On 31 May 2011, at a press conference in Kiev, UNV, UNDP and the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sport of the Government of Ukraine jointly launched 'Active Youth Tested Recipes', a handbook of best practices for youth and organizations working with youth, and a national Youth Portal to support networking among Ukraines youth organizations.
On 31 May 2011, at a press conference in Kiev, UNV, UNDP and the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sport of the Government of Ukraine jointly launched 'Active Youth Tested Recipes', a handbook of best practices for youth and organizations working with youth, and a national Youth Portal to support networking among the countrys youth organizations. The handbook and portal are among the outcomes of the UNV/UNDP project, Youth Social Inclusion for Civic Engagement in Ukraine (YSI), aimed at increasing the participation of young Ukrainians in the lives of their communities. According to Igor Khochych, Director of the Youth Policy Department, Ukraine faces a decrease in youth engaged in activity, which, according to data of the Social Research Institute Centre, leads to negative consequences. The YSI Project was launched to increase participation of youth in the lives of communities and gave positive results, he said. Elena Panova, UNDP Deputy Country Director for Ukraine, said the Project has already provided strong results during its two and a half years in operation. It has mobilized 6,000 volunteers, held 574 activities and implemented 2,000 social projects. The project also created 40 peer-to-peer networks, which was a core goal of the projects methodology. The handbook 'Active Youth Tested Recipes' contains the projects methodology and success stories. It targets two audiences, youth and organizations working with youth, and offers a new method for working with young people by finding and supporting youth initiatives. In presenting the handbook, Eugenia Petrivska, National Manager of the UNV/UNDP YSI project, called on organizations working with youth to put the methodology into practice. Ms Petrivska also presented the national Youth Portal stressing that it had been tailored to build a potent network of support to youth organizations in Ukraine. The Youth Portal will be supported by the Department of Youth Policy. A framework agreement signed by UNV, UNDP and the Government of Ukraine in 2005 laid the foundation for a cooperative initiative to address the challenges of youth civic engagement in Ukraine. In 2008, UNV, UNDP and the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports, together with other partners, launched the Youth Social Inclusion for Civic Engagement in Ukraine (YSI) project. It was aimed at increasing young Ukrainians participation in the lives of their communities. Since then, the YSI Project has worked with youth centres in 12 regions of Ukraine, helping their development and sustainability. In order to run a successful activity, the Project provided youth centres with recommendations such as to share their experience, information and resources, cooperate with other organizations, and involve youth of different ages as well as of both sexes. In order to create a solid platform for cooperation among youth organizations, the project has developed and launched the national Youth Portal at
www.molodistua.org. Since its inception, the project has created and tested methodology to improve youth organizations activities. The methodology has proved successful, and helped improve results of youth organizations in 52 districts. The recently published handbook of best practices, 'Active Youth Tested Recipes', describes this methodology together with success stories. Mr. Khochych stated that he is grateful to UNDP for their efforts in helping with the implementation of the youth policy in Ukraine. Ms Panova noted that the six-year-old cooperation with the Government of Ukraine is among the focal points of the UNDPs activity in Ukraine. Notably, cooperation with the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports has resulted in the launch of a common project. Ms. Olga Devyatkin, the UNV Portfolio Manager for Ukraine, stressed the contribution of the Youth Social Inclusion for Civic Engagement Project in the development of volunteering in Ukraine. She said, the YSI Project is UNVs largest project in the region and has met its goal as it helped volunteers to build their skills. The future depends upon youth and it is important that young Ukrainians build confidence in their potential, Ms. Devyatkin said and added, if you doubt that, just remember the words of Anita Roddick, the human rights and environmental campaigner and founder of The Body Shop: 'if you think you are too small to have an impact, try spending a night with a mosquito in the room'. The YSI project is implemented in 12 regions, including the Kyiv region, Zhytomyr region, Cherkasy region, Chernigiv region, Rivne region, Dnipropetrovsk region, Kharkiv region, Zaporizhzhia region, Mykolayiv region, Sumy region, Lugansk region and Crimea. For detailed information please refer to UNV/UNDP YSI Project Communications specialist Olga Romaniv, mail to: (olga[dot]romaniv [at]undp.org.ua) Wendy Shapiro
United Nations Volunteer
International Project Manager, Youth Social Inclusion for Civic Engagement in Ukraine
+380 44 584 3474 work / +38093 443 1169 mobile