Our mission and why is it important to us?
The mission of the Key to the Future Foundation is to provide equal educational
opportunities for children and youth in foster care. Most of kids in foster care don’t have access
to tutoring, thus increasing the disproportion in school achievement between them and the
other students in Poland. We decided to change that. Our goal is to give children in foster
care access to tutoring so that they can fill up on their gaps in the material taught at school
just as all the other students do. To achieve our goal, we are connecting volunteers with
children and youth from foster care.
Why did I decide to set up a Foundation?
(The story of Karolina – founder of the Key to the Future Foundation)
When I was a child, I watched a movie “Pay it Forward” which left an incredible impression
on me. The idea behind the movie is to do good. The teacher portrayed in the movie assigned
his students homework – to find a way to make the world a better place. One of the
students, Trevor, came up with the idea “pay it forward,” that was to help three people and
ask them to help another three. This is how the pyramid of the good deeds was created.
After watching “Pay it Forward” I thought that although it is only a movie, Trevor’s
philosophy makes a lot of sense. I would like to “pay it forward” too. When I was in
elementary school, my Mum worked together with the Youth Sociotherapy Center “Dom przy
Rynku” in the Warsaw Old Town. She often took me along over there. It was then that I
realized that not every child has a life like I do. Since then, the thought of helping other kids
has always stayed close to my heart. In my adult life, I became a volunteer at the Warsaw
Hospice for Children, where I took care of kids with terminal diseases and their siblings.
It was then that I decided to set up a foundation, but I wanted to make sure that I am ready
for this challenge. First I needed to gain experience at some already existing foundations, where
I could learn from others. I gained skills in accounting, marketing, fundraising,
and management in practice. During the pandemic, I started tutoring kids from institutional
foster care. Weronika was my first student, we have become friends. The relationship with
her made me realize that it’s high time to start the Key to the Future Foundation.
So here we go…