An Irlam-based community group is on a mission to support and connect Salford’s growing Polish community.
First established as a children’s football club Magic FC in 2015, it’s safe to say the Together Family Centre in Irlam had an atypical start.
Set up by Katie Przybylska and her partner at the time, the football club naturally created its own community of Polish families, as parents brought their children to be taught by a Polish coach.
However, after winning the Salford under 8s league, a widespread issue became more apparent to Katie. Many parents whose children were struggling to cope with a range of things like bullying and ADHD didn’t know where they could turn to for help in the UK.
“We had discovered that there is a need to have consultations held by a professional Polish speaker,” Katie said. “They (the parents) didn’t know the system at all and they didn’t know where to go for help, or who to contact.”
After providing support for children and parents of Magic Sport, Katie began to get more enquiries from those who weren’t associated with the football club, and so created the Together Family Centre in 2017.
Despite the club unfortunately closing down during the pandemic, the Together Family Centre has only grown, and now operates from a building next to St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Irlam.
The centre hosts a range of events and support groups and sessions for Salford’s Polish community, ranging from children’s sensory therapy to adult’s coffee mornings.
“We have a mission of belonging, socialising, raising people’s potential, giving a hand when it’s needed, to feel that this is your place and that it is a place to be,” Katie said.
“I came to the UK 12 years ago, and when you come from abroad, you might feel as though you don’t have the same rights because your country is far away. Even if everyone tells you that you do have the right and that you are working and paying tax, you have that impression and the feeling that you don’t belong here.
“Our mission is to break that barrier, to integrate society with positivity, through the therapies, by socialising, integration. We have so many great professionals who can give advantages to the community. We want to give Poles a sense that they have rights. They don’t need to be afraid about the system…it is for the whole community and society including minority ethnics.”
Visitors of the Wednesday coffee morning shared that they visit weekly to extend their social circle of members of the Polish community in the local area.
Translated by Martina, a first time coffee morning visitor, Katie was described by the others as ‘golden dust’ – which means finding someone as committed and hardworking as her is rare.
Amongst the most important of the support they provide, according to Katie, is the community translation service, where the centre help clients who aren’t fluent in English approach important financial or legal paperwork.
As well as this, the Together Family Centre has helped three clients get accepted to University in the last three months.
Katie’s biggest aspiration for the future is to become ‘well-known and recognisable in the local area’:
She added: “A polish lady who has a child with autism was flying to Poland every month to get some therapy, and she didn’t know the therapy is happening in the same city.
“[I want] The people who are in need, or looking for the service, they will remember that service is here, because the service is amazing.”
You can find out more about the Together Family Centre here.
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