In January this year, the Intercultural Strategy of the City of Vinnytsia, Ukraine, came fully into force after being adopted by the Vinnytsia City Council in December 2020. Vinnytsia then becomes the third city of the Ukrainian ICC Network – following the Cities of Melitopol and Sumy - to adopt an intercultural strategy as a stand-alone policy document. The intercultural strategy has been developed through a grassroots participatory process and dedicated to the city's intercultural vision, mission and a long-term action plan for the implementation of intercultural initiatives.

The preparation of a dedicated Intercultural Strategy became a priority in 2018, when the Mayor created a working group for its development . In total, seven working group meetings were held as part of the strategy design process, with the participation of local and international actors as well as of the national ICC coordinator. The meetings were open to the public and involved many interested foreign and local residents of the city. Everyone had a say in the development of the document.

The newly adopted strategy aims at strengthening the intercultural awareness of the residents of Vinnytsia and fostering their engagement in the life of the city. It also aims at improving opportunities for representation and personal development of ethnic and national minorities and internally displaced persons, as well as at furthering the integration strategies for persons with foreign background, including migrants, foreign students and business representatives.

The Strategy contains five key strategic areas, each of them having its own operational goals and objectives:

• Strategic Area 1 "Integration and Cooperation" focuses on creating conditions for intercultural integration and participation in community life.
• Strategic Area 2 “Education" aims at involving young persons in active learning about intercultural environments and the history and traditions of their own and other cultures; at advancing intercultural competence skills development; and at cooperating with universities and other educational institutions on the ICC initiatives implementation.
• Strategic Area 3 "Culture" seeks to promote intercultural diversity and to enrich the urban space with elements and spaces of intercultural significance.
• Strategic Area 4 "Security" is devoted to increasing the level of security in the public space and strengthening the capacity of public agencies and institutions to combat cases of xenophobia, discrimination and hate speech.
• Strategic Area 5 "Business and Tourism" aims to stimulate entrepreneurial activity among representatives of different culture and ethnic groups, as well as promote an intercultural approach in tourism.

The strategy has been developed based on the methodology proposed by the Council of Europe in close collaboration with the Institute for Urban Studies in Vinnytsia, the national ICC coordinator and the support of a number of other stakeholders. For instance, the national and local ICC coordinators worked together to liaise with various local and international institutions and raise funds for the development and implementation of the strategy, including establishing a cooperation with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the EU-funded project “Support to Regional Development Policy in Ukraine”, the Ministry of Territorial and Community Development of Ukraine, and the Swiss Confederation.