“The Youth Guarantee is now being launched; we are in the preparation phase and have already made some progress. We, as an EU programme, are working closely with the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine,” said Evgeniia.

“We are developing our model together with our colleagues from the European Commission, the European Training Foundation and the International Labour Organisation,” said Andriy Chesnokov, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine.

“Perhaps we will set the age cap for the Youth Guarantee at 35 years old. But today we see that it is still primarily young people seeking help who, for various reasons, do not study and want to work.”

“First of all, we have to understand who we are dealing with. There is no such thing as one size fits all. You may have already completed your education, but your parents forced you to do it, and you do not feel like doing it, but would rather do something else,” said Evgeniia Petrivska about how the Youth Guarantee works for young people. “Or you have poor quality training and want retraining or professional development. We are talking about a personalised action plan. And here, in a variety of ways and with the help of counsellors, systems, including artificial intelligence, we will figure out what a person is capable of and really wants to do.”

“The Youth Guarantee in Ukraine will be special because the majority of NET youth are young veterans,” Evgeniia Petrivska predicts.

“We offer our services that are a daily routine for most people, but for our recipients they become a new quality of life. These include cleaning, shopping, support and representation, leisure activities, household assistance, hairdressing services,” said Nataliia Lohunova, project manager “One can also get psychological counselling, and a rehabilitation massage therapist works for palliative care patients in Nova Ushytsia. There are services like grass mowing, ploughing, and firewood chopping.”

“Perhaps I needed psychological help and support more than anything else. My mother cannot speak, but she could listen. She put together various puzzles. It was interesting,” said Hanna.

“The demand for our services is constantly growing, as we help people feel the care and support where they need it most,” said Nataliia Lohunova. “While at the beginning of the project we were looking for beneficiaries, today villagers pass on information about what we do through friends, family, and neighbours.”

“Everyone is happy and grateful. Many communities don’t have hairdressers. It’s quite expensive in the city, and it’s sometimes difficult to get there. It is especially challenging for seniors and people with disabilities,” said Hanna Sukhareva.

“I clean and wash the laundry if necessary. I have one family where two people are bedridden, so I have to feed them and take their blood pressure,” Nataliia says about her work. “In another family, a man has been bedridden since childhood, and he has a father who is 80 years old. I visit them, help with cleaning, cooking, shopping at the market and pharmacies. It is a huge help for such people.”

“I feel that I am doing something worthwhile when I help people who really need it. They become relieved and confident that they are taken care of,” says Nataliia Chernovolova.

“The key idea behind a training social apartment is to develop, acquire or restore independent living skills and prepare people for life in society,” explained Marianna Onufryk, head of the Social Synergy NGO. “It is a kind of training ground where one can develop the skills necessary for this. People who have not acquired or lost their independent living skills – for example, graduates of institutional care facilities or people with disabilities – temporarily live in a special house or apartment under the care of assistants.”

“Supported living services are one of the key pillars of the deinstitutionalisation reform. The main focus is to enable people to live in their community, with their families and friends, with access to education and healthcare services. Whatever their health conditions, a person should have the opportunity to work and be fulfilled,” said Uliana Tokareva, Deputy Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine.

“These social services are essential not only for their users, but also bring visible benefits to the community,” says Marianna Onufryk. “They reduce the burden on the budget, and they also generate new taxpayers: people who have learned to be independent can find jobs and pay taxes. Besides, it will also contribute to local business development, as new community members become consumers of local services and goods.”

“It was useful to learn about how business and the public sector work together to develop and promote Prekmurje district,” said Bohdan. “They are trying to find opportunities to invest in small private initiatives to produce certain goods, brand them and offer them to the market. It was interesting to find out about the way they think.”

“Organisations there have been raising European grants for 20–30 years. It is clear that the stronger ones have survived, and it is interesting to learn from them. There are many different new initiatives and start-ups in Ukraine, including in the field of community development. But their efforts are not always backed by a sustainable effect. Sometimes it’s not clear how a project will end or whether the organisation will continue to exist,” Bohdan said.

“The essence of Bridges of Trust is the transition from initial introductions and information exchanges, through identifying the potential for cooperation to engaging in active collaboration. This approach strengthens local governance and promotes sustainable socio-economic development.

Partnerships within BoT are relationships that provide opportunities for results beyond those a single municipality could realise alone. That is why a successful partnership is both a win-win and a ‘long-term game’”, said Andrej Horvat, Deputy Director of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme.

“There is strong interest to deepen the cooperation in the planning, designing and preparation of joint projects for housing, education, healthcare, social welfare, psycho- social support, etc.” sayid Andrej Horvat. “And generating economic and employment opportunities for citizens, thereby elevating the results orientation of municipal partnerships in a post-war context.”

“This is a room for parents and children, and not just mothers. There is a sectioned-off area for breastfeeding, but the rest of the space is for public use,” said Anna Yekymenko-Polischuk, operations manager at Frontera. “At the same time, we understand that many men are mobilised, which makes women with children even more socially isolated. And very often they are not thought of in the accessibility context.”

“When the call for proposals was announced, we immediately decided to apply for this project,” said Anna. “The library hosts about 30 activities every month. After examining the target audience, we found out that 67% of visitors are women, and 45% are women with children. Therefore, the need for an appropriate space was significant. This project has not only strengthened our team or the library’s capacity but has also highlighted the importance of accessibility for the cultural sector in Lutsk.”

“You do not just grow as a leader in this project,” Inna said of the training. “There is also an opportunity here to cure yourself of feeling homesick and understand how much more can be done.”

“Participation in the project has already given a strong push to improving our performance and digitalisation. Applied techniques from LEAN Manufacturing (kanban boards) are already in use in production,” said Larysa Boden, CEO of Vanga Rugs LLC. “Presentations on digitalisation and new AI applications have already helped our managers transfer information on orders to manufacturing flow charts and streamline the processes. Now we can move on to developing an employee motivation programme.”

“The project involves twice as many participants as planned. This means that its impact is going to be twice as powerful,” said Olga Trofymova, project manager and director of the Quality Centre. “Each of our working days begins and ends with a discussion about new experiences. The information from the training turns into someone’s practice within a day, and there are many interesting people and ideas here every day.”

“Administrative procedure is a significant part of the professional examination programmes for future lawyers,” said Iryna Boyko. “This demonstrates that administrative procedure has become a central and fundamental pillar of the administrative law framework. Therefore, it is important that law school faculty are on the same page in terms of its understanding and interpretation and impart knowledge to students based on aligned approaches and shared vision.”

“I decided to enrol in this project because it is a great opportunity to learn from experts who were involved in drafting of the LAP, communicated with foreign partners and adopted their best practices in public administration and civil society engagement,” said Yevheniia Duliba, Professor of Constitutional Law and Sectoral Disciplines at the Academic and Research Institute of Law of the National University of Water and Environmental Engineering (Rivne).

“We reviewed the conceptual approaches of the LAP, relevant issues and problems, as well as the prospects for adopting administrative procedures in Ukraine. We worked on various case studies to better understand how various provisions of the law work in practice,” she said.

“Bringing a good understanding of the LAP to students is now also one of the key requirements when teaching administrative law courses,” said Olha Bilova. “Thanks to the training, I was able to significantly expand my own understanding of the new law, discuss practical aspects of its implementation, controversial issues in its enforcement and prospects for resolving existing collisions. I discovered the positive novelties of the law regarding the administrative act revocation mechanism, which now clearly regulates the contentious issues that I resolved when I was a judge of the District Administrative Court.”