According to a 2014 Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej study, Poles’ confidence in the value and usefulness of shared activities continues to grow and at the same time they feel an increasing need to express their opinion in public. The research results published in the Research Bulletin of the University of Economics and Innovation in Lublin indicate that civic activity is corelated to the place of residence and the sense of agency. The above study shows that the civic engagement index in the Kujawsko-pomorskie province is negative. Furthermore, our observations show that individuals at risk of social exclusion, including chronically ill persons, have hindered access to social activities.

We addressed these problems by engaging 20 phenylketonuria patients and 30 people from their environment in social activities in their locations. We organised a training trip to Warsaw for meetings devoted to social activities, including but not limited to participatory budgeting. Training attendees learned about successful activities of that type in selected locations in Poland. We run 5 workshops taking place once a month, sharing knowledge on participatory budgeting in their locations, as well as on the importance of and possibilities related to the engagement in social and civic affairs. Furthermore, they learned how to co-decide on the development of their neighbourhood, organising classes on active participation in local community, and on how to generate applications, petitions, posters and social campaigns. To wrap the initiative up, we organised a meeting attended by the representatives of the Stabilo Foundation who provided us with support during the workshops. The meeting summarised the entire project and was an opportunity to evaluate it.

Each workshop was both commenced and wrapped up with a test completed by the participants and devoted to topics covered during classes. Based on answers given, we could observe that well over half of attendees (and sometimes nearly all of them ) improved the level of their knowledge on civic activity. Furthermore, we managed to boost their self-confidence which we noticed based on a new civic initiative related to a new transport solution in Bydgoszcz proposed by them.