In the framework of the visit to Ivano-Frankivsk, senior project officer Volodymyr Kebalo held meetings with the Mayor, Deputy Mayors, heads of all structural units, civil society representatives and volunteers to discuss the launch of the implementation of the 3-year Municipal Programme on Promotion of Volunteer Activities and its implementation action plan. The Programme was developed by the Council of Europe project “Strengthening civil participation in democratic decision making in Ukraine” in June-July 2022, featuring the engagement of experts, civil society representatives, volunteers and local self-government representatives from across Ukraine with the aim to promote the enabling environment for voluntary activities across the Ukrainian municipalities, building capacity of CSOs, volunteer and community initiative groups to work together and engage with local authorities, IDPs, youth, vulnerable groups, strengthening their role in the recovery and reconstruction process. “It is important to maintain the wave of volunteer activity and give it even greater impetus and potential and strengthen the trust that has already been established between local self-government bodies and volunteers. We hope that our practice will become a good case for other cities or communities of Ukraine”, - stressed Ivano-Frankivsk City Mayor Ruslan Martsynkiv.
The meetings with the representatives of the civil society organisations aided to assess the needs of CSOs, the current environment of civic participation, civil society development and voluntary activities, identify priority activities within the Programme, challenges to the engagement among civic actors as well as between civil society and the local authorities in the advocacy and decision-making process.
The development of volunteering in Ukrainian communities continues - currently, the Council of Europe project provides expert methodological support in the process of adaptation and implementation of the Program on Promotion of Volunteer Activities in a number of Ukrainian communities, in particular Lviv, Mukachevo and Kyiv.
