Project encouraging good community relations between Polish community and their Paisley neighbours

Jan 29 2011 by Alison Rennie, Paisley Daily Express

A PROJECT which encourages good relations between Renfrewshire’s Polish community and their Scottish neighbours is to hit the small screen.

The Good Community Relations Project brought together a group of Polish people who have made Paisley their home.

They devised a short play which highlighted the issue of racial harassment and antisocial behaviour in housing which is faced by the Polish community.

Now a DVD of the play has been put together and 500 copies are being sent to Renfrewshire Council, Paisley police office, housing associations and other community organisations.

The play is centred on a Polish family living in Paisley who are being racially harassed and how they go about reporting it.

It had its debut last year in the Tannahill Centre in Ferguslie Park, Paisley, then went on to Kirklandneuk Community Centre then Johnstone Castle Learning Centre.

Joanna Wisniewska is a development officer with the West of Scotland Regional Equality Council (WSREC) and worked on the Good Neighbours Project.

She told the Express: “The project started last year.

“We got funding from the Safe Renfrewshire Partnership to get involved.

“We looked for volunteers from the Polish community and put the drama together with help from conFAB.

“The DVD is in Polish with English subtitles and we hope it will be a big success.”

Joanna holds a weekly drop-in session every Monday from 4pm till 6pm at the Lagoon for Central and Eastern European migrant workers to talk about any problems they may have.

She said: “A lot of people spoke about racial harassment and didn’t know what to do or where to turn to for help.

“They’ve come from different countries and don’t know what the police can do.

“They don’t know they can report issues to housing associations and the council, that doesn’t exist where they’ve come from.

“Our aim with the play was the show how to deal with certain issues and where to turn to. If people don’t want to go to the police directly, they can go to a different organisation.”

For more information on the Good Community Relations Project, contact Joanna on 0141 337 6626 or e-mail jwisniewska@wsrec.co.uk