From the 2nd until the 4th of November, the ECMI Ukraine team conducted its second regional training for around 20 young Ukrainian activists and young professionals interested in minority issues and youth policy-making in Odesa, Ukraine. The participants represented southern multicultural regions of Ukraine (Odesa, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia).
The training aimed to encourage the Ukrainian youth, to reflect on the existing youth policy, to participate actively in decision making processes and to embrace democratic self-governance. It intends to leave a significant and sustainable impact on current political transformations by promoting European values of tolerance and delivering positive practices regarding youth participation, advocacy and civic activism.
The project supports the current processes of the decentralization reform in Ukraine. In the course of the training, the participants developed two sets of regional recommendations on how to improve the existing youth policy (State targeted social programme „Youth of Ukraine“ 2016-2020) by setting their specific regional priorities together with minority issues on its current agenda.
The training in Odesa was preceded by the first training in Lviv (29th– 31st of October) and will be followed by the final event on the 11-12th of December in Kyiv (Ukraine), where the young representatives present their policy recommendations not only to other activists but also to regional and national authorities. This is expected to inspire and foster the civic activism at a wider national level and to lead to an overall societal transformation.
The involvement of representatives of the minority organizations from the German-Danish border region (e.g. Danish minority association – Graenseforeningen) and Ukraine added new perspectives on civic and minority activism in Europe.
Ukrainian project partner is the Centre for Evaluation, Scientific, Educational and Social Programs (CESESP), which in 2008 has been fostering intercultural dialogue and conflict resolution in the Ukrainian society. It has a well-developed network of regional partners from both civil society and public authorities. The project is generously funded by the Federal Foreign Office and is run in cooperation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports as well as the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine.
Source: ECMI InfoChannel @ European Centre for Minority Issues.
