What is the Council of Europe doing to strengthen the competence of local self-government officials to ensure the participation of young people in decision-making at the community level? The answer to this question was discussed by the participants of the forum “European integration for communities in Ukraine”.
The forum was held in Lviv from 30 to 31 October 2024 and gathered more than 100 participants from different parts of Ukraine, as well as delegations from the city councils of Mechelen, Vilnius, Krakow, Lublin and Rzeszów. The organisers of the forum were the Lviv Municipal Enterprise “Lviv Bureau of European Integration” and the Department of External Relations and Promotion of the City of Lviv City Council with the support of the European Union and the International Renaissance Foundation within the framework of the joint initiative “European Renaissance of Ukraine”. The forum was devoted to topical issues related to the understanding of European integration processes, partnerships and opportunities for Ukrainian communities.
Liudmyla Kindrat, Project Officer of the project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase ІІІ”, the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, took part in the forum and presented the work of the Council of Europe in Ukraine in the field of strengthening youth policy and youth work in the conditions of the war aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.
From February 2022, the Council of Europe promotes the development of youth policy and youth work in Ukraine during the war through mapping needs and a series of training programmes on social cohesion and barrier-free environment, trauma-informed youth work, non-formal education, participatory youth policy, open youth work. The project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine : Phase III” is aimed at solving new problems in the field of youth, in particular mass displacement throughout the country, general insecurity in all aspects of life.
Participants of the forum investigated the approaches of non-formal education in the field of participatory youth policy. Liudmyla Kindrat presented the experience of developing and implementing the educational and practical programme “Participatory Youth Policy”. Its implementation began in November 2023 in accordance with the developed and approved Model general short-term training programme “Participatory Youth Policy”. The purpose of the programme is to ensure youth participation in the formation and implementation of youth policy, taking into account the standards and approaches of the Council of Europe. The programme includes a training manual , training of trainers, a series of videos of young people’s participation practices, mentoring and expert support of the trainers team in the preparation and implementation of training at the regional and local levels. As a result of these efforts, 20 training programmes for 570 civil servants, local self-government officials, scientists and educators have already been implemented in 2024 in Ukraine.
Vyacheslav Golub, trainer of the Programme, deputy director of the Department of Family, Youth and Sports of the Chernihiv Regional State Administration, joined online and shared the experience of implementing the Programme in the Chernihiv Region, and also emphasized the importance of the “Coming of Age during War” seminar, which the Council of Europe organised from 30 September to 04 October 2024 at the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg.
The participants also got acquainted with the visual tool “Зірки. Stars. Les Étoiles.” for education and training of young people and professional communities in human rights, democracy, non-formal education, youth participation, environmental protection, cultural heritage, artificial intelligence, anti-discrimination and social cohesion.
*
The Council of Europe project "Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase III" was launched within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” for 2023-2026. The third phase is built on results and experiences in 2020-2022 and expands systemic impact by strengthening youth participation policies and youth work in war and post-war contexts, taking into account the needs of young people.
The project is implemented in co-operation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine in three components: 1) participatory youth policy; 2) recognition of youth work in wartime (in particular, trauma-informed youth work); 3) support of youth centres and youth organisations as platforms for civic activity and democratic participation.
The project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase III” highlights the importance of the Council of Europe's Youth Sector Strategy 2030 and reflects the National Strategy of State Youth Policy until 2030, the State Target Social Programme “Youth of Ukraine” 2021-2025.
The Project encourages youth policy stakeholders in Ukraine to implement and disseminate the Recommendations of the Committee of Ministers to Member States: on the access of youth from disadvantaged neighbourhoods to social rights, CM/Rec(2015)3; on young people's access to rights, CM/Rec(2016)7; on youth work, CM/Rec(2017)4; on Roma youth participation CM/Rec(2023)4; on protecting youth civil society and young people, and supporting their participation in democratic processes CM/Rec(2022)6.
News, Council of Europe resources in the field of youth and open announcements for participation in project activities can be found here.
