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Back Projects for strengthening the participation of youth were developed by three community teams – partners of the Council of Europe Project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine”

Projects for strengthening the participation of youth were developed by three community teams – partners of the Council of Europe Project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine”

On 13–16 July 2021 representatives of the teams of Opishnianska community (Poltava Region), Prysyvaska community (Kherson Region), and Uzhgorod community (Zakarpattia Region) took part in the online two-week-long training seminar on the strengthening of youth participation and civic engagement.

This is the second meeting of the communities' teams within the third phase of the “Young People are Full Citizens” component, which was aimed to support meaningful youth participation at the local level by reviewing youth policy and implementing the necessary measures based on the Council of Europe standards. The training seminar aims to strengthen the ability of representatives of partner communities of the Council of Europe Project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine” to implement youth policy at the local level and carry out youth work based on approaches of civic engagement and involvement of young people.

Thanks to the professional work of the project team of trainers composed of Aliona Glazkova, Tetiana Horokhova and Liudmyla Kindrat, we managed to create a space for developing competencies, exchanging views, networking and finding new partners for community teams, that are partners of the Council of Europe Project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine”.

The programme of the training seminar builds on nonformal education approaches, and specifically envisaged learning, meetings, experience exchange and additional workshops.

In the course of the training seminar, participants met with Iryna Beliaeva, Director of the Youth Policy Department at the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine. During the meeting, Iryna Beliaeva presented regulatory documents governing youth policy in Ukraine, in particular, the Law of Ukraine “On the Main Principles of Youth Policy”, National Strategy for the State Youth Policy 2030, State Targeted Social Program “Youth of Ukraine” for 2021-2025.

In the course of the training seminar, team representatives of the project partner communities jointly explored and discussed:

the role of young people in the life of the community and that of the community in the life of young people (opportunities and areas of responsibility);
inclusive approaches in youth policy and youth work, recognizing the value of the participation of different youth categories;
standards and approaches of the Council of Europe and the legislation of Ukraine in the field of youth policy and youth work, the ability to apply them in practice;
the potential of youth councils and youth centres to strengthen youth participation and their possible impact on making decisions related to the lives of young people in the community;
the legal framework regulating certain issues of the work of youth centres, and examples of advocacy of their proposals;
youth work forms and methods, in particular approaches to non-formal education, etc.

Volodymyr Onyschuk, Director of Koriukivka Youth Centre “KUB” (town of Koriukivka, Chernihiv Region), met with participants, presented the centre's work experience and answered practical questions from teams of partner communities of the Council of Europe Project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine” on the establishment and operation of a youth centre based on youth participation approaches, specifically on the centre operating hours and accessibility to young people.

Oleh Malets, Head of TVORY (Create) network of youth spaces, Director at MoloDvizhCenter Lviv, talked about the centre creation, peculiarities of its functioning as a municipal institution, shared practical tips concerning organisational matters of centre operation, including its operating hours.

Tetiana Storozhko, Head of Okhtyrka Youth Council, participated in the session on youth council and presented the practical experience of its activities, major challenges and practical matters of youth participation faced by the youth council.

Illia Shelest, Ex-Head of the Youth Council within Liubotyn City Council, advisor to Liybotyn Mayor on the youth policy matters, member of the Management Board of the Ukrainian Youth Council Association for advocacy issues, shared his experience of the creation and activities of the youth council and, specifically, organisational matters of re-electing its management.

The community team reviewed the results of the study of the state of youth policy and needs conducted by the research team of the Council of Europe project in ten partner communities in February-March 2021. These results enabled community teams to discuss the relevance of ideas proposed for implementation in the context of cooperation with the Council of Europe Project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine” and to analyse these ideas using the RMSOS approach (Right-Means-Space-Opportunities-Support) compliant with the Revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life.

On one of the days, community teams initiated a workshop on facilitating a “Dignityland” game, released by the Council of Europe to research the topic of young people's access to social rights. The workshop helped community teams to master the game and find answers to questions concerning the methodology of holding it with young people in the communities.

In addition, community teams conducted a self-assessment of youth policy in the community using the Self-assessment tool for youth policy approved by the European Steering Committee for Youth.

The further activity of the teams of partner communities involves the implementation of local projects to strengthen youth participation and public activity with the expert mentoring support from the Project.

As a reminder, on 5–9 July 2021, representatives of Vasylkivska community (Kyiv Region), Kurnenska community (Zhytomyr Region), Novoukrainska community (Kirovohrad Region) and Khoroshivska community (Zhytomyr Region) took part in a five-day training seminar on the strengthening of youth participation and public activity, which was held in Kyiv.

The Project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine” is implemented within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2018–2022 and is based on previous experience and efficient bilateral cooperation between the Council of Europe and the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine as part of the Framework Programme on Cooperation between the Council of Europe Hirohisa and the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine in the Field of Youth Policy in 2016–2020.

Partner communities of the Council of Europe Project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine”