On 14 July 2026, a public presentation of the comprehensive report of the citizens’ assembly on the topic "How can we make our community a place where young people want to stay and build their future?" took place in Rivne. The event was organised by the Council of Europe project "Strengthening multilevel governance and local democracy to support Ukraine’s recovery" in cooperation with the Rivne City Council.

Seventeen Citizens’ Assembly participants attended the presentation, demonstrating their commitment to monitoring the implementation of the recommendations developed and the authorities’ follow-up actions.  The event also brought together members of the Rivne City Council, heads of the Executive Committee’s structural divisions, representatives of relevant departments, and the Chair of the Youth Council.

The Rivne municipality citizens’ assembly took place in March-April 2026 with the expert, methodological and financial support of the Council of Europe project. Participants were selected through a civic lottery designed to ensure that the assembly reflected the municipality’s socio-demographic profile. Over the course of three weekends (six days), participants explored the topic with the support of independent experts, analysed the key challenges related to creating conditions that encourage young people to stay and build their future in the municipality, and jointly developed 20 recommendations for the local authorities.

The report presented at the event documents every stage of the citizens’ assembly process, including the preparatory phase and communication campaign, the methodology for the random selection of participants, the organisation of the three assembly sessions, expert input and facilitation, participants’ experiences and feedback, the final recommendations, and the proposed next steps for their implementation.

• Report of the Rivne municipality citizens’ assembly (in Ukrainian)
• Leaflet "Recommendations of the Rivne municipality citizens’ assembly" (in Ukrainian)

"For the Rivne municipality, it is important that the citizens’ assembly recommendations were developed by residents themselves after an in-depth learning process and discussions with experts. This makes them practical and highly valuable for the future work of the local authorities. We see this report as a tool that will help us move from discussing challenges to implementing concrete solutions for young people in our municipality," said Artem Hanushchak, Deputy Mayor of Rivne, in his opening remarks.

A dedicated part of the presentation focused on the experiences of the citizens’ assembly members. They reflected on their participation in the process and shared how the Assembly had changed their understanding of civic participation.

"What impressed me most was that people with very different backgrounds and opinions were able to listen to one another, find common ground and work together on solutions. After taking part in the Assembly, I truly felt that citizens can influence change when there is an open and honest space for dialogue," said one of the assembly members.

The presentation concluded with a discussion on the next steps for considering and implementing the citizens’ assembly's recommendations. The discussion provided an opportunity to continue the dialogue between residents and the local authorities and to outline the next phase of implementation. In particular, over the coming months, the Rivne City Council plans to approve an Action Plan based on the detailed recommendations presented in the report, defining concrete measures, responsible institutions and implementation timelines.

The preparation and implementation of the citizens’ assembly as well as the preparation of the report take place within the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” for 2023-2026 and the project “Strengthening multilevel governance and local democracy to support Ukraine’s recovery”, implemented by the Council of Europe Centre of Expertise for Multilevel Governance at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.