecology to entertainment. So I am pretty sure that each school project team will find a topic that is particularly close to them and that will have an impact either on the school community or more broadly on the local community. I am keeping my fingers crossed for the young people and their creative ideas. In this year's edition, we have allocated PLN 50,000 for projects submitted by educational institutions to the TO(działa)MY! grant competition
This year’s third edition of the unique educational and social project TO(działa)MY! will follow a modified and simplified formula. Participation requires schools to prepare, together with their students, a project description according to the guidelines included in the regulations, taking into account all the assumptions and evaluation criteria. It is this stage of joint work that the young people will carry out in groups, under the guidance and support of tutors, that is the great value of the entire project. By coming up with a project they would like to implement, diagnosing the needs in their immediate environment and planning activities to engage different audiences in their community, young people can experience first-hand the importance of social change that has the potential to happen with their participation. In addition, they will acquire competences and skills that they will certainly use in their lives on many occasions.
A detailed description of the project and the competition rules can be found on the project website, and the application process itself will take place on the Santander Bank Polska Foundation’s website.
The competition is scheduled to be resolved in February next year.
