By Steve Owad

When most Poles hear the word "punk," thoughts of rebellion and violence race to mind. When Ryszard Michalski hears the word, he thinks of "someone who is unfinished, someone who has no peers or partners in normal life." He thinks of "positive misfits" who have the potential to become active members of their communities.

Painting photos: Raft youths painting graffiti murals on the exterior of an Olsztyn prison wall, at the request of the local government

First Problem: Communication

"In 1993," he says, "I saw that some punks were trying to do things for themselves, to organize concerts and other events, but professional organizations treated them like clients, demanded money from them, didn't act as partners. I wanted to help these youths and others like them who wanted to be active but didn't know how to do it."

His job organizing artistic and cultural programs at the Olsztyn Regional Center of Culture became a springboard. He decided to run workshops to prepare his new colleagues to communicate more efficiently with adult organizations. He applied for grants from private foundations, international donors like the European Union Poland-Hungary Agreement on Restructuring of the Economy, and local and federal government agencies. All his applications were accepted.

"Maybe that's because no one else is dealing with the punk generation like we are," he says. "We have no competition." Then, with a shrug and a chuckle, he adds, "Or maybe it's because the powers that be consider punks so dangerous that they finally have to do something with them."

Michalski, 45, hired a staff of three and found trainers who could work with the 24 youth groups with whom he had contact. The trainers - psychologists, business people and educators - guided the punks through topics ranging from how to formulate a clear goal to how to define local community needs. Training varies from the psychological to the practical, depending on the adult's area of expertise. It can only work, Michalski says, when adults act as youths' partners, not as teachers or preachers: "It's important for youths to meet adults who don't play roles. We work with adults who have common goals. Those are the adults that punks trust."

"We never `reject' a project," Michalski says. "If a group doesn't have a concrete idea, we don't encourage the idea. We also don't cooperate on projects that are racist or profit-oriented. We only act as midwives to good ideas."

Second Problem: Defining the Need

Being a midwife involves practical training. Marek Sierant, 21, runs a support program for poor single mothers in Warsaw. "Raft workshops showed us how to write applications and run a public-relations program," he says. "They also helped us target NGOs for funds."

Lukasz Wlostowski, 20, who runs an anti-fascism group that organizes demonstrations in Warsaw, says, "Raft taught us how to legally organize a demonstration and how to communicate with police. They also helped us register our organization." Such preparation helped bring Wlostowski's group into closer contact with authorities whom many nonconformist youths consider to be the enemy.

Raft youths participating in a theater workshop

"If I have a problem," Wlostowski says, "I can always call Raft. They've given me legal advice that I wouldn't have found anywhere else." Sierant adds, "Raft gives me access to a fax machine and the Internet, but more than that, it gives me communication. There's always someone I can ask a question."

The Start of a Solution: A Network of Mentors

Raft now employs 12 part-time adult professionals and has dozens of adult volunteers nationwide to run the preparatory workshops and provide follow-up support. The punk groups themselves vary in size from a handful of members to more than a dozen. The typical member, Michalski says, is someone who simply wants more than society offers. Many come from rough neighborhoods and families scarred by drugs, alcohol and unemployment. In Raft's early days, getting them to work together was difficult.

Michalski says, "Our Raft offices, which the Olsztyn Center of Culture provides free, were open places for the free exchange of ideas. We imposed no conditions, and it was pure anarchy." Some punks came to the early workshops "only to smash things." Others had trouble committing to systematic work. Michalski learned that some conditions were necessary. He now expects Raft punks to pay for membership with one thing: a willingness to do something creative.

Raft has had little trouble finding workshop participants. In 1995, when Michalski registered the association, he attended punk concerts and handed out leaflets and newsletters inviting punks to theater workshops. Although violence ruined some of those and other workshops, some punks proved themselves dynamic and creative - and willing to put on a play or produce a concert. For most of them, the projects were their first cooperative encounters with mainstream society.

Such experiences are paying off. "Every spring we have a fair of idea of how many punks we're going to lose," Michalski says, "because that's the exam season."

Many punks put their Raft experience to use in the job market or at university. Others, like Sierant, stick with their projects while attending college. Drugs and family problems claim some members but in general, Michalski says, the only punks that Raft cannot serve are those who have no real desire to achieve something for themselves. "You can't force a punk to do anything," he says. "You can only provide him with opportunities."

From Odd-Looking Raft to Free-Form Footbridge

To spread Raft outside the Olsztyn region, Michalski has started the Footbridge (Pomost) project, which uses the existing Raft network to provide seed support for new groups. Footbridge is so informal that Michalski doesn't know or even care just how many Raft outposts are grouped within it ("Maybe 100 groups nationwide," he estimates).

"Footbridge is making it much easier for groups to establish formal organizations," Sierant says. "It allows for easier communication." The project's aim is not to turn Raft chapters into a cohesive whole, but to make it easier for individual groups to operate.

"I don't have a five-year plan," Michalski says. "It's possible that the whole Raft network will fall apart into smaller groups, which is probably how it should be, as there are so many different initiatives out there." He contends that Raft works best on a local level, because the youth groups must seek adult cooperation and finances for their projects locally.

Still, Raft and Footbridge have attracted the attention of the Ministry of Culture, which has proposed using the network to set up a pilot program of youth clubs that would help link members with the adults in their communities.

Michalski's long-term aim is to use Raft and Footbridge to create a Local Coalition for Youths in communities throughout Poland. The coalition would make the thing that is now bold and new (partnership among adults and punk youths) the norm. The idea is already starting to blossom. In the northern town of Bartoszyce, 30 adults now work regularly with Raft youths on common projects like rock concerts and folk art exhibitions.

Moving Into the Mainstream, Slowly

Michalski also hopes to start an Association of Adults as Youth Partners, which would be the first group in Poland to lobby specifically for young people. But in the meantime, he has to ensure Raft's survival. Despite his success in securing grants, Raft groups still lack money to rent club space and buy furniture and computers. More important, many communities also lack adult professionals willing to work with the youths. "We need more idea midwives," Michalski says. "We need people willing to play the role of partner to punks who lack professional expertise and experience.''

Michalski hopes the Local Coalition for Youths will help solve these problems but he has less impact on other issues. Polish law on cooperatives and religious conservatism also hinder Raft's success. The former, with its high capital requirements, has effectively blocked programs to start shuttle-bus lines, open campgrounds and develop eco-tourism. On the religious side, conservatives can "make it hard to raise money because most funds in Poland go to either Catholic or conservative organizations." Michalski is trying to convince Catholic Church officials to participate in some Raft ventures but the reception so far has been cool.

He will keep trying, though. "The world is changing faster now than it ever has," he says. "If youths don't change with it, they will have nowhere to go."

Ryszard Michalski would like to compare experiences with people who run similar organizations in different cultures. He also would like to hear from people who specialize in community-development projects.