FERSO Foundation (Poland)
FERSO Foundation is a non-profit organization established in 2004. It is a Public Benefit Organization, a member of the National Federation of NGOs and the NGO Federation of Lodz.
The main aim of FERSO is to support sustainable development of civil society through education, art and multimedia technologies. The Foundation achieves its objectives byorganizing and financing lectures, workshops and trainings. The main aim of the organization has expanded and now it is focused on increasing civic participation, the promotion of democratic values and sustainable lifestyle.
FERSO is one of the leading organizations in the field of NON-FORMAL and INTERNATIONAL CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION in the lodzkie region. FERSO develops its own innovative educational programs for all age groups. We are working with the youth support their participation in Erasmus+, facilitating their non-formal learning process and development of self-conscious young citizens.
Our regular activities are:
- Supporting institution for NGO in Lodz – we have been running the „Lodz Citizens’ Center” since 2012, which conducts over 150 hours of training, workshops and individual support for NGO employees and volunteers from Łódź each year.
- European Solidarity Corps – We are one of the largest coordinating organizations in the province. We coordinate from 2006 (EVS) to today, each year 10 people in 8 hosting organizations
- Training projects under the Erasmus+ program – primarily in the areas of creativity, supporting learning processes in volunteer programs, and managing group processes. Trainings as individual mobility, as multi-action and strategic projects
- Study Tours to Poland for professionals (2014 – present) / Fundacja Liderzy Przemian; STPs help to learn about Poland and exchange experiences in the field of democratic and free market changes, building the rule of law, strengthening local communities and civic initiatives. Under STP, outstanding students from Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova are invited to Poland for several days of visits to Polish academic centers.
- Projects supporting youth participation in city life
- Projects supporting senior volunteering
- Cooperation with schools and kindergartens – implementation of workshops
We are an organization involved in creating urban policies – we have created and run KDO for housing policy, we have been a member of the Łódź Public Benefit Council for 8 years.
NaturKultur e.V. – Germany
NaturKultur e.V. is coordinator of KA2 project called Trainers library with more than 1500 pages of intellectual output that is addressing the competencies of trainers and youth workers in European level, and it is based on the trainers competence model.
In 2017 and 2018 we have been part of “Spark catcher”, a KA2 project that focused on developing innovative methods and tools for non formal education with young people with disabilities. In 2019 NaturKultur has been involved in a KA2 project called “A step between” that focuses on
mapping the youth workers and grass roots NGOs environments in terms of working conditions, legislation changes and other ecosystems. We have been selected and presented our innovation oninternational projects such as KA2Now in Berlin 2019, or European youth work academy in Slovenia 2019.
During these projects, our members have gained valuable expertise and experience in terms of innovation and exchange of know how.
NaturKultur has been EVS/ESC accredited organization since January 2017, and we hosted our first intern through the Erasmus+ programme in 2016.
We have been part of many EVS/ESC training courses such as SOHO, TOSCA and regularly encourage our members to participate in trainings.
We have a large network of experienced EVS/ESC partner organizations who are providing guidance and mentoring to us, because they have more than 10 years of experience and
more than 100 volunteers that they managed.
