“You won’t know until you try.” A specialist from a youth centre in Kamianske helps young people get involved in community life

The “Recovery and Development Consultants” programme is a training initiative by ISAR Ednannia, implemented with support from the European Union. It prepares specialists who help communities recover and develop, build partnerships between authorities and citisens, launch local projects for change, and attract funding. Participants include people from NGOs, local self-government, and business initiatives who already work at the local level and want to do so more systematically.

Olha Vinnichenko has worked at the municipal institution “Youth Initiatives Centre” of Kamianske City Council for five years. Until recently, it was the only youth centre in Kamianskyi district.

Kamianske is a city in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, where the entire district — comprising 12 communities — still has only two youth centres. In August 2022, together with colleagues, Olha founded the NGO “Space of the Proactive.” The organization’s first priority is working with youth, running non-formal education activities, and integrating displaced youth into the community.

“In 2022, we did a lot of different things, but now we’re returning to our main focus — youth, non-formal education, and IDP integration. Although the field of work is much broader than it seems,” says Olha.

The youth centre and the NGO work in close partnership. Over three years, they opened two veteran spaces and a Resilience Centre, and implemented the Youth Media Lab media studio project.

She didn’t get into the programme on the first try

Olha applied for the “Recovery and Development Consultants” programme together with a colleague. Initially, only her colleague was selected to participate, but she later couldn’t join the training. Olha then wrote to the organisers herself and got the chance to join the programme.

“Before the training, my colleagues and I already had various projects related to recovery issues. We had also taken part in the ‘VidNOVA:UA’ program, not only in Kamianske but also in Zhytomyr region. Over different years, I worked there as an education manager and as a youth exchange coordinator. We also ran this program in Kamianske. Last year, we had our own project to engage youth in recovery and decision-making processes. As part of it, we held training-for-trainers sessions and an ideathon. So this topic wasn’t new to us.”

She also adds that recovery is a broad concept.

“Recovery isn’t just about physically rebuilding buildings. It’s much broader: social and cultural recovery, restoring social ties. It was important for me to understand how ISAR Ednannia, together with its European partners, sees this process in a wider sense.”

“Now I look at organizing different events differently”

Olha completed the training twice: first the basic course for consultants, then the training for trainers. Each time, she discovered something new.

“At first, the structure of the modules and sessions felt unfamiliar, but then I adapted. The discussions were so active that it was sometimes hard to stop them because of timing. The team that ran the training was simply incredible. And the group we worked with was very friendly and open. Everyone was fully engaged and interested.”

The most valuable part for Olha was the training for trainers, since it changed her perspective on how to approach organizing training sessions.

“I took away so many things for myself about organizing and running trainings. We got feedback on even the smallest details. For example, which color marker to use and which not to. Or the color of the paper. Some people wondered: why so detailed? But then you realise it really does affect perception and memory. Now I look at organizing different events differently.”

Life after the training

After the training, Olha and her team prepared two ideathons for teenagers — events where young people developed their own ideas for community development.

“After the training, my vision and approach to organizing all of this changed. I now analyze everything through the lens they taught us: how the logic of the process should be structured, how we move from one stage to the next. A logical start, a bit of theory, practice, and mandatory reflection — so participants understand why they’re doing all of this.”

Olha says she consulted on several educational initiatives submitted to a specialised competition. In particular, she helped prepare an application for equipping a school cafeteria and worked on the project budget.

“That’s exactly where the project management knowledge I gained from the training came in handy,” she notes.

She also mentions a meeting with the head of the Kamianske district council, where they discussed the development of youth policy in the district.

“We talked about strategic points and how we can scale up our ideas,” Olha adds.

“Just apply”

To organizations that are still hesitant to apply for the “Recovery and Development Consultants” programme, Olha advises:

“You have to try and not be afraid. Sometimes it feels like your experience or knowledge isn’t enough, but the participants came from very different communities, ages, and backgrounds. You won’t know if you meet the criteria until you try.”

The programme is implemented as part of the “Ednannia for Community” project with support from the European Union.

This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its content is the sole responsibility of ISAR Ednannia and does not necessarily reflect the position of the European Union.

Source: ednannia.ua