State social policy should take into account the subsidiary nature of assistance from public authorities in relation to the activity of the interested parties in their efforts to find and pursue work. Social assistance supports individuals and families in their efforts to meet the necessary needs and enables them to live in conditions which conform to human dignity. This aim is achieved by preventing insurmountable, difficult life situations when an individual in a crisis situation ceases to be self-sufficient. A classified form of this difficult situation is the case of individuals (families) who are on the verge of social exclusion. For it is the category of “social safety” that accommodates those allowances that are directed at individuals (families) being in a particularly difficult situation, and their function is to prevent the deprivation of needs. The group of social safety benefits singled out in this study constitutes a sub-category of social assistance benefits. Providing social safety is implemented with the use of a directory of services of different specifics, roles and functions.

From the point of view of social policy, the need of security is considered as the indispensable part of functioning and development of every society. Citizens’ participation avers that the inhabitants will have the possibility of taking part in making decisions about their own surrounding, which results in development of the sense of security. The actions taken in the social space initiate the existence of the selfaware civil society. This article’s main aim is to discuss the possibilities of assuring the social security through civil commitment and their active participation in the public life. The formal instruments that occur in the system of Polish law (i.e. a participation in the open debate, a participation in the elections, a legislative initiative) have been analyzed. Those instruments enable to the residents the participation and codecision making and, what follows, they contribute towards forming broadly defined security.