Our focus areas and projects
In 2008, the Mary Foundation launched its two current focus areas “bullying and wellbeing” and “domestic violence”.
Under each of these headings, the Mary Foundation is presently working on the following projects:
Bullying and Wellbeing
• Free of Bullying – an anti-bullying programme for preschools and early school years
• Free of Bullying – a children’s relay race taking place annually in Copenhagen and Aarhus
• Kammagiitta – Free of Bullying – an anti-bullying programme for preschools and early school years in Greenland
• Reading and playing (working title)
Domestic Violence
• “Backpacks - for children at women´s shelters” in Denmark, Greenland and Faroe Islands
• “Advice for Life" - a counseling programme providing social, financial and legal advice to women who are vulnerable and affected by violence and women in women´s shelters in Denmark.
• Publication of a children’s book in Danish and Greenlandic about domestic violence entitled “Fantasy Stories”.
Additional activities
• The Mary Foundation’s Youth Think Tank
• Holding of conferences on, for instance, domestic violence, bullying, dating violence and loneliness.
A different foundation
In significant aspects, the Mary Foundation stands out from other foundations, for instance by not merely awarding grants, but taking upon itself to serve as a catalyst and social entrepreneur identifying, developing and implementing projects in cooperation with experts and partners. In other cases, we seek out partners to help us refine existing projects. The common denominator is that we set out to conduct innovative social projects capable of producing systemic change over time.
The Mary Foundation’s approach is analytical, methodical, systematic and result-oriented. The main focus areas have been identified and selected against the background of extensive study of the social landscape in Denmark and in view of The Mary Foundation’s mission. We focus on analysis, measurability and documentation in order to ensure that our work lives up to its goal of making a difference to socially vulnerable and isolated people.
The Mary Foundation cooperates with the consultancy firm McKinsey on the development of evaluation models for our work on the ground. The purpose is to enable our projects to be systematically measured for their impact, evaluated and adjusted.
Good intentions must be underpinned by professionalism
We seek to understand not just the problems, but also their consequences. This is why we are engaged in close dialogue with a range of experts dedicated to addressing social concerns in practice. Each of the areas of “Bullying and Wellbeing”, “Domestic Violence” and Loneliness is supported by an expert panel of professionals, researchers and organisational representatives. We spend a lot of time familiarising ourselves with the complex issues faced by socially vulnerable people.
