Stowarzyszenie Siemacha
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Mission Statement
Our mission is to create open, resource-rich and learning communities based on free choice, honest dialogue and respect for principles. Our activities merge what is critical in the development of every person: education, sports and therapy. Education, when combined with sports and therapy, grows potential and efficiency. In the context of upbringing and therapy, sports acquires an educational function. Therapy, on the other hand, when conducted concurrently with engagement in education and sports, becomes more accessible and freed from stigmatizing stereotypes.
About This Cause
Stowarzyszenie SIEMACHA, our association, is one of Poland’s largest providers of specialised assistance for children in challenging life situations. The scope of SIEMACHA activity includes 24/7 care, after-school programmes provided through modern day support centres, psychotherapeutic assistance, and sports activities conducted in multifunctional facilities (incl. swimming pools, sports halls, pitches, and horse riding arenas). The high efficiency of the tasks SIEMACHA performs has been developed and honed through our long-standing experience, thanks to the professional team, innovative approaches, and stable partnerships. Both SIEMACHA and our staff have received honours from major national and international bodies for our dedication to the common good. SIEMACHA fulfils its statutory goals by running 40 centres for children, parents, and seniors in cooperation with major Polish local governments. The organization's history dates back to 1882, when Kazimierz Siemaszko, a Catholic priest from Lithuania, began working to assist homeless children in Kraków. His work was organized and continuous, based on the principle of ideological neutrality as it provided access to help to all children, regardless of their ethnic or religious background. After the First World War in 1918, the organization experienced significant growth and operated a training facility in Kraków, which gained a reputation as one of the most modern establishments in the newly reborn Poland. This facility (care centre) educated highly sought-after craftsmen who found employment in both Polish and foreign companies. However, with the advent of communism in Poland after the Second World War II (1945), all the organization's care centres were closed by the pro-Soviet communist authorities, and their assets were confiscated. After the fall of communism in Poland, the last director of the training centres received the title Righteous Among the Nations title for providing heroic assistance to Polish Jews during the Nazi occupation. A rebirth came in 1993, when the organization established its first centre for children in one of the properties returned by the Polish state, located at ul. Długa 42 in Kraków. The nature of this centre was largely influenced by the experience of Covenant House, an American organization based in New York, which the centre’s management visited as interns. In the following 30 years, the SIEMACHA Association experienced significant growth, expanding both its geographic reach and the beneficiary groups it has served. This expansion was accompanied by the realisation that the changing reality needs modern tools that are appropriate to it. Through a partnership with the Ashoka Foundation, the organization introduced the concept of social entrepreneurship and opened several youth centres in newly established shopping malls. This provided the institutional foundation for the growing range of activities. SIEMACHA’s mission statement reads: “We create open, resourceful, and learning communities based on free choice, honest dialogue, and respect for principles”. The fundamental values SIEMACHA selected are: quality, durability, transparency, systemic approach, and leadership. Based on these principles, the organization primarily achieves objectives aimed at reducing poverty, social threats, and cultural deficits among its beneficiaries, followed by the development of their social competencies and psychological resources, together with their interests and aspirations, and care for their own health and physical condition. Central to the organization's work is the establishment and reinforcement of youth leaders who, as role models, exert an influence more powerful than adults, shaping the attitudes and behaviours of young people in their formative years. Consequently, the SIEMACHA Association is particularly keen on developing numerous peer groups that significantly impact the attractiveness and effectiveness of the environment in which the young grow up. As part of broader social framework, SIEMACHA considers itself an incubator for innovative solutions in the field of education and upbringing, developing best practices that it seeks to promote. A long-standing practice of the organization is to encourage new ways of addressing social issues in cooperation with the academia and communication experts. SIEMACHA’s particular focus is provision of assistance to children forced to emigrate from their home country. The majority of those are citizens of Ukraine. Currently, they constitute about 20% of all beneficiaries of centres operated by SIEMACHA. The activities conducted for this group evolve from meeting life’s basic needs in the initial period, i.e., after their arrival in Poland, to addressing social, educational, healthcare, social, and cultural integration, as well as ensuring the preservation of identity and emotional and cultural ties to their homeland.