5 pro-active teams of volunteers were created in the municipality to work with various groups of people such as children, the elderly, doctors, residents and low-income families.
The teams developed the draft programme “Development of Volunteering Movement among the Youth of the Zboriv Municipality 2021-2024”. The Zboriv City Council approved this programme and allocated UAH 200,000 toward it.
“The local youth council is very active in the Zborivska municipality and committed to its growth. The project they implemented is important because it was aimed at the development of the volunteering culture among young people. The Youth Congress team conducted interesting activities under the project, worked a lot with young people on the development of volunteering skills, project management and media literacy. As a result, the municipality implements a programme to support the development of volunteer activities among young people, and young people continue to actively volunteer, which is essential in the current situation,” said Nataliia Onyshchuk, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Ternopil region.
In September 2021, with the support of social workers and parents, the volunteers initiated the Camp of Kindness. The 5-day event was held in a play centre for children from large and crisis families as well as for children undergoing treatment in a rehabilitation centre. The participating volunteer groups organised an additional initiative to collect stationery and clothes for children.
We have conducted many events for the care facility for the permanent or temporary stay of wards in the village of Perepelnyky. As part of the Grandchild for an Hour initiative, young people interacted with the wards of the institution and held various activities for them that included a professional entertainer. Life circumstances, the pandemic and remote location are among the reasons why it is hard for patients in the inpatient department of the Centre for the Provision of Social Services to communicate with their families and friends. With the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, they were able to speak to their families online. The Zboriv City Council provided Internet connection, and a laptop was purchased with the funds under a local subsidy. In addition, there is now a common recreation area with a TV for patients/wards to provide entertainment for this age group, says Lesia Holoiad, President of the Youth Congress of the Zboriv municipality.
The Youth Media Centre also set up the municipality newsletter “Municipal news” (Shcho Tam U Hromadi), which published updates on the project, project initiatives, announcements and information about Сovid-19.
When the war started, the Youth Congress of the Zboriv City Council opened an operational Youth Headquarters on the basis of the DRUZI Youth Media Centre. Its activities included the collection of clothes and food for the military and for people who came to Zboriv from other parts of the country in search of safety. Volunteers sorted food, hygiene products and clothes and wove camouflage nets. Schoolchildren, teachers and residents of the city joined the Youth Congress.
To date, the Youth Congress has collected more than a million hryvnias. These funds are mostly used to buy night vision devices, military shoes, plate carriers, tactical gloves, CAT tourniquets and first aid kits.
To handle such a large amount of work and finances, the Youth Congress created and registered its own Charitable Foundation, Power of Youth Action. They decided to officially register their charitable activities in the Youth Congress a month after the start of the full-scale war and active volunteering. The founders of the fund included adult members of the Youth Congress and young entrepreneurs of the municipality who engaged in the volunteer headquarters of the Zboriv Congress.
“We must have understood the importance of our work at the moment. We became coordinators of the volunteer movement in the municipality. Our channel alone has more than 2,500 subscribers reading it daily. This is a lot for a small town. Official charitable activities will help us to attract large patrons from business and be even more transparent in our work,” said Lesia Holoiad.