On 16th of December 2011 a conference took place in Czestochowa city regarding “streetworking”.

The aim of “streetworking – a new quality of work with homelessness” is to fill a gap in the fight against homelessness, left by already established organizations and centers of care. The need for new action is huge: in the Silesian region is more than 5.6 thousand homeless, and in the Czestochowa city near 800th.
The goal of this project is to reduce the Czestochowa region of social exclusion. The project will do this by including an innovatory form of the homeless street work, developed in the UK, by foreign partner Barka UK in London. The project leads Stationary Social Reintegration Center, where homeless people will go through social and professional reintegration.
The project has educated staff of street workers who will patrol railway stations, streets, allotments, parks and other places where homeless people stay. From the moment of meeting homeless people, the reintegration process is about to begin.
The homeless will be included in an individualized and comprehensive support psychotherapeutic, legal, health and related forms of professional activation. The project wants to work with them and want to be able to rebuild broken family ties.
The program of the Conference:

On 6^th of December 2011 Migrants’ Rights Network and Anti Slaver International organised conference “Working for the Olympics! – Opportunities or risks for migrants?

This meeting was attended by 13 participants including case workers and volunteers from migrant community organisations, advice agencies and homelessness charities and a couple of interested individuals (e.g.: Providence Row, BARKA UK, BRCC, MRC,HIBISCUS,FPWP, PRAXIS).

Conference was opened by Klara Skrivankowa from Anti-Slavery. She emphasizes main issues of this meeting and expressed different types of exploitation: forced prostitution, labour exploitation/forced labour which happens in domestic servitude or temporary labour sectors and exploitation associated to criminal activity. She asked all participants about open conversations, which help to find community solutions and help for migrants.  During open discussion participants pointed out a few important issues which should be solved:

- people from Bulgarian and Romanian works for less than minimum wage because many people don’t understand employment and migration rules for those nationalities;

- work with vulnerable person is difficult. Each worker wants understand a problem of any person but they differ mentally;

- providing information on rights to workers is challenging because they are often in a marginal situation or hard to reach them;

- local police officers are often not very clear on their duties and procedures regarding trafficked people.

This meeting helped participants to exchange their experience, gain new contacts for existing help to work with vulnerable people and understand how Barka UK charity work is very helpful for another people.

Please find the Agenda of meeting: Agenda

On the 28th of November 2011 Social Economy Centre representative of Barka UK was invited to one day event organised by FaithAction and their partners. It was dedicated to social enterprise development within Big Society so it was supported by speakers from The Innovation Consortium, The Social Investment Business and academic support from Greenwich University. Main goal of those presentations was to raise awareness between organisation, general business entities and society about growing fast social economy sector and its huge influence. Second part of this event contributed to more detailed information sharing during tailored workshops about social enterprises set up, development and sustainable funding. Participants were told about practical basic approaches which you need to start a social enterprise concentrating particularly on the legal aspects including types of legal structures available. Overall this event draw a general picture where and how to start with social enterprise set up. Please find other discussed matters during all workshops on attached agenda. FaithAction note.FaitAction_agenda

Representation of Barka UK was invited to take part in Trade Fair programme 2011 in Bolton on 18^th of October. It was organised by well know organisation of entities called Social Enterprise North West represented by Val Jones who opened this event. All representatives had an opportunity to talk to exhibitors of social enterprises ventures and attend selected workshops related to this part of UK economy. During those meetings current issues were raised and discussed. Speakers including representatives of Social Enterprise UK, City Central Bid and social entrepreneurs linked to SENW pointed out patterns of social enterprise sector developments as well as they showed their approach and solutions for the near future.

During this visit Barka UK strengthened contact with Chara Trust and Godwin Bateren so we had been recommended and introduced to their partners who also took part as exhibitors in this event. We exchange experience with members of Chara Trust and we got acquainted with their project e.g “Steps to Success” which is similar in its ideas to Social Economy Centre run by Barka UK in London. “Steps to Success” is a project, partially funded by the European Union, which began in September 2009. Its aim is to guide and support people in the North West of England who are unemployed or whose jobs are under threat. Establishment of the project say about help offered to those unemployed to improve their chances of finding employment, particularly in the ever growing Social Enterprise Sector.

During networking sessions we had a chance to talk about current outlook for UK and EU economy and social enterprise developments impact on it within next few years. Implementation of good practices in society was a key issue to work on especially when Europe face high number of unemployed people.

Please find other discussed matters during all workshops on attached agenda in attachment. SENW Fair Trade program – In Business for Good. SENW Fair Trade programme 18.10.2011

Ewa Sadowska of Barka UK will take part in the Young Global Leaders Yale Education Module (23-25 October)

The  two-day module will comprise sessions featuring various Yale faculty, administrators  and YGLs. The courses will include discussions on culture, economics,  globalization, climate change, social entrepreneurship, human rights and Asia.  As well, there will be an opportunity to interact with a group of Yale World Fellows, who have strong historical ties to the YGLs.

Attached find the programme of the event : YGL Yale Education Module 2011 – Program

Ewa Sadowska of Barka spoke yesterday at the the  1st European Social Franchising Conference in London. The conference was attended by over 120 participants from across Europe and it discussed and showcased the most innovative examples of social franchising in Europe. Find attached the final programme and list of participants for the conference.

On 28-29 of September Ewa Sadowska from Barka UK took part in the conference “Social means economical – strengthening social economy sector in the Lodz Region in Poland by creating a regional social economy incubator to provide a complex support to social economy initiatives”.

The conference gathered members of social cooperatives and those who are about to start social businesses in the Lodz region as well as local and regional authorities. Among key speakers were representatives of social enterprises from Spain, Germany, Italy and the UK. Ewa Sadowska spoke on social enterprise movement in the UK as well as the projects of Barka in London to support economic migrants as an example of a social enterprise.

Prezentacja Ewa Sadowska Łódź

Program festiwalu

Ewa Sadowska of Barka UK took part in the Young Global Leaders’ Annual Summit in Dalian, North-East China. The summit on “Mastering Quality Growth” gathered 320 young global leaders from all continents. The YGL gathering was combined with Annual Meeting of the New Champions which attracted nearly 1,500 leaders of business, government, civil society and academia. Further developed were YGL initiatives and task forces such as Global Dignity, Wake Up Europe, Public Leadership, Water Initiative to name a few while the Chinese YGLs shared their perspective on growth of China’s economy and the new developments in civil society. Several workshops focused on how to enhance a personal growth of YGLs and how to “protect the asset”. Barka’s contribution in the meeting was launching a new taskforce on social enterprise creation in Africa (Europe-Africa Network for Social Enterprise) and inviting the Africa-based YGLs to join the initiative.
The YGL’s conversation on values was joined by Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who spoke about the role of Young Global Leaders in transforming the post-war instituions which no longer can responsibly answer the needs of our time such as poverty and hunger or environmental challenges. Mr Brown encouraged YGLs to continue taking the path less travelled by. John Bryant, YGL, a founder of the Operation HOPE, reflecting upon the meeting, said: “we cannot call ourselves leaders unless we are prepared to serve”.

Attached is the grid with YGL initiatives and gatherings around new ideas which were discussed in Dalian: Grid final

To learn more on the Annual Meeting of New Champions - visit: http://www.weforum.org/events/annual-meeting-new-champions-2011

Barka UK staff took part in the Extraordinary Business Seminar organised by the Voice of Nations (VON) in Liverpool (27/08/2011). After an inspiring introduction by the founder and CEO of VON dr Sylvia Forchap on empowering young girls and women for a purpose, Barka representatives spoke on the topic of “The Power of a Purpose Driven Business” with an example of the Barka Network’s projects in Poland and in Europe. The seminar was designed and delivered with a purpose of transforming ordinary women into extraordinary, successful and fulfilled business women. The seminar was addressed mainly to African American community in Merseyside.

See the programme : Business Workshop 27-08-11

Barka UK staff will take part in the conference on democratic changes in Tunesia versus Polish experiences. The participation in the event is connected to the recent joint work opportunities and contacts which Barka had made in North Africa.

Please read the  conference program

An invitation to a seminar and program

Zaproszenie na konferencje i program

Konferencja.Tunezja a doświadczenia polskie_27-07-11

See the link for report from the conference with pictures from Barka’s study trip in Tunisia: click here