From 9 to 10 August 2025 the Ukrainian Youth Forum 2025 was held in Lviv, the European Youth Capital 2025, bringing together young people from different regions of Ukraine. This event provided a significant space for more than 200 participants to meaningfully work on the development of youth policy and the strengthening of partnerships at the local and national levels, as well as contributing ideas for how young people can assist the reconstruction process in Ukraine.
The opening of the Forum was attended by Hilde Haug, Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office. Haug reconfirmed the Council of Europe’s support to Ukraine within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” for 2023-2026. She emphasized the importance of involving youth in issues that affect their lives and of having spaces like the Forum providing opportunities to discuss issues related to youth, including the challenges they face during war.
At the “alley of opportunities” – a space where young people and youth workers could get acquainted with the programmes and projects of civil society organisations and international institutions, learn about available opportunities and resources for training and development – the Council of Europe project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase IV” had a stand, where it presented the Council of Europe resources within the youth sector. This included:
- “Compass: Manual for Human Rights Education with Young People”, which contains about 60 different exercises on the topics of anti-discrimination, education, civic participation and youth participation;
- Trauma-Informed Youth Work training course manual, which contains about 20 training sessions that can be carried out, both for young people and professional communities;
- Educational and informational posters on resilience and recovery, which were developed within the framework of the training programme “Trauma-Informed Youth Work”, to enable a wider audience to learn about support, calming techniques, resource channels, psychological first aid, etc.
- Participatory Youth Policy Manual, which is based on the developed and approved Model General Short-Term Training Programme “Participatory Youth Policy” for civil servants and local self-government officials;
- A board game about young people’s participation “Solutions exist!”, which helps to explore policies that affect young people and how to strengthen these policies, what barriers that hinder youth participation and ways to overcome them, as well as forms of participation and mechanisms to ensure the right, means, space, opportunities and support for young people's participation.
On 11 August 2025, the Council of Europe project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase IV” together with the Ukrainian-Danish Youth House and the United Nations Development Programme are organising a series of events in Kyiv on the occasion of Youth Day. The Council of Europe will present resources and opportunities for young people, as well the mentioned “Solutions exist!” board game about young people’s participation.
The Ukrainian Youth Forum 2025 is organised by the Council on Youth Affairs under the President of Ukraine in close co-operation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, the Network “TVORY!”, the initiative “Lviv – European Youth Capital 2025” with the support of UNICEF in Ukraine with the financial support of the Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development of Germany (BMZ) through the German Development Bank (KfW), Hepatica Foundation, the project “EU4Youth IV: Youth Engagement and Empowerment”, co-funded by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the Swiss-Ukrainian EGAP programme implemented by the East Europe Foundation, the Council of Europe project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase IV”, with the support of PipeLogicAI, the CSO “Platform for the Development of Youth Initiatives”, as well as in co-operation with the Office of the President of Ukraine.
The Council of Europe project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase IV” was launched within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine @Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” for 2023-2026. News, resources of the Council of Europe in the field of youth, as well as open announcements for participation in the Project’s activities can be found here.
