Hi my name is Jowita, I’m from Poland, but have lived in different areas of the North East of England and Scotland since 2007. I have been involved with character mentoring work, both as a volunteer and employee of the charity that this Community Interest Company was born out of for over six years.
My focus as the Integration and Accessibility Director is to connect us with the wider third sector community and make our work and resources more accessible. Both in terms of a multilingual/international context and easier to engage with for children, families and organisations who may experience barriers due to disabilities.
I am also a grantmaker, working on the other side of the fence; monitoring charitable grants for a funder based in Fife, I came into the grantmaking sphere as part of the 2027 programme, which looks to diversify the grantmaking sector.
Working with children has always been a passion of mine, from formal teaching to mentoring, I love to see the change and difference a supportive environment can have on a child’s development. This is why I continue to feel incredibly connected to the work WISE is delivering.
As a migrant child, with no knowledge of English when I came to this country, raised by a single mum coming from a deeply impoverished area of rural Poland, I always found that there was a gap in my experience, both in being able to integrate into a new culture, but also being able to find myself and who I am within it. This is why the work being carried on by WISE, and the idea of character mentoring, became so close to my heart. It led me to become a volunteer mentor and continue my journey until this point to become one of the Directors.
I have seen the impact of this work on children, how they grow and find themselves and develop an understanding of their values as a person. It is something that I desperately needed as a kid. But I had no access to, and therefore, wanted others to have.
I also want to make the goal of making our materials and resources into multilingual and multicultural tools a reality! When completing my undergraduate degree at Glasgow University, I learned a lot about displacement, translation theory and linguistic struggles of the migrant population. This really helped me to understand my migrant experience, as well as the true need for accessibility, and how meaningful it can be to communicate with others in their native tongue, especially since this feeling of not belonging is so deep when having to adapt to a new language and culture.
I am so incredibly excited about the vision and mission of this organisation! We have an amazing team of directors, staff, volunteers and a fantastically engaged community. All of these people truly see the value of what we do, and recognise just how greatly it is needed!