“Qualitative changes in communities are only possible if local leaders emerge, as Kyiv will not be sending anyone to actually implement reforms in a village. That is why, when we see success cases and good practices in municipalities, we invite their representatives to speak about their experience at infosessions or training programmes,” said Mykhailo Shelep, the Adviser on Decentralisation at the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in Rivne Oblast.
One of these leaders is Viktoriia Kostiuk, a civic activist and a former official of Smyha Village Council. Together with her team, she develops her NGO, Municipal Development Agency “Intonation of Changes”, works with youth and promotes volunteering, including via the Keneberg Youth Centre, created with the support of the Village Council. At the informational session “Opportunities of local self-government to promote volunteering among schoolchildren”, Ms Kostiuk presented the experience of Smyha municipality in developing the volunteering movement.
Challenges
Every NGO or volunteering association faces three key challenges: funding, people and motivation. According to Viktoriia Kostiuk, she has had to repeatedly confront the youth over the eight years of working with them in Smyha municipality. For instance, when the municipality created a Youth Council in 2018, 14-year-olds turned out to be unprepared to defend their vision at meetings with local council members or initiate changes.
“The Youth Council turned out to be insufficient. We need a platform to develop and prepare teenagers for participation in youth councils and the status of a youth deputy at the local level,” said Ms Kostiuk.
The first step in responding to the challenges was setting up a youth integration centre with the support of international partners. “The first mission of the new centre was to integrate internally displaced youth into the host municipality. But then we saw that we needed to work with local youth as well,” stated Ms Kostiuk. When the Youth Centre was created, the local budget did not provide funding for its activities, staff and development. The initiative was taken by Intonation of Changes. The first step was to build a volunteer community from those teens who had participated in events before, such as tabletop games.
According to Viktoriia Kostiuk, faced with reality, they quickly realised that the municipality needed to form a culture of volunteering and informal education. Students did not participate in extracurriculars in schools. That is why the focus was on the systematic development of volunteering as a lifestyle rather than a one-time activity.
From idea to model: Volunteer School
To kick-start change and make sure the volunteer movement was sustainable, they started the Youth Centre’s Volunteer School. The programme is aimed at schoolchildren aged 9 and above and provides them with new knowledge, skills and experience. It teaches them how to generate and implement ideas, feel part of a friendly team and find mentors among older volunteers.
The School offers a 10-week training course. The first one took place last autumn, and the second was held in the spring. They brought together 20 and 25 teenagers, respectively. The curriculum included both theory and practical activities, such as organising events, charity campaigns, supporting peers, etc.
“The Youth Centre’s Volunteer School is a space where you learn not only how to help others, but also find friends, implement ideas and understand that even one good deed can change the world. Here, everyone can be a superhero for their municipality,” said Viktoriia Kostiuk. She added that the participants were very responsible about the newly acquired knowledge and saw how great volunteering was.
Mentoring, structure and development
We also developed a clear model for volunteer growth, from the youth centre ambassador to the “captain of the event”. In the final round, participants practice implementing their own initiative in a team with a mentor and learn to work in a team. In the spring season, our volunteers organised weekly activities in schools and held their own charity campaigns and events, showing their leadership skills.
Younger volunteers got a checklist of assignments and practices to be completed as part of the training. Once the School is finished, children receive certificates confirming that they have passed all levels. Senior volunteers mentor at least two younger participants.
“We have also introduced individual consultations for young people on relevant topics such as Canva, presentations, SMM, media literacy, event management, etc. Young people can receive answers to all of their burning questions, from access to digital tools to self-development,” Viktoriia noted.
She believes that the Youth Union “On Volunteering” is a great opportunity to develop school-level volunteering, and the need to implement it would motivate educators to learn more about the methods of organising the volunteering movement. At the moment, the Youth Centre is actively working to establish cooperation with outlying educational institutions in order to scale up this programme and help small municipalities in Ukraine to nurture a new generation of civic activists from their school days onwards.
Changing attitudes: first results
The head of the village of Smyha, Oleksandr Fedorov, shared his opinion on the changes in the municipality that occurred due to the systematic support of volunteering:
“Just a few years ago, the municipality perceived volunteering as an isolated activity or strictly as assistance to the military. But thanks to the efforts of the Centre and the Volunteer School project, a new culture is emerging in Smyha, a culture of action, responsibility and solidarity. Volunteering is taking on a new meaning: young people do not just join but drive changes.”
According to him, it is especially encouraging that these changes are not limited to the Centre. Students of the Volunteer School carry these values into their families, inspiring their loved ones and fostering an atmosphere of participation and support in the municipality.
“As the village head, I can say with confidence: Creating the Keneberg Youth Centre and the activities of Intonation of Changes are some of the best investments in the future of Smyha municipality. This is the sort of development which, while not always visible in concrete or statistics, changes people, strengthens trust and nurtures a resilient future generation,” said Oleksandr Fedorov.
