On 11-12 November 2023, the Forum of Youth Centres and Organisations was held in Lviv. According to the Lviv Regional Military Administration, the event brought together almost 200 people, including youth workers, representatives of youth centres and civil society organisations of the region.

The purpose of the Forum was to bring together all centres that work with youth in the Lviv region and youth organisations in the region in order to consolidate efforts in working with young people.

Grants, capacity building and training programmes, resources, peer exchanges and other activities of the Council of Europe support in the youth sector presented at the Forum within various sessions.

Tobias Flessenkemper, Head of the Youth Department of the Council of Europe (online), Maksym Kozytskyi, Head of the Lviv Regional Military Administration, and Nienke Woppen, Head of the UNICEF Lviv Office, addressed the participants of the Forum with welcoming words.

Tobias Flessenkemper expressed solidarity and support, stressing that since February 2022, the Council of Europe youth sector project ‘‘Youth for Democracy in Ukraine’‘ has been contributing to the development of youth policy and youth work in Ukraine during the war by mapping needs and a series of training programmes on social cohesion, trauma-informed youth work, non-formal education. All this is aimed at solving new problems in the field of youth,  including mass displacement across the country, general insecurity in all aspects of life.

In his speech, Tobias Flessenkemper also thanked the Lviv Regional Youth Centre for fruitful long-term cooperation. In 2021, the  youth centre became a partner of the Youth Participation Programme for Youth Centres in Ukraine. This year, the youth  centre has already initiated a partnership on a new capacity-building programme for newly established youth centres in the Lviv region to strengthen non-formal education for and with young people at the community level.

Maksym Kozytskyi  thanked the youth leaders and took part in the discussion ‘‘Why it was possible to implement the project to create centres for youth in the Lviv region and what are the plans for the future.’‘

‘‘Our goal is to develop a network of youth centres so that in every community of the Lviv region, young people can realize their aspirations, create changes and contribute to the development of the state on the ground.  I am grateful to the young enterprising people of the Lviv region who volunteer and help the soldiers, strive to know and do more, do not stand aside, show desire and leadership. You are our present and future. Believe in yourself and dream big! Gratitude to international organisations for their support and resources. We invite partners, organisations and young people to co-operate!’‘ said Maksym Kozytskyi.

Olena Chernykh, Senior Project Officer of the Council of Europe project ‘‘Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase III’‘, took part in the discussion ‘‘Why it was possible to implement the project on the creation of youth centres in the Lviv region and what are the plans for the future’‘. She also presented a special call of the European Youth Foundation for young people from Ukraine in the amount of up to 15000 euros for pilot activities of NGOs.

Invited guests: Alja Kovačič, Youth Centre Brežice (Slovenia), Kristian Granat and Sanna Järvensivu, Marttinen Youth Centre, Virrat (Finland) and Berni Smith, KDYS Youth Centre  in Killarney (Ireland) spoke about the experience of youth centres with the Council of Europe Quality Label. They also mentioned the study visits of Ukrainian delegations to Finland and Ireland, organised in October 2023 in co-operation with the youth centres of Ukraine, the Council of Europe project ‘‘Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase III’‘ and the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine.

The Forum was organised by the Lviv Regional Youth Centres. It should be noted that there are 24 youth centres in the Lviv region. Most of the youth centres in Lviv oblast were created in the conditions of a full-scale war. In this process, significant support was provided by international organisations – UNICEF, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Council of Europe.

The project ‘‘Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase III’‘  is implemented within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2023-2026 and is based on the results and experience of the projects ‘‘Youth for Democracy in Ukraine’‘ in 2020-2022.  The project will expand the systematic impact by strengthening youth participation policies and youth work during the war and in the post-war context, taking into account the specific needs of young people.

The project encourages youth policy stakeholders in Ukraine to implement and disseminate the Recommendations of the Committee of Ministers to Member States: on access of youth from disadvantaged areas to social rights, CM/Rec(2015)3; on young people's access to rights, CM/Rec(2016)7; on Youth Work, CM/Rec(2017)4; on the participation of Roma youth, CM/Rec(2023)4; on the protection of youth civil society and youth and support for their participation in democratic processes, CM/Rec(2022)6.

News, Council of Europe resources in the field of youth and open announcements for participation in project activities can be found here.