What can help young people change the situation or solve an important problem in the community?

Usually, in order for young people to be able to get involved in solving a problem, they need to be able to participate in decision-making and provide support in creating their own initiatives.

At the beginning of the year, for several months, 30 teachers from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts studied how to activate young people in their community and expand their rights and opportunities.

As a result, they transferred the acquired knowledge to more than 100 children from the settlements of Lysychansk, Shchastia, Novoaidar, Zolote, Petropavlivka, Sievierodonetsk, Mariupol, Donske, Volnovakha, Nikolske. Now the knowledge gained will be useful for young people to be involved in decision-making processes.

The training conducted within the framework of “YOUNG CITIZENS – Community Engagement in East Ukraine” Project included:

Familiarization with the youth community and assessment of its level of opportunities;
Informing the young people about the empowerment program;
Assistance in preparing a performance review of the community based on the principles of participation and openness;
Assistance in acquainting the public and local self-government representatives with such a performance review;
Support in identifying and analyzing a relevant problem for youth;
Search for an innovative and feasible solution to the problem together with the youth group;
Planning a budget for implementation of an initiative;
And also, provision of comprehensive support to the youth group in carrying out activities for implementation of the public initiative.

Over time, young leaders will be able to put their ideas into practice, to implement not only their own campaign, but also their right to participate in decision-making for the well-being of their community.

“YOUNG CITIZENS” Project is implemented by Terre des hommes Ukraine within the framework of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) project “Democratic Governance in Eastern Ukraine”.