Business centres are rarely associated with social activities and commitment to ecology, urban projects or good neighbourly relations. Gdańsk’s Olivia Business Centre shows that it can be different. Over the last 12 months, the social initiatives established in its community have included – in addition to the constant support of hospitals and medical staff – m.in. restoration of the Avenue of Trees along the main Tri-City artery, a neighbourhood budget that supports local projects submitted by residents, as well as public collections of computer equipment that is donated to students at risk of educational exclusion during online education.

Szymon Renk, an employee of the commercialization department of Olivia Business Centre, has prepared the project Grunwaldzka Avenue through Wielkie A . It is an initiative that aims to restore Grunwaldzka Street in Gdańsk to the character of an urban avenue. Back in the 60s. It was a road surrounded by mature trees, providing shade, friendly greenery, filtering the air and limiting high temperatures during the summer heat. Currently, there is no trace of the trees and many residents of the Tri-City no longer remember the former character of the street. Szymon Renek’s project was submitted to the Gdańsk Participatory Budget in 2020 and gained huge support from residents, receiving the highest number of votes of all submitted projects.

” Urban planning is my eternal passion,” says Szymon Renk, the author of the project. I read books on the subject, I watch albums from all over the world, I browse discussion forums every day. By chance, I came across a photo of Grunwaldzka Avenue from the 1960s, when it did not resemble the current “motorway” at all. With this project, I would like to change the character of the avenue I use every day. This street has great potential in terms of urban fabric and commercial premises on the ground floors of buildings. Olivia has shown this in the last 10 years. This will be confirmed by anyone who remembers neglected wastelands, a used car dealership or a go-kart track, which were located in the place of today’s business showcase of the Tri-City. I submitted the project because it is tIt’s the perfect place where you can make people see that a street is not just a roadway without harming any road user. It is also greenery, small architecture, a pavement encouraging walks or a bicycle path. I would like to act “at the grassroots” so that the inhabitants change their perception of the city, the inhabitants of Oliwa, students and employees of office buildings feel that it is pleasant to walk to SKM or commute to work by bike; so that the commercial premises in this area start to be teeming with life. – adds Szymon Renk.

Commitment to the medical community and people in need

The project is currently waiting to be implemented, but in the meantime the Olivia community is involved in other, no less important initiatives. Since the spring of 2020, Olivia Business Centre has been financing food supplies for the employees of the Gdańsk Hospital. St. Wojciech in Zaspa, who are fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. So far, more than 10,000 have been delivered. portions of meals. In addition, twice a week, food is also delivered to Oliwa support points for people in need as part of the Zupa na Oliwie project. These are “food sharing” fridges, to which food is delivered every day by residents and gastronomes of Oliwa.

During the pandemic, Olivia Business Centre undertook a number of initiatives under the name Together we can do more, which were addressed to the to the medical community, and were intended to support their activities during the pandemic. In April 2020, Olivia financed the construction of a fully test-ready diagnostic module. It makes it possible to test staff for coronavirus in front of the hospital building. It is the first project of this kind in Poland. The second such building, also financed by Olivia Business Centre, was erected at the campus of the University of Gdańsk and was the first walk-thru CPVID-19 test centre in Poland, enabling the testing of non-motorised patients. In addition, as part of the Together We Can More project, hospitals in Gdańsk received a ventilator, fumigator, medical clothing and protective masks.

Olivia Business Centre also supported the volunteering of the Dominican Fathers, who set up a helpline dedicated to receiving reports from people in need of help during quarantine, isolation or for fear of infection.

Supporting students during remote education and district development initiatives

The OBC Social Activist group established in Olivia Business Centre (on Facebook) is very active. Since the beginning of the pandemic, this informal group has been collecting used computers as part of the Laptops for Students campaign. Olivia’s residents and befriended institutions have already collected over 60 computers, which were donated free of charge to schools in Oliwa. The campaign aims to counteract the digital exclusion of students who, due to the lack of computers, are at risk of educational exclusion during the period of online learning. Currently, OBC Social Activists are in talks with the Santander Group about acquiring as many as 80 computers. They need to be adapted to the needs of students, which is why the members of the group are asking for support in the form of the purchase of software or hardware parts, as well as help in configuring the equipment.

In the autumn of last year, the first edition of the Oliwa Neighbourhood Budget – a project of financial support for initiatives submitted by the residents of the district – had its first edition. Its aim is to improve their quality of life, modernize the surrounding space and introduce solutions that will develop local interactions. Both soft projects (organisation of meetings, courses or workshops) and infrastructure projects that will become a permanent part of the Oliwa space could apply for funding. In the edition, which was decided in September, three projects received funding: Library + , submitted by a group of parents from Oliwa. As part of the project, a children’s section was created in the district library, which was to encourage the youngest inhabitants of Oliwa to visit the facility more often and to familiarize them with books and reading. The second project, Cultural and Culinary Oliwa , was submitted by the City Initiative Association and the Special Schools Complex No. 2. The project involves the creation of a map of Oliwa with the biggest attractions of the district, less popular, but also worth seeing, as well as gastronomic and service outlets, cafes… Thanks to it, it will be possible to promote local entrepreneurs widely. The third project is Arte-creation , submitted by the Association for People with Parkinson’s Disease and Degenerative Brain Diseases and Caregivers: Park On. As part of the project, funding was granted to 18 art and ceramics workshops with elements of art therapy dedicated to people who, due to their age or the consequences of a progressive degenerative brain disease, are at risk of depression, loss of fitness, and a sense of exclusion.

Social projects contribute to meeting local needs, improving the quality of life, and also act as a contribution of investors to the development of the environment in which they develop their business. They are an excellent example of the synergy that allows the neighbours of large investment projects to benefit from new projects that appear in their environment.