MISSION

The main goal of Saint Brother Albert’s Society is to help homeless people, impoverished and handicapped in the spirit of preached by Saint Brother Albert message, through restoring human dignity. The dignity can be rebuilt not only through meeting fundamental material needs but also through spiritual and sentimental life development, through experiencing love and community, rebuilding and strengthening family ties, reconstructing world of values and also through acquiring skills, which help to function within society.

The Society places its trust in God’s providence with conviction that what is impossible for a human is possible for God; faith in Providence and intercession of Saint Brother Albert is fundamental for our service to the poor.

“We should not feel anxiety because we have the good Lord who keeps everything in hand even the smallest details. We’ll experience miracles of God’s Providence, which will perform them for our impoverished through our hands"

St. Brother Albert.

ACCEPTED VALUES

Fulfilling the statute goals our Society follows the evangelical love commandment, which is the fundamental and prior value. At the same time following our patron’s message: “When someone is left alone we should serve him with more love”, the Society concentrates on people in the most difficult situation - especially on the homeless and people in hard financial condition.
From among all people in need we want to concentrate on those who are perceived as people who chose the way of life they live, as it’s their own fault; we see in them our brothers in need of help.
 As Jesus who said: Those who are healthy don’t need a doctor, but those who are sick do (Mk 2, 17). The Society wants to be with those who were pushed away and condemned because rejoicing from finding one sheep is bigger then over the ninety-nine that did not go astray ( Mt 18,12 ).

According to the Society it's necessary to appeal to human values – to the postulate about indispensable human dignity, which functions in most religions and outlook systems.
Humiliating dignity in any individual offends dignity in all people. As a society we want to oppose to this, fighting for the most humiliated.

We also want to emphasize the importance of social benefits for the whole society by helping the homeless. It’s fundamental that decreasing homelessness and its drastic aspects brings, at the same time the limitation of criminal activities and incidence rate, the rise of security and order in public places.

Besides all the above fundamental values, the Society concentrates on the detailed values and rules of action, which are achieved in the three areas: 

• fundamental relations – concerning relations between people in need, especially the homeless and our Society.
• internal relations -  concerning functioning of the Society as an organization, and cooperation between people involved in its activity.
• external relations - concerning relations between the Society and the environment

 It’s very important to emphasize that in case of a conflict between the detailed values and rules, the soluble values are always: the love for the neighbour and respect for his dignity and integrity.  

FUNDAMENTAL RELATIONS: THE SOCIETY - PEOPLE IN NEED

„Service to the poor relies on receiving home all that introduce themselves and accordingly to the potential help them in actual needs, give a work to those who are able to work, invite to a prayer, mass and confession”

St. Brother Albert.

1. The fundamental goal of the Society is to help the homeless. To achieve this goal it's necessary to aim for high specialization and professionalism. Other kinds of performance existing at the Society are great complementation for the fundamental activity, but should not take the first place.

2. The Society helps all people in need regardless of religious belief, world outlook or nationality. Helping others is performed in the spirit of Saint Brother Albert with maximum care and respect for the dignity of human being.

3. A pastoral service is organized for the residents at all facilities run by the Society.  It’s important to encourage using this service but without forcing religion practice, remembering that evangelization is accomplished by practicing love conduct and readiness to help in the spirit of the gospel. 

4. Our Society helps others by initially providing accommodation, clothing and food. Following Brother Albert’s words “...to give food to every hungry person, board to the homeless, clothing to the naked; if it can’t be too much, it can be at least little”. It's important to provide at least a minimal support.

5. The Society doesn't narrow the activity to the first aid help, which is only considered the introductory condition to solving permanently problems of a homeless person. We work on the assumption that cooperation with a person in need will permanently result in getting out of homelessness.  We’re against the opinion for such a category as homeless by choice - this “choice” is only a consequence of  misfortune and weaknesses, which are hard to overcome in a certain moment of life and a consequence of no help provided on time.

6.Underlying the necessity for respecting the dignity of people in need,  the Society emphasizes that one of the elements is responsibility and ability to share, to give oneself and ability to require and enforce responsibility. This way the Society prepares the homeless and people in need for taking responsibility for themselves.

7. The fundamental requirement for the residents of the Society’s homes is to stay sober and respect the external rules. Therapies for addicted people are provided – organized by the Society itself or in cooperation with medical service and other organizations.

8. As a really important thing the Society treats work of the homeless and the needy, which can’t be treated only as an economical category and is a vocation and human responsibility; in case of the homeless it is very important therapeutically.
St. Brother Albert said: "A man to be saved needs the door to be opened for him, so he leaves the state of poverty. This is going to happen only by giving him work, especially paid work.” The Society wants the residents of its homes to work not only for the home they live in but also for the closest surrounding and for the cooperating institutions and organizations. 

9. The Society provides help to all people in need no matter where they come from. The Circles have the right to apply for material help from the local authorities, which are obliged by the law to provide such help.

10.  It’s very important to create community of residents, employees, members and volunteers.   The Society considers running such facilities as they are a great experience of neighbouring love.  Expression Love, Shelters for the homeless should be only a transitional period in a person's life. The Society doesn’t run coeducational facilities and facilities for entire families.

11. The Society uses present knowledge about a human from pedagogy, psychology, sociology and also Saint Brother Albert’s values: prayer, work, community and reintegration with society.

12. Through multidimensional and multilevel activities we aim for reintegrating people in need with society. Spiritual help through psychological and therapeutic help and also through medical, social and legal is provided. Moreover, the Society helps in finding employment and accommodation, helps in returning to families, teaches how to spend free time through organizing cultural, sport and educational events; tries to show positive life models.

13. The Society tries to stay in touch with people who left its facilities, supports them in solving every day problems and becomes involved in the work of supporting groups for people joining “getting out of homelessness” program.  The Society recognizes and gives help to people from pathologic environments and those at risk of becoming homeless, especially children and youth, to protect them from begging and becoming homeless.

14. The Society organizes and runs clubs with the main goal to restore the homeless to normal social life. The clubs are based on a self-help rule, gathering the homeless who are participants of „getting out of homelessness” programs, people at risk of homelessness and previously homeless.  

EXTERNAL RELATIONS

”You should be as good as bread (...) you should be like bread, which lies on the table for everyone, the bread from which everyone can cut a bite and feed himself.”

Saint Brother Albert

1. The Society needs to be highly professional, concentrating on delivering long term and complex help that leads to prevention and permanently pulls out of homelessness. Considering the above, the Society initiates and supports research on homelessness, prevention and pull out methods. It uses obtained knowledge and systematically increases the qualifications of the members, employees and volunteers.

2. The Society aims for territorial development. The main goal is to open facilities in all the parts of the country. The offer should be available everywhere and for everyone.  Developing the chain of its facilities specializing at helping in all the different cases of homelessness, the Society aims to receive financial aid from internal funds.

3. At the same time it’s important to optimize the size of the facilities according to the needs and possibilities.

4. The Society organizes the database of the homeless for the correct recognition of each single case and for delivering help in the most suitable form.

5. The knowledge and experience gained at the Society is the common good. All the members and employees are obliged to share the acquired knowledge. The authority organizes the professional system of information exchange about its resources; moreover, promotes innovative solutions, develops the computerization of its structure for making popularization and the exchange of experience easier.

6. Work in the Circles is the fundamental form of the Society’s activity. The Circles fulfill the Society’s strategy and keep the internal ties. At the same time, the versatility of the Circles is considered as one of the important values to be protected. Each circle is required to transfer certain part of its own funds for the Society's activity; to share the knowledge and experience, to share material reserves surplus and participate in the joint events organized to fight poverty and homelessness.

7. Every zloty received by the Society belongs to the poor. This obligates to save money and rationalize the outflow of the funds. To fulfill the above it is necessary to support the Circles’ goal to be financially independent and to receive legal entity. The Circles try not to take on any financial obligations which could charge entire Society; they try to rationalize their internal financial economy thinking not only about fulfilling all the needs but also about solvency and the good name. The legal form of use for the buildings is ownership.  The Society attempts that investments on the buildings go towards their ownership and rationally increase possessions in the spirit of Christian poverty.

8. The postulate of serving the needy obligates all the members to work for the Society. The Society wants to be rational and save the funds by making use of the work done by all the members and volunteers.

9.The Board of Directors creates the trends of activity for the whole Society, takes a stand on homelessness because of the central government and local self-government policy: prepares own propositions of system solutions and promotes activity in preventing homelessness; organizes training and information activity for members and employees; creates and controls uniform accounting and IT system, creates the samples of regulations and contracts, delivering help procedures, fosters international cooperation, applies for government funds and foreign help, searches for strategic donors.

10. The Society membership is open for all who accept its statute and the rule of working in the spirit of Saint Brother Albert. The membership can’t be treated instrumentally for reaching individual or family goals. The only goal is the good of the people in need which is fulfilled with respect for their dignity and integrity. This is how we understand work in the spirit of St. Albert. Calling for life in Christian excellence is to renounce one’s own matters and devote whole oneself to the matters of the poor. No one will be disqualified if this calling can’t be met.

11. The member’s responsibility, beside participation in meetings and paying fees, is to keep ties with the units and participation in special events. The most important is to work in the spirit of Saint Brother Albert.

12. Not only members but also employees and volunteers need to accept the statute and the rules of work in the spirit of St. Brother Albert. The Society is open for every person who wants to help the homeless – anyway, decision - making function is reserved for Christians only. The Society expects from its employees to possess a very good ethical attitude and personal abilities, to work with the homeless and people in need. The most important is to live accordingly to the Christian values and gain qualifications systematically.

13. The Society is very demanding to the employees and at the same time aims for good salary.

INTERNAL RELATIONS

“There are needs of an individual not to be rejected by others (...)”

St. Brother Albert.

1. The Society aims to shape actively the environment in the following areas:
a) changing attitude toward the homeless
b) educating about methods of delivering help to the homeless
c) change of legal and economical conditions for helping the homeless.

2. The Society considers it very important to keep political neutrality in relations with the environment.  We allow the political activity of individual members but it's absolutely not allowed to involve the Society as a whole organism in political games or announcing political propaganda at our facilities.  A rule of separating political activity from voluntary activity should be obvious for all the members.

3. The government, as an institution, shapes current social policy and the law creates conditions in which the Society operates.  The current social policy and legislation are not only the subject of interest but also a matter of the Society's influence.  By accomplishing the above, the Society:
a) cooperates with the Sejm and the Senate committees responsible for issues concerning the Society’s activity by presenting its stand and assistance  
b) cooperates with certain ministers and actively promotes the Society's interest at these institutions;
c) actively participates in the work of the Public Benefit Works Council;
d) prepares its own stand on all the important issues of social policy, especially issues concerning homelessness
e) prepares and promotes its own vision of complex solutions for helping the homeless in Poland.

4. The Society cooperates with the institutions working on the problems of people excluded from society and also with the judiciary and public order institutions.  Help in fighting social life pathologies is a very important task in preventing homelessness and exclusion from society.

5. The Society’s Circles cooperate with local self-government and aim to sign up long-term contracts for taking over own tasks concerning homeless care. The Society’s national authorities work out a common cooperating strategy and prepare negotiation guidelines for the Circles with local self-governments. The Society aims to enforce the legal requirement for financing homeless care from all the local self-governments.

6. The Society cooperates closely with the Catholic Church structures and other Christian churches through their spiritual care over the facilities. The most expected cooperating effect should be: regular spiritual care in the Circles and creating a national homeless people chaplaincy.

7. The Society has an active policy for requesting funds from European Union. For the above reasons, courses for the Circles are organized, monitor new programs, inform how to gain funds; make an effort to start help programs for developing homeless care infrastructure - building sheltered housing, day and night shelters.

8. Searching for donors is a very important issue for the Society. For this reason, we accept all forms of help and don't refuse any cooperation with those who want to help people from our Albertan facilities.  The Society refuses suspected help when there’s a chance of using our organization as a subject of political and instrumental game, or money laundry.  

9. The Society’s rule is to broadly present its activity and to increase the presence in mass media, especially on national television. The effective way of gaining funds, finding members, volunteers and influencing policy of government and territorial self - governments in the area of homeless care is systematic and current information about homelessness problems, ways of prevention and helping methods.

10. The Society cooperates with universities and aims to start research programs on homelessness - mostly concentrated on work methods with the homeless; cooperates with educational institutions to increase educational level on homelessness. As a form of education, the Society involves youth in different events, for example, collecting money for the homeless.

11. The Society makes an effort to start cooperation with professional associations and trades unions to recruit professionals and freelancers.

12. A very important rule for all the Circles is harmonious coexistence and cooperation with the local communities where the Society’s facilities are located. The Albertan facilities try to do some work for the local environment, cooperate with the closest neighbours, and support institutions taking care of children and youth upbringing and also church voluntary work.  

 Saint Brother Albert teaches us:

'Always go forward,
even after the bitterest disappointments and the most tempestuous waves of the ocean,
since God watches over us,
while for our part, we must not draw back but be ready for everything,
if God should require it from us."