We have struggled with the problem of low social trust for years. The 2018 research conducted by the Centre for the Public Opinion Research showed that only 22% of Poles believe that they can trust other people. According to the Michigan State University’s research of 63 countries around the world, Poland is placed toward the bottom of the list when it comes to measuring the level of citizens’ empathy. Social diagnosis composed by the Social Monitoring Council in 2015 suggests that consequences of our lack of trust and general reluctance towards each other are the rise in antidemocratic attitudes, social polarization and hostility towards minorities, immigrants, or representatives of opposing political parties.

We addressed these problems by collaborating with experts on creating scenarios and tools for the empathy workshops that will be open for participants from across Poland. The pilot workshops consisted of testing audio-visual tools, such as recording histories and experiences of individuals with differing worldviews and methods for developing communication and collaboration between different groups. These initial workshops allowed us to fine tune and organize a series of trainings on empathy as emotional intelligence, development of kindness and experiencing of that, which is different and “other.” We evaluated these meetings and methods and measured changes in attitudes of our participants. Based on the results, we designed a final scenario for the empathy workshops. The results of our work were presented during a conference with specialists interested in the topic of empathy – psychologists, coaches, and social workers.
Our evaluation research showed that the general level of empathy and the sense of self-worth among workshop participants have increased. We are planning to continue organizing similar workshops in the future.