On 12 June 2024, Olena Chernykh, Senior Project Officer, the Council of Europe Project "Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase III", presented the experience and results of the programme "Trauma informed youth work" at the International Conference "Youth Work as a Tool for the Rehabilitation of Young People Affected by War and Armed Conflict". The conference takes place in a mixed format on 11-14 June 2024. 24 young people from Armenia, Italy, Azerbaijan, France, Germany, Poland, Kosovo*, Spain and Ukraine participate online. 24 youth workers from Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, and Lviv regions met together in Sumy.
The training programme "Trauma Informed Youth Work" has been developed and implemented since 2022 within the framework of the Council of Europe Project "Youth for Democracy in Ukraine". The idea of this Programme arose in April 2022 during a series of meetings of youth workers of Ukraine dedicated to discussing the current challenges and priorities of youth work during the war. In turn, a series of meetings was held in response to the results of the survey at the end of March 2022 on needs of youth workers in Ukraine.
Since 2023, a specialised training "Trauma Informed Youth Work" has been implemented within the framework of the State Programme "Youth Worker" in co-operation between the Council of Europe and the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine and the All-Ukrainian Youth Centre. The programme manual is available in Ukrainian and English.
The conference is held within the framework of the project "PARTICIPATION NEEDS (NONVIOLENT) DEBATE IS BACK!", implemented by the NGO "Center for European Initiatives" in cooperation with Centro Studi Sereno Regis (Italy) and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain). The project is implemented with the financial support of the European Commission, the support of the Italian National Agency for the Erasmus+ Program.
The Council of Europe 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 expands 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.
* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.
