Scaling Social Innovation: Lessons from Poland

The speech will present the context for implementing and scaling social innovations in Poland and across the EU, encouraging participants to embrace collaboration with openness and shared purpose.

Presentation about the Polish approach on social innovation in ESF: from the MA and NCC perspective.

This World Café session will offer participants the opportunity to explore different pathways for developing and scaling social innovation through a series of short presentations and interactive discussions. Across six thematic tables, participants will engage with practical examples from Poland, covering topics such as ecosystem building, incubation and support for innovators, and the scaling of solutions from local pilots to national and regional systems.

Topics:
a) Architecting an ecosystem for social impact:
The presentation will showcase efforts to build an ecosystem of social innovation in Poland and to support innovators. It will also be an opportunity for inspiration regarding possible NCC actions in the future MFF.
b) Empowering daily innovators:
The presentation will show how social innovation incubators operate and how they support micro‑solutions, in particular by testing their effectiveness, refining them during the acceleration process, and preparing them for dissemination and scaling.
c) Support small, grow big:
The presentation will demonstrate how to scale micro‑solutions developed through a bottom‑up approach, using the example of the project „Social innovation in local goventments”.
d) From SI spark to country‑wide change:
The presentation will show the Polish pathway to implementing a social innovation developed within the ESF into the national mental health care system, using the example of Community Mental Health Centres for Children and Youth.
e) National roots, regional growth:
The presentation will illustrate how innovative solutions developed at the national level can be scaled regionally, using the example on the Małopolska Region.
f) A foreign seed of innovation:
The presentation will show how a solution proven abroad can be adapted and transferred to another country, while examining its effectiveness under new conditions - using the example of "Playing for success".

The Project Visits session will provide participants with a hands-on opportunity to explore selected social innovation initiatives in Poland. Through visits to five projects, participants will gain insights into how solutions are implemented and scaled in practice.

The visits will cover a range of themes, including education, mental health, social inclusion, housing, and community initiatives, offering direct exchange with practitioners and showcasing different approaches to addressing social challenges:

1) Peer Power – peer support as a social innovation in schools. This study visit presents a social innovation developed with support from the ESF+. It introduces a new approach to improvement young people’s well-being in schools, based on the idea of peer-to-peer support.

2) Breaking the cycle of poverty – the “Family Wins” model. This study visit presents a social innovation developed with ESF support to address the complex problem of intergenerational poverty.

3) Social housing: a visit to the Social Rental Development Centre. This study visit presents the concept of the Social Rental Agency – a model of social housing enriched with integrated social and professional support services tailored to individual needs, that has been scaled in 12 Polish municipalities.

4) From crisis to community: a visit to the KRAINA Foundation. Study visit to KRAINA Foundation offers an opportunity to explore how a grassroots emergency support initiative created in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine evolved into a vibrant community space focused on culture, fashion and social inclusion.