As Vladimir Paszynski, the Deputy Mayor of Warsaw, said during one of the meeting „The Warsaw Multicultural Center should help all representatives of different cultures who appear for short or long period of time in our city, feel like home.” To achieve this goal, Warsaw Multicultural Center will be designed to promote cooperation between various municipal offices and institutions and NGO’s - both those which carry out projects for benefits for foreigners and organizations set up by immigrants themselves. From 2010 representatives of the City of Warsaw and of the coalition of several NGO’s are trying to work out together the concept of the Centre and its most important tasks.. Developed plans address the following areas:
Information - this module is addressed both to foreigners (who seek information about governmental and non-governmental programs for them and about functioning of the offices or the cultural offer) and to Warsaw residents and tourists who want to get some information about the multiculturalism of the capital.
Empowerment - empowerment of foreigners to encourage them to actively participate in Warsaw cultural and social life; support for immigrant communities in realization of their own projects.
Education – this module envisage support for educational activities in the area of multiculturalism, integration and education in a multicultural environment, learning of the Polish language, as well as education about multicultural heritage and today’s face of Warsaw.
Culture – here the priority is to support cultural activities carried out by the representatives of various immigration communities and international cultural projects; and to prepare an interactive display about the multicultural heritage of Warsaw.
Research - the main challenge in this area is to conduct regular and comprehensive research on migration to/from Warsaw.
According to the guidelines developed earlier, Warsaw Multicultural Center will become an independent unit which will be run jointly by the Warsaw council and the coalition of specialized NGO’s. The Center should have its own office- a place for people, organizations and institutions related to the multicultural face of the Capital to meet and to exchange ideas and concepts.
During the working meetings in July 2011- which took place in the Centre of Social Communication- an agenda of pilot actions for 2012-2013 was established and presented to the Deputy Mayor of Warsaw.
Up till now representatives of the following offices (city structures), institutions and NGO’s were involved in establishing the Centre: Deputy Mayor of Warsaw; the Centre of Social Communication; representatives of the Culture, Education and Social Policy Departments of Warsaw Municipal Office; Warsaw Family Support Centre; Warsaw Centre of Educational and Social Innovations and Training; Caritas- Help Centre for Migrants and Refugees; "Africa Another Way" Foundation; Foundation for Somalia; The Forum for Social Diversity, The Other Space Foundation; “Our Choice” Foundation; The Observatory Foundation; Pro-Cultural Foundation; Foundation for Development Beyond Borders, Arteria Art Foundation, The French Institute in Warsaw, Cultural Institute of the Caucasus Nations, Institute of the Public Affairs, International Organization for Migration (IOM), Autocreation Association, The Common House of Caucasus, Association of Ethnographers and Cultural Anthropologists "Anthropological Passage", Legal Intervention Association, “The World at Your Fingertips” Foundation, Transkultura Foundation, Free Word Association, The Palestinian Community, The Association of Intercultural Dialogue, The Pro Humanum Association, Polish Migration Forum.
