News & Events

Back How to hear the voices of young people: The Council of Europe and its partners presented new resources, opportunities and grants

The Council of Europe project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase ІІІ” strengthens participatory youth policy and youth work in Ukraine in time of the war taking into account the needs of young people.

300 representatives of youth centres and spaces, youth workers, experts, and international partners gathered for the All-Ukrainian Forum of Youth Work “United by Light” in Kyiv from 28 November to 01 December 2024. At this significant event participants discussed how to ensure that the voices of young people are heard and needs of different groups of young people are addressed, in particular in the context of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.

Tobias Flessenkemper, the Head of the Youth Department of the Council of Europe, addressed the participants with a welcoming speech and emphasised “The Council of Europe is a driving force behind the development of youth policy and youth work across Europe. Our commitment to setting and upholding European standards in the field of youth is unparalleled. Ukraine has always been an integral part of this mission. We are proud to provide guidance and support in these crucial areas.”

The Council of Europe project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase III” in co-operation with its partners and experts held a workshop on the Council of Europe Quality Label for Youth Centres. Youth workers explored the historical perspective of the Council of Europe efforts to establish the European youth centres in Strasbourg and Budapest, to initiate the programme of the Council of Europe Quality Label for youth centres. Elmira Chepiha, co-ordinator of youth and volunteer programmes in SCO “Sloviansk Cultural Centre “Zadzerkalya”, relocated from the Donetsk region to Kropyvnytskyi city, presented the results of her participation in a peer-to-peer study visit to the Marttinen Youth Centre with the Council of Europe Quality Label, Wirrat (Finland) in 2023. Study visits to the youth centre in Killarney (Ireland) with the Council of Europe Quality Label in 2023 and the current visit to the Lisbon youth centre (Portugal) with the Council of Europe Quality Label were discussed.

Alina Kasianova, Olena Arutunian, Olena Kravchuk, Angela Tymchenko and Volodymyr Kryzhanovsky, trainers of the Council of Europe programme “Trauma-informed youth work”, organised a workshop to explore key elements and resources of the training programme, notably the Guide on trauma-informed youth work, the Resilience journal for adolescence, the visual tool “Зірки. Stars. Les etoiles”. Andrii Chesnokov, the Deputy Minister of youth and sports of Ukraine, took part in the workshop and emphasized the importance of the Trauma-informed youth work programme.

Participants from different regions of Ukraine explored the research results on needs and state of activity of youth workers and prospects for the development of youth work during the war in Ukraine and in the post-war period. The research was conducted in 2024 by the All-Ukrainian youth centre, the Council of Europe project “Youth for democracy in Ukraine: Phase III” in co-operation with the Ministry of youth and sports of Ukraine and the Association of Youth Workers of Ukraine.

At the Fair of opportunities from international organisations, the Council of Europe project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase III” brought together representatives of partner organisations, participants of the training programmes and visits, as well as youth workers looking for ways, ideas and inspiration for co-operation. In particular, the project presented the following resources:

Grants of the European Youth Foundation for pilot projects of youth CSOs up to 15000 euros;
Compass: a manual for Human Rights Education with Young People, which contains about 60 different activities on the topics of anti-discrimination, education, civic participation and youth participation;
A manual of the training course “Trauma-Informed Youth Work”, which contains about 20 training sessions that can be conducted, both for young people and for professional communities;
A manual “Participatory Youth Policy” for conducting training based on Model General Short-Term Training Programme for civil servants and local self-government officials.

The Forum was organised by the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, the All-Ukrainian Youth Centre in partnership with the OSCE Support Programme for Ukraine, the USAID Dream and Act programme implemented by IREX, the USAID DOBRE Programme implemented by Global Communities and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the EU4Youth IV project co-financed by the European Union and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), UNICEF Ukraine, the British Council in Ukraine, the humanitarian organization “People in Need” with the financial support of the Czech people, within the framework of the “Democratic Integration, Resilience and Engagement” (Ukraine-DARE) project implemented by Democracy Reporting International (DRI) with the financial support of the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Germany, the UNDP project in Ukraine “Support to Civil Society and Youth”, funded by the Government of Denmark.

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.

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.