Who we are

About Forum

The Pomeranian Forum in Aid of Getting Out of Homelessness (PFWB) is a cross-sector partnership established in order to solve the problem of homelessness.

PFWB as a federation and a platform of cooperation for over 30 entities, public sector institutions and NGOs working in the field of homelessness in the Pomeranian Province, has been active for over 10 years (since 1997).

Forum is an umbrella organisation which gathers institutions and organisations providing services to the homeless in such fields as health, social support, housing or employment. It also groups institutions creating social regional policy and academic units studying the problem of homelessness.

The Pomeranian Forum is a registered Foundation cooperating with many institutions and organisations on European, national, regional and local levels. We are supported by public and private funds.

Aims of PFWB

PFWB was established in order to:

• Create solutions for social policy aimed at combating homelessness
• Increase integration and coordination of activities, stimulate exchanging knowledge and experiences of NGOs, local government institutions, public administration and other stakeholders in order to solve the problem of homelessness and alleviate its consequences
• Conduct and promote the realisation of research on homelessness, monitor and diagnose risks concerning persons, environments and phenomena resulting from homelessness
• Increase the level of social awareness, educate and motivate local communities, opinion-forming circles and all interested parties in order to understand causes, results and ways of combating and getting out of homelessness
• Strengthen and develop the potential of PFWB members

More about aims of PFWB

PFWB tasks

The Pomeranian Forum is active in five spheres: social policy, education, social communication, research and institutional development. Activities conducted within these spheres are as follows:

SOCIAL POLICY – creating and implementing strategies, models and standards of social policy aimed at solving the problem of homelessness and alleviating its consequences within cross-sector and cross-department cooperation;

EDUCATION – increasing the scale, range and quality of educational activities conducted in order to solve the problem of homelessness and alleviate its consequences (trainings, study visits, civic education);

SOCIAL COMMUNICATION – raising the effectiveness of promoting achievements of the Pomeranian Forum (through publications, seminars, conferences, website, social campaigns, lobbying);

RESEARCH – increasing professionalism of diagnosing the process of homelessness and analysing research results;

INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT – a multi-dimensional development of PFWB guaranteeing the professionalisation and stability of partnership is achieved through structures, management, staff, membership, internal communication and financing;

There is an expert group consisting of PFWB members working in each of the above-mentioned spheres.

Structure

Forum is governed by democratic structures involving membership organisations.

PFWB governing bodies are:

• PFWB General Assembly (involving all organisations and Forum member organisations)
• Forum Executive Committee (the Council) consisting of a President, two representatives of the public sector and two representatives of NGOs (all members are elected democratically from among Forum entities)
• Forum Board consisting of two representatives of membership organisations and a representative of PFWB office.

PFWB office situated in Gdańsk is responsible for coordinating, operative and information activity of this network.

Please look at the chart presenting Struktura PFWB

More about the structure

Statute and Agreement

Activity of PFWB and cooperation of organisations and institutions gathered in the Pomeranian Forum is based on the Co-operation Agreement of 11 September 2001, amended on 29 November 2007.

The Pomeranian Forum Foundation work is based on the Statute stipulating the scope of its activities, aims and tasks.

More about the basis of PFWB activity

History

Forum was established in 1997. Its origin is related to the pilot project of contracting NGO services by local self-governmental authorities, implemented in Gdansk and four other cities in Poland. In Gdansk, the project was prepared, implemented and co-financed by three partners:

• the City of Gdańsk,
• the Regional NGO Information and Support Centre for NGOs Foundation
• UMBRELLA PROJECT.

One of the elements of the project was to appoint working groups, which would use the professional experience of the group members to prepare the foundations for future contracts to be offered by local governments. Among the operating groups, the most effective and lasting one proved to be the team of specialist providing assistance to the homeless. A vital aspect of the initial activity of the group was to establish model partnership-based on co-operation between governmental, self-governmental, and non-governmental sectors, which often differ significantly in their attitudes.

Initially Forum covered only Trójmiasto and nearby gminas, now its sphere of activity extends to the whole Pomeranian Province.

Strategy and Development Concepts

Forum has been implementing the Development Strategy since 2008. The Strategy implementation is due to be completed in 2013.

Preparing PFWB Development Strategy was the result of two factors: the need of internal changes within the organisation and the need to introduce innovative solutions guaranteeing the progress and development of member organisations. Moreover, the experience of 10 years of cooperation created a proper space and readiness of members to work on the plan of PFWB further activity. It also lay the foundations of perspective planning of further activity of the Pomeranian Forum.

We hope that the following Concept of PFWB Development will have been implemented by 2013:

• PFWB is a cross-sector stable cooperation. It is an open space for social dialogue and a sphere of cooperation designed to solve and minimise the problem of homelessness.
• PFWB is a platform of cooperation creating new trends, directions of activity and development in the sphere of homelessness. It promotes the code of good practice in Poland and in the EU.

PFWB Development Strategy 2008-2013

More about PFWB Development Strategy