Free aid

The first plan to establish citizens advisory facilities was created in 1938. There were already almost 200 of them a year later. The fact that it was a public initiative, financed from public funds, and dependent on public institutions, was a crucial element.

Nowadays the facilities are part of a Citizens Advice network, running an online service of information exchange. Organisations offering free aid must bear an official quality mark. One of them is delivered by The Legal Society, others by an institution managing the system of free legal aid, the Legal Service Commission (LSC). Within the British model, every facility is run as an independent organisation. There is one central facility, at a general level, which integrates them all and strengthens their potential.

The Polish citizens advisory facilities were created basing on the standards that have been established by the British ones within the last 70 years. The first ones were opened in Warsaw, Przemyśl, Wrocław, and Łomża in 1996.

The first facility was created by the Centre of Social Information Association to answer to the needs of society, which underwent transformations after 1989. At that time, citizens advice was understood as offering advice about any aspect of social life, and was to provide a complex assistance to individuals in crisis situations.

The inspiring ideals are based on the supposition that effective assistance refers to the global life situation of an individual, and to the capacity to support them in finding a solution themselves in order to improve their situation. Therefore, citizens advice cannot focus solely on a selected aspect of a problem, such as legal. The first facilities offered specific legal, economic, and educational counselling. However, that was not sufficient for individuals struggling with various problems at once, and on top of that also with resettling, being homeless, or suddenly losing all material means.

Furthermore, the first citizens advisory facilities in Poland were personal initiatives, and, only in 1998, they came together to create the Association of Citizens Advisory Centres and to start working with public, non-governmental, and commercial entities. The association is made of independent organisations: associations and foundations running citizens advice facilities.

The facilities are run by NGOs. The organisations are allowed to run citizens advisory facilities once they are included in the voivode list. The Association of Citizens Advisory Centres has a training capacity and delivers certifications.