How should communities act during crisis situations? Where to find resources for energy efficiency? How to join forces to support veterans, develop youth, and preserve the environment?
Representatives of communities from different regions of Ukraine sought answers to these questions during the interregional working visit “Space of Unity — Joint Solutions,” which took place in Chernihiv and the communities of the region as part of the national project “Side by Side: United Communities.”
Participants visited the communities of Horodnyan, Men, Nizhyn, and Kulykiv. They visited youth and veteran spaces, the Center for Resilience, educational institutions, social services, and facilities that are being restored through community partnerships.
The communities shared their experience working in conditions of constant security challenges. They presented their own solutions, looked for common ground, and identified areas in which they could combine resources and competencies.
After working at the locations, the participants gathered in Chernihiv for a final practical meeting. The Deputy Minister of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine Oleksiy Ryabykin joined the work.
The result of the two-day cooperation was seven project ideas developed with the help of the “Side by Side” facilitators.
These include the creation of voluntary crisis and emergency response groups, the youth project “Synergy of the Unconquered” and the School of Energy-Efficient Solutions for Communities. Among the initiatives are also an interregional system of support and rehabilitation of veterans, an information campaign to form a culture of waste management, the “Together” interaction network, and the “Enchanted Polissya” cultural and tourist route.
All these projects united communities at the initial stage. Their refinement and implementation will become the basis for more thorough cooperation.
The best of the developed initiatives will receive funding from international partners.
But everyone will win. After all, partnership is an opportunity to combine resources, turn challenges into concrete solutions, and make the successful experience of one community accessible to many.
The event was organized at the initiative of the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine within the framework of EU4Recovery, a flagship partnership of the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine.