Together in Class is a program addressed to primary and secondary schools, libraries,
daycare and community centers from all over Poland, supporting work in a group joined by young people with migration or refugee experience, with particular emphasis on children and youth from Ukraine. It is a comprehensive support including: free boxes of educational materials, individual consultations, group support meetings and workshops for teaching councils, which are carried out in cooperation with trainers of multicultural competencies. Everyone can join online courses on multiculturalism created in the program.
The program was created in June 2022, as a response to the war in Ukraine to support
Polish teachers in building bridges between children and youth from different cultures and experiences in their classes. The focus is on creating a friendly and inclusive environment that can support each student as school can be (and must be) a space where every young person, regardless of their origin, religion and various experiences can improve their talents and have equal opportunities for development.
Between June 2022 and October 2023, over 2100 schools and other entities, as well as 4200 people working with children on a daily basis have joined the program. What is more, we organized several webinars on multicultural issues that gathered a total of over 6100 participants.
Between January and April 2023, we awarded 20 schools across Poland with mini grants (10 000 PLN) to change their schools’ spaces with focus on wellbeing and integration. 500 schools applied for the mini grants which showed us how huge are the needs they have.
Educational materials for schools created in the program are based on the needs reported by participating teachers and focus on topics such as integration, overcoming the language barrier, play in education, coping with stress, which allows us to respond to real and current difficulties that students, as well as teaching staff working in multicultural class, have to face.
Reports and other materials in English will soon be available on our website.
The Together in Class program is financed by Plan International.