During a series of workshops in the summer of 2025, people who work with young people in Ukraine got together to discuss their experiences, create their own stories, and rethink their personal contributions to youth work.
Each meeting dealt with a specific topic, which resulted in the collection of 23 personal testimonies telling stories of resilience and perseverance, standing up for freedom, democracy and human rights, and contributing to young people and society through the power of youth work, professional development, and reliance on the Council of Europe and its standards, in the context of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.
The second collection is available in Ukrainian and English via the link.
It comes as an acknowledgment of the need to document the experiences and personal contributions of youth workers who continue to build physical and virtual spaces for young people to come together, create, and make their voices heard and respected. It was developed by the Council of Europe project "Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase IV" in co-operation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine.
This collection builds on the work started in 2022, when the experiences and practices of youth work in the context of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine after February 24, 2022, were collected and described for the first time. The first collection comprised twenty stories about teams and projects, initiatives of youth centres and non-governmental organizations, and individual experiences directed at social, cultural, educational, and environmental transformations implemented by the youth, together with and for the youth. Thousands of people working with young people at the local, national, and international levels have consulted the collection and are studying the experience of youth work in Ukraine in times of war.
A video about youth work in Ukraine time of war, based on the first collection, was shown at the opening of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe in Reykjavik, Iceland, on May 16, 2023.
