Country: Poland

Organization: Fundacja Szansa (Chance Foundation)

3) Strategy Summary:
The Project will base on execution cycle of professional, linguistic, interpersonal as well as with management and marketing schoolings. The effect of trainings will be to create net of water - land and land stations, which will accommodate tourist traffic. Those station will be managed by participants of project. It will activate youth from region of high unemployment.

The aim of these activities for the participant is to become independent and to lead the Stations - the nodal points of qualified tourism (foot, bicycle as well as water). We will fill the market niche, bringing into cultivation terrains of the eastern Mazury lakes, which possess large tourist potential, which wasn't correctly used until now.

4) How the Strategy Works:
Step 1
Gaining over plots and beginning activity.
For the need of building of "Mazury Station - The Center of developing professional activities" (Stacja Mazury Centrum the Kształcenia and Zawodowej Aktywizacji), councils which support the project will grant plots with the existing infrastructure.

Schooling center will rise with practical workshops, lectures room with multimedia base and habitats for unemployed youth between 18-25 from Mazury region. The youth will be recruited with cooperation with locale employment department. Youth will be freely participate in trainings, led thoroughly by selected experts. Thanks to co-operation with Local Management of National forest department and the councils, for the need of the project underdeveloped places will be accessible. Detached Buildings of simple, segmentative design will be build and installed by our adepts before summer season. Those buildings will be called Mazury Stations. In the first stage (first summer season) the first 15 station will be build. Every station will be manage by minimum 3 participants of this project.

These stations will become center points, where the tourists can stay overnight, consume the meal (basic assortment: several nutritious soups, coffee), to use sanitary facilities, to leave the wastes and to lend the tourist equipment and also to buy the local articles ( the delicacies of regional kitchen and hand-made articles art and crafts).

These stations will work as the center of tourist information, concerning the most interesting attractions of region and all neighborhood events. At the end of the touristic season those facilities will be disassembled and stored in The Center of developing professional activities. Maintenance works and redecorating will be also led there.

Step 2
Education and work.
The strategy is to train the participants during the autumn - winter period as well as their work on stations in summer season on the principle of subsided employment. During courses we emphasize on building the filling of value of the participants such as: punctuality, diligence, reliability and responsibility for own acts. We create the possibility of training many kind of professions such as: carpenter, cook, boat builder, animator of tourist traffic whether the worker administrative - office whitch will be really connected with tourist potential of the region. Acquired by our participants practical professional skills can be used in other social projects realized by our foundation.

Large pressure will be laid on practical utilization of acquired skills: in frames of practices the participants take part in extension and rebuilding of the Stations Every participant of the programme will learn at least one foreign languages which enable him to communicate with foreign tourists, it will also get to know the culture as well as art of his own region.

It then permits participants to find employment apart from project (their attractiveness enlarges on labour market) and builds emotional relationship with their own region. It permits to create durable social bonds and creative participation in the life of the community. The professional promotion in our structures depend on predisposition, ambition, commitment, practice, experience as well as of participation of additional supplementary trainings.

In the aim of intensification of local touristic market, the owners of the already existing facilities can participate voluntary on principle of the franchise. Entering to the network of stations will be however joined with necessity of complying standards of Stations and will require the employ at least one graduate of project.

Step 3
Becoming independent.
The most creative and enterprising participants will gain the possibility of taking over in lease of chosen station, as independent businessmen, on general market principles and will draw profits from this title. Independent adepts of "center for training and professional activation" along with project originators and persons supervising the realization of the project will create the company, in which they will be the shareholders. There is also the possibility for participants to make oneself self-sufficient by beginning own economic activity by utilization tools and equipment leased or bought from formed company.

How strategy can be transferred to others organizations? The Mazury Station project is modular, possible to duplicate in different regions, by keeping basic foundations (taking however into account individual features and variety of the regions).

The Mazury station will become the recognizable brand, which will be associated with activation of the local environment and of the influence on diminution of the unemployment and enlargement of existing tourist base. Different organizations both from Poland and abroad will have the possibility to use idea than by getting license from the originators.

5) Key Strategy Elements:

ii. Generating Financial and Nonfinancial Resources:
The non-financial profit of that action will be to introduce qualified staff to the market, which can cope with modern market. The workers of Stations achieve the income from their own production such as sewing the Mazurian dress, usable products of hand-made objects, souvenirs, gastronomy service. They also provide payed Touristic services: board, lodgings, WCs, sport equipment lending, organization of the touristic events. The additional value is the stimulation of the services market in frames of formation, and also beyond him. The liveliness of the tourist traffic generates the enlargement on service demand (transportation,garbage services, etc.) The growth of affluence of the participants wallet enlarges their purchaser's possibilities

iii. Establishing Relationships with Strategic Partnerships:
In order to initiate of the project we undertook conversation and got promise of indispensable help and full co-operation from:
Warmińsko - Mazurskie state Governor
Foreman of: Piskie, Węgorzewo as well as Giżyckie
Mayors of cities: Orzysz, Ruciane Nida, Węgorzewo, Giżycko
Local Management of National forest department in Białymstoku
Forest inspectorate of: Pisz, Giżycko, Maskulińskiego.
The employment state department: Kętrzyn, Węgorzewo, Giżycko, Mrągowo, Pisz
Local Media (Radio Olsztyn, TVP, Olsztyńska newspaper) as well as , what from our point of view is very essential, from local community and private businessmen.
We also co-operate with international organizations.

v. Developing Information and Spreading the Message:
The programme will be promoted by medias. The conferences will be assembled which will report the progresses. Local councils and other organizations will have the possibility to participate in trainings thous acquainting with details of project and the possibilities of taking part in. Participants will present their activities during educational markets, labour market and touristic. Project will appear and will be accessible by Internet. There will be created web portal than serviced by participants in frames of computer workshops in the Station main center. Every person from outside of the system will be able to reach to the information, what happens in frames of project Mazury Station and whats the present state of his realization.

6) Increasing Self-sufficiency and Social Impact:
The strategy contain multidimensional set of activities. The spread and range of the project will make possible to reduce of the unemployment among youth and fixedly establish new status of region on the map of touristic Europe. Many persons in age 18-25 years which we plan to incorporate with that programme will be actively included in the economic life, both as full time workers and businessmen. The programme is self-sufficient: it leads by stage of training, undertaking of professional practice and as the result- helps to begin the own economic activity and finally to totally financially independent incumbents of that project. The promotion of the programme, wide information about new touristic possibilities, which creates inexpensive and attractively under touristic regard placed network of stations, will create the recognizable brand. The promotion will be based on building consciousness among potential recipients to participate in "correct matter" (rest=support of the workplace)

8) Organization Mission and Vision:
Building the civil society by activation of local communities. Creating bonds between human and his environment in which he lives- as a way to be responsible for effects of his own decisions and to spread social and ecological consciousness.

Looking Forward to the Next Three Years:
In the first two years of the programme hundred persons will be trained in different contests (the building, sector of touristic services, administration). In the third year the most enterprising adepts will be engaged in services in the touristic objects - Mazury Station. Project is cyclical, after two years next recruitment will follow. First stage of the project will be used to test assumptions and regularity of working of the system. It is a time of discover tactics of gaining new partners.

Contact Information:
Agata  Garbarczyk
Fundacja Szansa (Chance Foundation)
ul. Wasiutyńskiego 15, 00-707 Warsaw
Poland
Tel: +48 22 651 04 13
Fax: +48 22 651 04 11
Email: fundacja@fundacjaszansa.org.pl
Website: www.fundacjaszansa.org.pl