Women account for 100% of the staff of every other cultural institution in Poland. At the same time it is very rare for them to reach high, managerial positions. We want to strengthen and equip with skills to manage culture ten young women, who have already achieved some success in the field.

Who?

The project was designed for young women who are active in the field of culture – directors of local associations and cultural centres, librarians, and leaders of socio-cultural projects – who are seeking new ways to evolve professionally. It is directed at passionate women who run their own projects with other people in mind, and at the same time work on developing their managerial skills.

We will invite 10 women who:

• run or work for a non-governmental organization, small company and/or public institution as a manager of culture;
• have had some success within the field;
• have experience in working for local communities;
• are strongly motivated to develop their leadership skills;
• engage in social and cultural activities;
• work in smaller communities: small towns and villages.

How?

Stage 1: Workshops in Warsaw
The program will include group activities (networking, and professional workshops such as team management, time management, work-life balance, public speaking and others) and individual activities – few days of working with one of the program’s mentors, an experienced manager of culture. Job-shadowing will allow the participants to accompany mentors in daily work, observe their methods, learn how cultural institutions operate from the inside, and most of all – draw inspiration from individual consultations and conversations.
We plan to organize these workshops in mid-May 2013.

Stage 2: Pass it on!
The participants will pass their newly acquired skills, observations and inspirations on to the team at their local institutions/organisations and to groups of young women working in their community. Once they return from the workshops, each participant will have few tasks to fulfil:

• creating a development plan for their institution in an area of choice;
• organising a meeting for their team to share concrete knowledge acquired during the workshops and/or make a presentation about the institution in which they were job-shadowing in a form of case study in planning development for local institution/organisation;
• organising an inspiring workshop for a group of young women (15 to 25 year olds), who are active in the local community (for example leaders of school councils, librarians, young teachers, councilwomen, mayors) and/or high-school/secondary school pupils, who are about to chose their professional route.

Why?

We designed a project to support women who expand local activities, because…
…having been developing our own project and carefully observing reality for 10 years we realized that it is women who most often and most successfully engage in local initiatives, become leaders of socio-cultural projects, take initiative in local cultural centres, libraries, village centres and the non-governmental sector.
…we believe in mentoring – the power of meeting in order to exchange knowledge and experience, – we want to strengthen young women professionally and personally by giving them a chance to start special relationships with experienced managers of culture.
…we want to promote women who bet on development, innovation and courage to undertake action in their work for local communities, so that their stories strengthen and inspire more people.
…thanks to our cooperation with many local cultural institutions we know that in small communities culture needs support and at the same time has power and potential to evolve.
…women account for 85% of our team.

The Association of Creative Initiatives „ę”

Creating the world, in which people with passion act for themselves and others.
We have been running socio-cultural projects all over Poland since 2002. We support initiatives of the young („Young Managers of Culture”) and seniors („Seniors in action”). We help young artists („Film preschool”, „Videonotations”, „Photopresentations”, „Snapshots”, „Poland.doc”). We encourage cultural institutions to implement changes („ZOOM on the cuntural centers”).
We produce social and artistic projects, train, give grants, publish books. We create and promote new models for action in the realm of culture. We envigorate the socio-cultural space of Warsaw; realize projects, which are built upon our passion and obserations of the world around us. We remain loyal to important values: autheticity, high quality and getting satisfaction out of what we do.

See our website: www.e.org.pl

Contact

Agnieszka Pajączkowska – coordinator
aga.pajaczkowska@e.org.pl / + 48 506 09 09 15

Julia Łuczywo – media
julia.luczywo@e.org.pl / + 48608 694 477

The project “Young managers of culture” is realised by The Association of Creative Initiatives „ę”, thanks to the financial support of Embassy of the United States in Warsaw.