OUR MISSION IS SIMPLE
EDUCATING
CITIZENS FOR
THE 21ST CENTURY
The mission of the Stan Foundation is to promote civic knowledge, engagement in public life and the pursuit of the common good. Badamy kluczowe zjawiska społeczne i analizujemy wyzwania, z którymi mierzy się Polska i Europa. Wzmacniamy jakość debaty publicznej, aby sprzyjała konstruktywnemu rozwiązywaniu problemów i budowaniu wiedzy. Poszerzamy horyzonty dzieci i młodzieży ucząc krytycznego myślenia i zadawania trudnych pytań.
WHO ARE WE?
We implement social innovations
We are a group of researchers and social activists. We started the Stan Foundation because we want to shape civic awareness and build social capital. Since 2019, our team has been working to inspire citizens, particularly children and youth, to deepen their knowledge, ask difficult questions, take part in the life of their local communities and work for the common good. We promote democratic values and knowledge about the law and cybersecurity; we develop and implement social innovations. More than 1,500people, of all ages, have already benefited from our initiatives. It is our conviction that only an informed, educated society can tackle the challenges of today’s world.
OUR FOUNDERS
Creators of the initiative
President: Kinga Wojtas-Jarentowska
Foundation President Kinga Wojtas-Jarentowska is a political scientist, with a doctorate from the Institute of Political Sciences of the University of Warsaw. For three years she led the Department of Political Studies at Wyższa Szkoła Biznesu – National-Louis University. Kinga teaches at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, where she specialises in research on public policy and political behaviour. An experienced creator and organiser of educational programmes for children, youth and students, for many years she has worked on initiatives with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the National Centre for Culture Poland. Kinga serves as an expert for the Centre for Public Policies and the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
Vice President: Katarzyna Grzybowska-Walecka
Foundation Vice President Katarzyna Grzybowska-Walecka is a doctor of political and social sciences. A graduate of the European University Institute in Florence and a Jean Monnet Fellow in the Robert Schuman Centre, she lectures at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw and specialises in research on democracy and political parties. She has a fellowship at Oxford University, where she is working on the first-ever Oxford Handbook of Polish Politics. Katarzyna gained project experience working as a consultant to the UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur, and in the European Parliament. She is a co-founder of Political Radar, a portal that monitors politics, as well as the School on Political Parties and Democracy, created in cooperation with the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. More than 200 doctoral students, activists and practitioners who work on the development of democracy in Central Europe and Central Asia have taken part in seven sessions.
What do we do?
We prepare and deliver lectures, workshops, laboratories, strategy games and learning activities. In our projects we stress interactivity, encouraging children and youth to take initiative and allowing them to influence the structure of the programmes. We tailor our activities to the needs of individual participants, taking great care in selecting tools and creating content that is accessible for various age groups. Our projects are complementary with general primary and secondary education, and seek to expand students’ horizons. Our academic experience and collaboration with educational innovators mean our programmes stimulate young people’s interest and passion, teaching them critical thinking and inspiring them to play an active role in their local communities.
We carry out qualitative and quantitative research, tailored to the needs of the organisations we work with. We create analyses that allow them to understand their current situation, and develop conclusions that help them prepare for change. We present data and provide expertise and reports from top specialists, all with full transparency. Thanks to our scientific experience and academic resources we guarantee the highest quality analyses. Thus far our projects have touched on areas including the functioning of democratic mechanisms; populism; civic participation; public policy; and the media’s influence on politics.
We organise webinars, seminars and conferences that focus on the most significant social issues, as well as key questions for Polish political life and local communities. Engaging our participants, we stress building awareness of the common good, and our debates strive to avoid all prejudices and stereotypes. We help our partners create inclusive spaces for discussion. We work to raise the quality of public debate, ensuring it is substantive. We create social projects to implement the missions of our partners related to the values they represent.
We cooperate with:
