Details
Article
Participants and panelists included people from all over Poland representing the social sector, business, universities and local governments.
Together, we discussed how to establish effective and wise alliances for diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI), and what lessons we learn from examples of so-called failed efforts. In addition, the KICKSTARTER participants had/had the opportunity to present to a wider audience the realised activities and implemented changes in their organisations that occurred as a result of their participation in our project.
Conference highlights:
Dr. Małgorzata Durska, Director General of the Polish Business Roundtable, in her keynote entitled. ‘How to talk to each other to get along? Business and the third sector for social change’ discussed a handful of good practices from other sectors in engaging with business. She noted that the key to effective collaboration is a partnership approach, rather than a transactional one, by all parties involved in an initiative.
Panel discussion: ‘Towards inclusivity. Good practices from different sectors’ included a discussion with Nina Gabryś-Janowska, (Plenipotentiary of the Mayor of the City of Kraków for Equal Opportunities. Nina Gabryś-Janowska plenipotentiary of the Mayor of the City of Krakow for Equality Policy 2021-2024) and HIA Poland Senior Fellow, Dora Molodyńska Kuntzel of Punt Kick | Shaping DEI Competence, president of the Diversja Association, coordinator of the Living Library/Living Library Poland network 2014-2023, Joanna Pająk specialist at the Diversity Hub, Mateusz Płoskonka, deputy director of the Social Policy Department of the City Hall of Krakow, Dr Roksana Ulatowska assistant professor at the Institute of Public Affairs of the Jagiellonian University.
The discussion was moderated by Monika Mazur-Rafał, President of HIA Poland, and Dr Magda Szarota. The topic was specific strategies for building partnerships and alliances for DEI and pioneering initiatives in this field in the public, social, academic and local government sectors.
All participants/panelists unanimously stressed that the key is to keep in mind the specifics of the sector’s action, but also that ultimately it is people who initiate social change.
At the World Café, the participants/panelists discussed various aspects of inclusion in a participatory way, such as inclusive language, intergenerational dialogue, inclusion of people with disabilities and neurodiversity, cooperation with business, fundraising and support for migrants/migrant women and refugees/refugees. World Café experts/experts included Dr Katarzyna Kubin, President of the Foundation for Social Diversity and HIA Poland Senior Fellows: Dr Kacper Dziekan and Andrzej Mikołajewski.
The conference was summed up by Professor Beata Kowalska from Jagiellonian University, Advocate for Academic Rights and Values at the Jagiellonian University and member of the Council of the Humanity in Action Poland Foundation, discussing how social change theory can be translated into practice in a way that promotes inclusivity on terms that are accepted by different minority groups.
How did we connect the dots live? Check out a short video from the Conference. https://youtu.be/rSO62D9G0AE
Photos: Piotr Banasik
The conference “Connecting the dots! Inclusion and Diversity between Sectors” was organised in cooperation with Open Krakow, ngo.pl, the City of Krakow and the Socio-Economic Innovation Cluster.
The conference is part of the Kickstarter project, funded by the Remembrance, Responsibility, Future (EVZ) Foundation. The media patronage of the project is held by the NGO.pl portal.