On 14 November 2023, the teams of the newly established youth centres of the Lviv region met to assess the experience of participating in the long-term programme "Youth Work Based on the Council of Europe Standards and Values".
A long-term training programme has implemented in July-November 2023 by the Council of Europe Project "Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase III" and the Lviv Regional Youth Centre in co-operation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine and the Department of Youth and Sports of the Lviv Regional Military Administration.
The programme was launched in July to strengthen the capacity of youth workers in the newly established youth centres in the Lviv region to implement youth work and non-formal education in line with the Council of Europe standards and approaches.
The programme included asynchronous training on the platform of the Youth Department of the Council of Europe, synchronous three-day training in July, mentoring and expert support, face-to-face training for trainers in September, implementation of non-formal education activities and a consolidation evaluation meeting in November.
The teams also had the opportunity to take part in the Forum of Youth Centres and Organisations, which took place in Lviv on 11-12 November 2023. Grants, capacity building and training programmes, resources, exchanges and other support activities of the Council of Europe in the youth sector were presented at the Forum in various sessions. The experience of youth centres with the Council of Europe Quality Label was shared by the invited guests: from Brežice Youth Centre, (Slovenia), Marttinen Youth Centre, Virrat, (Finland) and KDYS Youth Centre in Killarney (Ireland). In particular, they talked about 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.
During the consolidation meeting, the participants presented and analysed the experience of conducting non-formal education activities for and together with young people in their communities; identified competencies in accordance with the Professional Standard for the profession of "Youth Specialist (Youth Worker)" that need to be strengthened and supported by the Council of Europe in 2023 and 2024.
Photo credit: Petro Chekal.
About Lviv Regional Youth Center
In 2021, the Lviv Regional Youth Centre became one of the 14 partner youth centres of the Council of Europe project "Youth for Democracy in Ukraine" and took part in a long-term training and capacity development programme to strengthen youth participation and civic engagement of young people in line with Council of Europe standards and practices. As part of this co-operation and with the support of the Project, the youth center developed a simulation game "Red Lines" (How to create a youth center in a community?) .
On 27 February 2023, the implementation of the project "Development of a Network of Youth Centres of Lviv Region" began in the Lviv region, as a result of which it is planned to create 16 youth centres of communal ownership in the communities of the region, and also plans to cover up to 100,000 young people in the region with this project by the end of the year. It is implemented by the Lviv Regional Youth Center with the financial support of UNICEF in Ukraine. Also, the partners of the event are the Department of Youth and Sports of the Lviv Regional State Administration and the NGO "PI "Teplytsia".
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 strengthening youth work during the war and in the post-war context, taking into account the specific needs of young people.
