Strategy
1. Introduction
This Strategic Plan was conceived in consideration of the experiences we gained through our activities in the past ten years and also of the feedback received from outside sources by way of a survey. The aim of the Strategic Plan is to define for ourselves and share with our partners, target groups, and supporters what our objectives are for the next three years, what kind of society we envisage, and what we see as our mission.
We feel it important that in our constantly changing world we confront ourselves time after time in order to help us define the challenges we wish or do not wish to take on. In the years since the foundation of our organisation, Hungary has undergone some tremendous changes, which have affected the different social groups, changed the way they are seen by the majority, and also rearranged the ranks of values people consider important. The most important change witnessed in this period has been Hungary’s accession to the European Union, a fact which alone may connote the presence of a democratic society built on European values but certainly cannot guarantee it. Looking at our activities and the results attained, and by taking a closer look at ourselves from the outside, we can safely state that our activities and aims, such as increasing tolerance, the dissemination of knowledge and skills required for active civic participation, are still very much needed and justified. In addition to this, we see the c ontribution to the consolidation of a democratic society in Hungary as a mission we are ready and willing to take on.
We intend to perform our work in the coming years in the hope that our activities and the dissemination of the results will make a valuable contribution to increasing public awareness of the civil sphere and civic initiatives. We also aim to show the significance of scientific understanding of society for everyone and to raise the prestige of social sciences.
2. Vision
We envisage a Hungary
where
• the frameworks of social life are defined by the world of law
• civil existence and civic activity are synonymous with respect
• thoughtful consideration about social issues and the related communication – which also relies on scientific arguments – are values shared across society
• the interests of the individual and the interests of the community are respected values
• the opportunity for active civic participation is available to an increasing population.
In summary: we would like to see a Hungary where democracy is present in our everyday realm and is considered a consciously pursued way of life by many.
We wish to generate social changes which will ultimately result in a situation where European citizens’ lives are no longer shaped by
• prejudice
• the exploitation of informal channels and power positions
• the exploitation of other’s lack of knowledge and their resulting subjection.
How we see our own future
We envisage the Kurt Lewin Foundation as a competitive civil organisation, where
• the staff feel and are aware that their everyday activities serve the attainment of the set goals
• employees can make a living through performing high-quality work
• working is prestigious; staff members are proud to include their past with the Kurt Lewin Foundation in their CVs
• there are openings for professional progress
• the work atmosphere makes the office an attractive place of work despite the difficulties
• voluntary work is not a chore but a joy because participants not only gain respect and experience but are also willing to undertake social responsibility.
We would like to have our activities acknowledged not only by our partners, supporters, and clients, but also by our competitors.
3. Our Mission
Who are we?
The Kurt Lewin Foundation is an independent civil public interest organisation.
What is our purpose?
In close cooperation with our partners, we wish to make a contribution to the consolidation of a democratic society in Hungary and particularly to the increase of tolerance and the elimination of stereotype-based thinking.
What do we serve, what service do we provide?
We help promote social dialogue, tolerance and the dissemination of knowledge and skills required for active civic participation – mainly by the development of critical thinking.
4. Our Objectives
What are our objectives?
The Kurt Lewin Foundation’s objectives include:
• increasing the chances of having access to social and civic knowledge
• prevention of aggravation of inter-group conflicts that may emerge during social interaction
• increasing social activity of citizens.
What do we specifically not aim to achieve?
Our Foundation does not aim to
• provide ad hoc interest representation
• blame any individual or group, or seek to identify scapegoats
• participate in action that may serve party political purposes.
5. Central Values
The Foundation identifies with the following values
• tolerance
• independence
• critical thinking
• self-reflection
• innovation.
These values are not specific to our organisation; we also intend to use our resources to share these values across our immediate and more distant social environment.
6. Programmes
Programmes of the Kurt Lewin Foundation in the past ten years have served the attainment of our goals in the areas of media, education, and social research. Without implementing major changes to our existing programmes but with a view to integrating and harmonising our old projects with the new ones, we are planning to expand our activities to the following areas:
“Democracy Band”
Through our Media programmes – websites, radio programmes, ad hoc publications – we, in cooperation with other civil organisations and our volunteers, promote critical thinking and tolerance by providing objective information, which also uses the results of social research projects.
With the involvement of various civil organisations, profit-oriented companies, and interested public education institutions, our Educational activities help a steadily increasing group to have access to social and civic knowledge and skills indispensable for active democratic participation.
Via our research activities conducted with Hungarian and foreign research institutions, tertiary education institutions, and partners, the Foundation intends to produce knowledge that not only helps understand certain segments of social processes and puts social functions into new light, but also promotes the planning and implementation of social-political programmes. Making a contribution to increasing the prestige of the social science profession is also important for us.
“Equal Opportunity Band”
In our Media programmes we intend to raise public awareness of the problems faced by disadvantaged groups and at the same time encourage communities to identify with the cause through active social participation.
Our Educational programmes are designed to promote worthy social participation by providing disadvantaged groups and the related professionals with the necessary knowledge and skills.
In our Research projects we always place great emphasis on shedding light to the state and condition of socially or otherwise disadvantaged groups and the underlying causes and make sure the findings are dissipated to a wide audience.
In addition to this, we always use our own research findings in our educational programmes. We always strive to make our work and research findings accessible to the widest possible audience, which may also be seen as real contribution to winning the social research and teaching professions the recognition they deserve.
7. Target Groups
Our primary target group includes professionals and other people engaged in work in organisations/institutions who may exercise a multiplier-effect through their profession:
• teachers, educators
• employees of civil organisations
• social workers
• policemen.
Our secondary target group naturally includes the social groups affected by the work and efforts of the above professionals:
• students and parents, including students in tertiary education
• disadvantaged people
• (potential) victims and/or perpetrator of certain crimes.
8. Executive Summary
The Foundation’s Activities 1996 - 2005
The Kurt Lewin Foundation has been actively working in order to increase tolerance and promote social and civic knowledge for the past ten years. It has used media, education, and research programmes to attain its goals.
Although it may not have been intensively communicated, but we also consider innovation and all efforts invested in the achievement of high quality outcome important values worthy of seeking. Many of our initiations were considered innovative not only in Hungary but also in the region and in Europe. Examples include the RomaPage website, established in 1997, and the nation-wide social research series conducted between 2000 and 2003, which was designed to examine the realm of public education from the angle of democracy and the vindication of rights. Under the framework of this project we had conceived a mentorship programme for young university students from disadvantaged backgrounds. By becoming participants in the research programme, these students had an opportunity to gain professional work experience and thus increased their chances in the labour market after graduating.
To round off this symbolic ten-year period in the life of the Foundation, we won an EU grant competition to compile a comprehensive comparative study on the public education of Roma populations using country studies prepared by the twenty-five member states.
Reasons for the Strategic Plan
Our organisation is ten years old now. This fact alone may not necessarily be enough for us to get down to strategic planning; however the spiritual power of this anniversary coupled with upcoming turning points in the lives and careers of many of our colleagues compelled us to reflect upon the past, present, and future of our civil organisation in a planned manner under a well-defined framework.
The world surrounding the Foundation has significantly altered since we began our activities: the most important change that affects our lives has been Hungary’s accession to the European Union, which meant on the one hand the fulfilment of one of our missions, and also brought the recognition that membership status does not automatically mean remedies for the social problems that the Kurt Lewin Foundation has been trying to tackle.
It is important that the political transition has been completed and Hungary has built a solid democratic institutional system. This, however, does not necessarily mean that the pursuit of democratic values has become everyday practice. We have recognised that without civic participation, social balances and control, the institutional system itself does not yield a democratic society.
Information (knowledge-based) society has been born: education is at the forefront of our interest. The question of equal access to education and the question of quality in education keep re-emerging. According to our research findings, tackling inter-group prejudice and the development of wide-scale tolerance cannot be separated from everyday school practices. While educational institutions continue impart increasing amounts of content, the manner of teaching and child-rearing is, in many cases, unsuitable to promote democratic socialisation. We believe we have to make a strong contribution in order to generate changes in this respect.
We felt it was necessary to harmonise our projects and encourage cooperation between them. When drawing up an overview on the position of our civil organisation, we were forced to recognise that by appropriately interconnecting our research, education, and media projects we can yield results that may help the work of other organisations when adopted as good practice.
9. Annex
The Process of Strategic Planning
Before getting down to actual planning, the participants had agreed that there was a need for a plan that would explicitly define, but not be limited to, the Foundations’ envisaged future, mission, and long-term projects. Strategic planning was performed by nine employees of the Foundation including: the president of the board of trustees, the operative coordinator of the Foundation, the different project leaders, a few long-established employees, and one volunteer.
At the beginning of the first phase of strategic planning (15 June 2005), we agreed on the approximate stages of planning, defined a deadline for the completion of the project and set out to complete our Strategic Plan by the end of the calendar year. This was the only thing that had been stipulated in advance; the direction of discussions was allowed to take a completely free course, which included uncontrolled brainstorming, problem definition, and fierce debate.
In the second planning phase we were focusing on expressing the values along which the Foundation envisions its future activities. In this regard, we were fast to reach consensus. At the same time, there was fierce and intensive debate on how we see our future and mission; many times we were forced to go back to the basics and were prepared to go as far as to even question the raison d'ętre of the Foundation. There was one very important thing we kept in mind: all decisions made had to be based on consensus. The debate on the meaning of the existence of the Foundation lasted approximately two months and then we began to evaluate the situation. This phase lasted from mid-October until the very end of November and was concluded by a two-day discussion and summary session held in the country. In the evaluation phase we:
• enumerated all completed projects and strategies the Foundation has pursued so far
• compiled a map showing all communities and districts where we have already performed research work
• conducted structured interviews with key partners of the Foundation, the staff of our partner organisations, and our Board of Trustees
• asked former staff members and present volunteers to complete questionnaires in relation to various programmes and the Foundation as a whole
• made an attempt at mapping out the environment where the Foundation performs most of its activities
• tried to make an objective comparison of similar programmes run by our competitors
• cast an account of the financing of the various programmes.
Following evaluation, we arrived at the first version of the strategic plan, which everyone had read again. We kept up the debate and discussion until we reached a consensus with regards to the content of the plan. The planning stage was concluded on 20 December 2005. The Strategic Plan was adopted by the Board of Trustees the same day.
Parties in the planning: Gergő Gelsei, János Hardi, Gábor Héra, Eszter Karmazsin, Veronika Kiss, György Ligeti, Ágnes Oravecz, Mónika Paulik, and Attila Rácz.
27 December 2005. Budapest