Union is Strength is a European journalism competition organized by Slate.fr in partnership with the European Commission. Forty journalists, French and European, have been selected to work as a team to write articles on projects financed by the European Union in Europe. A perspective on what the EU can do in its regions.
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In Bielawa (Poland).
In front of the cooperative Art, in Bielawa, a small town in the southwest of Poland, it’s a constant coming and going on this beautiful spring day. In front of the entrance, a truck is waiting to be able to head for Ukraine, where it will come to supply the population with bandages, medicines or basic food products. Further to the left, brand new mattresses lined up along the fence wink at passers-by.
These unsaleable items given away free of charge by a large e-commerce company are made available to anyone who needs them. They were distributed abundantly to Ukrainian refugees, settled in this town of 30,000 inhabitants. A few people are rummaging through a box, left in evidence in the street, to dig up finds of clothing.
Between two mattresses, Emmanuel Kuźmicz, employee of the Arte cooperative, fills a solidarity fridge. Today it will be strawberries, ham and frankfurters – bought at bargain prices from exporters and other food chains, or donated. Busy every day, everyone is invited at any time to help themselves without having to pay anything. “Here, you can find help at any time”says Emmanuel Kuźmicz, who has been working for almost ten years in this social and solidarity cooperative founded in 2012.
Community spirit
Arte, which employs thirty people in a reintegration situation, often addicted to various drugs, offers them a place to live, a community and a place to work. Most of its employees are employed in green spaces or in construction. Arte benefits from loans at reduced interest rates, financed by the European Social Fund.
Emmanuel Kuźmicz, 58, arrived ten years ago. Homeless at the time, he cured his alcohol addiction thanks to the support of the community and became a pillar of the Arte cooperative. | Helen Welcome
Dressed in a gray sweatshirt and a pair of jeans, Emmanuel Kuźmicz is the epitome of the “Arte model”. This former miner quickly found himself struggling with alcohol after his wife left. He then lost his home and experienced health problems. It was his son who drove him to the Arte home.
“If it hadn’t been him, I wouldn’t have gone. I no longer had any hope. But at Arte, we trust you.” This 50-year-old quickly became one of the pillars of the cooperative. Today, he takes care of all logistical issues within the entity. But he gladly puts his hand to the dough in the construction sites. His latest idea? A barbecue area and stoves in the garden, already ready to employment.
In the large house built on the basis of an old farmhouse and renovated thanks to a loan from the BGK – a Polish state bank – financed by the European social fund, Emmanuel Kuźmicz redoubles his creativity here too. In the vaulted cellar, he would see himself making a dining room “French-style” for community meals. He would gladly add a “orangery” just before the garden.
The Arte fireplace and its solar panels were installed thanks to a loan from the European Social Fund via the Polish bank BGK. | Helen Welcome
In any case, he and his roommates –because the employee is housed on site– have already worked miracles. “This building was a ruin ten years ago. But we have great talents in the team!”. Today, four floors have been tastefully furnished and solar panels have been installed on the roof, generating energy autonomy in the summer months. The building itself is set to expand thanks to a jackpotand its garden will soon house bungalows for families who are victims of domestic violence.
Accidents of life
Upstairs, Arkadiusz Czeszyk puts away his clean laundry in his bedroom – a neatly arranged dormitory under the roof. “I spent nine years of my life in prison, I came out in 2020”, tells this quadra with blue eyes, arrived at Arte in 2022 and now employed by the structure. “I continue my therapy to get rid of cigarettes and alcohol: I go to discussion groups and we have psychologists who come every week. I tried in prison but it never worked. Here, we feel supported and framed. And then, faith helps us”, confides this Pole who attends a local evangelical church. Many of his co-religionists are also employed by Arte.
The dormitory on the first floor of the “maison d’Arte”. | Helen Welcome
“At Arte, we find former bank directors, soldiers, police commanders, Franciscans, former prisoners convicted of murder… and we all grow together”, affirms in the building opposite – a pigsty transformed, a century later, into a plush office – Jarosław Pilecki, at the head of Arte.
“We also received a loan at a favorable rate from BGK to renovate this building where we moved our offices a few months ago”, continues this Pole with the pepper and salt mustache. “We work with people ‘disturbed’ by life. If we ever had to resort to borrowing on the market, we would have already gone bankrupt more than once! We would never have obtained credit at such an advantageous interest rate and we would never have been able to develop as we did,” he admits, grateful.
A former professional footballer in Lower Silesia, Jarosław Pilecki found himself retired at the age of 40 – like many of his colleagues in the profession – in Bielawa. The city still faced a difficult future as its textile industry collapsed in the 1990s.
“Many of my friends who had quit football started getting addicted to various drugs at that time. Their lives had suddenly become meaningless., testifies the one who always practices the round ball between friends. This is how Jarosław Pilecki encounters the Divine and falls into the social. He will end up creating his own cooperative on a vacant lot. “I saw people I knew drinking…and disappearing. I wanted to act, then others joined me and since then we are still learning!”
Social and economic fabric
It is therefore excluded people, prey to drugs, unemployed or leaving the prison world that the fifty-year-old welcomes in his two homes currently housing seventy people. «One of the steps to breaking addiction is to have a job. At Arte, the people we support work or learn a trade. When they are still recovering, they are not very productive. Hence the need for funding over this transitional period, like the twenty trainees we currently have with us, remunerated thanks to the European social fund.»
In all, thirty people are employed by Arte, and the cooperative generates a turnover of 2.5 million zlotys (540,000 euros) per year. “Our employees work for a building trustee in Bielawa, they mow the lawn, maintain the green spaces… Others are engaged in construction or occasionally decorate ceramics. We have employees who travel to construction sites as far as Wrocław [capitale régionale, à un soixantaine de kilomètres de là, ndlr].»
In ten years, no less than 3,000 people have been able to benefit from the help of Arte. “We have very good relations with the town hall. Some of our employees also received municipal apartments to renovate and have been living there ever since. We celebrated a few weddings too!, se réjouit Jarosław Pilecki.
In this social grocery store inaugurated in November 2021, a hundred Bielawians who benefit from social assistance eat at a lower cost on a daily basis. | Helen Welcome
In November 2021, Arte inaugurated a social grocery store, which also benefits from a loan financed by the European Social Fund. “These are additional jobs and it made us discover new audiences, such as the elderly, whom we saw little. And to think that we thought we had already helped a lot with Arte!” s’étonne Jarosław Pilecki.
In the city center of Bielawa, on the ground floor of a small shopping center, a hundred people do their shopping daily. You can find everything there – including a thrift department – at unbeatable prices. A boon for many locals, while inflation gallops to more than 10% per month in Poland.
“The other day, a customer came to buy diapers for her child. Judging by his face, something was wrong. And then we realized that she was homeless.says Anka Pilecka – sister of Jarosław Pilecki – who runs the grocery store. “We immediately contacted Arte, which was able to find accommodation for the small family”, she congratulates herself, adding that she would not change jobs for anything in the world.
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This article was produced as part of the Union is Strength competition which has received financial support from the European Union. The article reflects the views of its author and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for its content or use.
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