Civil support service "One heart: the power of youth"
Problems:
Insufficient knowledge and skills in volunteering among young people, including IDPs, and lack of information about local initiatives to join.
According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 6.5 million internally displaced persons were registered in Ukraine as of April 13, 2022. Many young people have been forced to leave their homes and seek refuge in safer regions. According to a U-Report survey, 46% of young people have changed their place of residence, of which 26% have moved within the country and 17% have moved abroad. As of April 2022, only 9% of young people have started volunteering.
Project goal:
- Promote cohesion among young people, including IDPs, and increase their involvement in local initiatives by conducting a training program on the principles of effective volunteering.
Project stages:
Training for trainers
40 trainers completed a 3-day training program based on specially developed principles and values. The training took place in Lviv and included the following topics:
- Principles of humanity: approaches to volunteer work
- Basic psychological assistance
- Working with teams. How to save your resources in a crisis
- The art of communication and conflict mediation
- Methodology for training volunteers
Training for volunteers
Trainings for volunteers were held in almost all regions of Ukraine, except for the temporarily occupied territories. These are 16 oblasts (Kyiv, Lviv, Poltava, Rivne, Cherkasy, Ternopil, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Volyn, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Odesa, Dnipro, Khmelnytsky, Kharkiv) and 27 cities (Poltava, Rivne, Lviv, Cherkasy, Ternopil, Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Bila Tserkva, Lutsk, Kaharlyk, Nizhyn, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Chernihiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Khmelnytskyi, Brovary, Varash, Nova Vodolaha, Svitlovodsk, Berdychiv, Kryvyi Rih, Zhmerynka, Fastiv, Chervonohrad).
At the training, young people gained knowledge and skills, motivation, new useful contacts, and recommendations on possible ways to develop their volunteering.
Community activities
Community events were held to create psychological safety, a sense of unity and reduce tension among young people, including IDPs. As part of the activities, participants watched films that covered a particular topic, and then discussed the film with an expert.
Project results:
- 3-day training for 40 trainers was conducted
- 46 two-day trainings for young people, including IDPs, were held in 16 regions and 27 settlements of Ukraine
- 596 participants took part in the trainings
- 9 events for the community were held, attended by 216 people
- The level of knowledge and skills on the principles of effective volunteering was increased
- Increased awareness of youth about volunteer initiatives in the region that they can join
Project partners:
SpivDiia, Interaction Kryvyi Rih, Youth Center in Fastiv, Cosmodrome Hub in Chervonohrad, Youth Center in Lutsk, Youth Center in Sumy, Youth Center in Ivano-Frankivsk, NGO "Next Generation" (Nova Vodolaha, Kharkiv region), Youth Department of the Lviv Regional State Administration, Youth Center "City of Ideas" (Kovel, Volyn region), NGO "Na-Diya" (Khmelnytskyi region).
Information
What people say about us:
When I came to the training, I was worried that I would not understand a lot of things, and that there would be many participants who were more experienced in this field, which would make me uncomfortable. During the training, I realized that the information was presented in an accessible way and the participants were willing to share their own experiences, which created a more open and friendly atmosphere. After completing the training, I decided to join the team of volunteers who are now engaged in humanitarian support for IDPs.
I really liked the content of the training. From the very beginning, I was sure that I knew everything about volunteering, but at the end of the two-day program I concluded that I had received a lot of new information.
Before the training, I knew little about volunteering, was less aware of practical public speaking skills and ways to overcome burnout. The training gave me a lot of new information on these issues. A personal achievement for me is communication, because communicating with a large number of people is not my comfort zone. Therefore, I thank everyone for the pleasant communication. At this training, I made new nice friends and got a lot of emotions. I plan to use the knowledge about specific volunteer organizations that I can become a member of.
I updated my knowledge of effective communication and burnout prevention. Before that, I had forgotten how not to burn out. In the future, I will try not to do so. I also received a cool theory about effective teams and public speaking. I began to realize that sometimes it is worth distracting myself from my main activity and accepting any role, because everyone does something important in the team. I will take everything from the training. These are the skills of the public speaking, burnout prevention, principles and values in the team, and volunteer motivation.
I would like to say thank you for organizing the training, for the opportunity to participate in it, which was valuable to me primarily because of your stories. It was interesting and useful for me in terms of sharing experiences, learning new things that are valuable to me. You are all great guys. With such young people, we definitely have a great future. Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Heroes! Victory is ours!
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