The most important program focused on the development of the voluntary service has been the 3-year project called “I Like to Help”, in which 96 palliative and hospice centers from all over Poland participated. It has helped to build a national network of voluntary service centers, which is unique on the European scale. It comprised educational activities, including training for voluntary service coordinators, volunteers of various age groups and teachers from schools co-operating with the centers as well as social campaigns promoting the voluntary service. In addition, each of the coordinators was given the equipment to facilitate their daily work and the education about and promotion of the voluntary service in local institutions and organizations (laptops, multimedia projectors, etc.). The result of the project was an increase in the number of volunteers and in the frequency and scope of their work for patients and organizations. The centers developed their co-operation with schools and universities, the media, sponsors, other non-governmental organizations and local communities. First of all, they improved the quality and scope of their care of patients and their relatives.
Voluntary Service of Prisoners
An innovative outcome of the Foundation’s activity in this area was the voluntary service of convicts. Co-operation with the Prison in Gdańsk, initiated by the Gdańsk Hospice volunteers, gave rise to a national project aimed at transplanting the practice to other palliative and hospice centers. Through a series of training events for prisoners and care teams, they managed to prepare both groups
