Opis organizacji

Fundacja Centrum Aktywności Twórczej /CAT Foundation/ is a non-governmental organization, operating since 2008, promoting the demands of non-formal education, key competencies, attitudes of openness, tolerance and equality of life in a multicultural society.
The Foundation is active in the field of building local activity, strengthening social engagement, a sense of European citizenship and spreading European values - in particular the attitudes of tolerance, openness and respect for human rights.
The legal basis of the organization is the Act on public benefit and volunteer work, the headquarters of the organization is Leszno, Poland.
The Foundation pursues lifelong learning postulates, implementing social projects at both local, national and European levels.
Areas of the organization's activities revolve around three aspects:
I. STRENGTHENING LOCAL ACTIVITIES AND LOCAL SOCIAL CAPITAL
- increasing social involvement in local affairs and building a sense of community: the organization runs the Leszno Volunteer Center, which trains volunteers and networks them with organizations from the local NGO scene. In addition, the Foundation runs a Volunteer Club and the Action - Reaction Initiative Group, which organizes events highlighting socially important issues from the perspective of the region.
- strengthening local social capital: the organization runs summer and winter camps "The Train to Coolture", whose staff consists mainly of Polish and foreign volunteers, a camps train the key competencies of children and youth, in particular language and communication competencies.
- the organization builds an active network of local and social animators, leading courses and trainings in this direction
- The Foundation provides administrative and substantive support for the local third sector, cooperates with the Leszno City Office to create a coherent offer to support the residents
- The Foundation runs an after-school day-room in its premises, also implements a series of activities and workshops (both animation, language and manual) for children and young people with fewer opportunities

II. NONFORMAL EDUCATION, SUPPLEMENTATION OF FORMAL EDUCATION, DEVELOPMENT OF NONFORMAL EDUCATION METHODOLOGY
- The organization creates new methods and tools in the field of non-formal education. New tools are then actively involved in its functioning and in the functioning of other organizations at European level. In particular, in the area of interest are methods and tools supporting entrepreneurship and language competencies - this is related to activities to support NEET youth, early school leaving, and with fewer opportunities, experiencing multiple exclusion
- The Foundation conducts international workshops with foreign volunteers in local schools and integration workshops for students, training soft and language competencies
- The Foundation runs language cafes for the local community (with the participation of foreign volunteers), thus supporting the active use of language, overcoming resistance to using a foreign language and raising the level of understanding for cultural differences
- The Foundation organizes foreign internships for youth from secondary schools along with their preparation and support under the Erasmus + Program
III. PROMOTION AND SPREADING EUROPEAN VALUES
- increasing the level of information on European values, the functioning of the European community and benefits resulting from EU membership. Since 2009, the Foundation has been a regional Eurodesk information point, and since 2018 it has also been the Erasmus + Regional Information Center
- The Foundation is an active sending and hosting organization as part of the European Voluntary Service, annually hosts around 50 volunteers from around the world, actively involving them in its work for the local community, it has experience managing the role of an organization coordinating volunteering projects, VET projects and a series of training courses
- The Foundation conducts classes in Global Education in the schools of the region, promoting non-formal education, social inclusion, European values and mobility, it is the organizer for the Days of Europe, International Youth Days and Eurocamps. The organization actively and successfully involves local authorities in its activities
The CAT Foundation is a part of the L.E.M.O.N network and the Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for Dialogue of Cultures A. Lindh, also works with the Youth For Exchange and Understanding network.
The staff of the organization is very experienced in the implementation of projects of international character, at the same time, it has high abilities to establish long-lasting partnerships and generate long-term impact, both on cooperating organizations and participants of the projects. The staff has high competencies in problem solving, developing participants' potential, communication and cross-sector cooperation