"From the case history to the life story"

The “Open the doors” Association  realized a project “ From case history to the life story” which was a reply to a competition announced by  the Governor of Little Poland  within the sphere of welfare for the year 2008. The project was realized  from 21 August to 25 November 2008. Within the frameworks of this project three tasks were accomplished. The first of them was to organize two- day   conference-integrative trip  for members and sympathizers of the Association: the second was  to organize five training meetings  and the third was to evaluate the test results.

The trip took place in Szczawnica  between 18-19 September  2008 ; there were 12 members of the Association and two its sympathizers.  During the meeting relevant issues concerning questions important to the mentally ill , among other things, contemporary social and vocational  strategies of mentally ill people, the role and importance of  the mentally ill participation in social education , the analysis of trainings  evaluation results with the contribution of  the  final beneficiaries , strategy of conducting effective education aimed to employers , importance of social economics in social and vocational rehabilitation of the persons socially excluded and also the training of interpersonal skills were discussed.

The second task had to be realized in following days;
24.09.2008. ( Jacek Nowak, Anna Liberadzka)
20.10.2008. ( Agnieszka Mielnik, Konrad Wroński, Andrzej Bienias)
21.10.2008. 11:30. ( Jolanta Janik, Dorota Wypich)
21.10.2008. 14:00. ( Dorota Trybis, Teresa Frączek)
05.11.2008. ( Jolanta Janik, Jacek Nowak)

The names of persons leading educational meetings were given in parentheses . In these meetings took part as follows: 23 persons, 11 persons, 19 persons, 25 persons and 14 persons. After each of the meetings , its participants filled an evaluative  questionnaire  which determined  the beginning of the third task –  evaluation of the results.

Translated by Katarzyna Milcewicz

"Through education to acceptance"

We would like to inform You that the  „Open the doors” Association cooperates with  the Brokerage House “Penetrator” and with the Association for the Development of Psychiatry and Community Care and also with the Scientific  Section of Community Psychiatry and Rehabilitation  Branch of Polish Psychiatric  Society for Little Poland participated in the grant competition of the
Foundation – Cooperation Fund entitled: “ Spreading  of the social economics in Poland on the basis of  experiences of PIW  EQUAL”.  The motion of the Association was  positively and highly rated and qualified to realization. In the period from 8 April to 31 May 2008 within the framework of the project , trainings on social economics were conducted. The members of the “Open the doors” Association – people after mental crises – were the educators and  coordinators of the project. Moreover , two volunteers from the  Association for the Development  of Psychiatry and Community Care and a moderator of the content- related issues from the Scientific Section of Community Psychiatry and Rehabilitation Branch of Polish Psychiatric Society participated in this activity.
Educators told what is the social economics for them, about their job experience in social firms and about the value of work.
The grant was entitled “Through education to acceptance”  and was aimed to the students of Cracow Universities from social faculties. Project included following goals: spreading the idea of social enterprise, breaking stereotypes on mentally ill people working abilities, counteracting the discrimination of people who suffered mental crises, in labor market.  All things considered, 164 persons were trained and conducted evaluation proved positive results. As much as 89% of the surveyed students were satisfied with the conducted training  and admit that it met  their expectations . Interest was the dominant attitude towards training. 96% of the surveyed considered that the knowledge taken from trainings are very or fairly helpful  while 72% of the questioned confirmed that training let them understand better the problematic of social economics.
91% of the students think that training enabled them better understanding of mentally ill person.
At the same time they emphasized sincerity, authenticity and directness of the people leading the trainings  utterances. Majority of them appreciated  the value of direct contact with people after mental crises and recognized it as the most essential experience received from the meeting.

Translated by Katarzyna Milcewicz