Earlier, the team of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Zakarpattia Oblast, in partnership with the Department of Education and Science, Youth and Sports of the Zakarpattia Regional Military Administration, held an info session “Youth Participation in Municipal Life: Youth Policy”. The main goal of the event was to discuss the current state of youth policy, provide clarification on the tools and mechanisms of engaging the youth in municipal life, as well as the role of youth advisory bodies in these processes.
14 youth councils have been created in the Zakarpattia Oblast, of which 11 are active. Their main task is to help youth self-actualise and strengthen their capacities. There is also a regional programme “Youth of the Zakarpattia Oblast 2021–2025”, which is designed to promote youth participation in all processes of social life.
“We are working to ensure that young residents of municipalities are interested in social and political processes and participate in the development of their cities and villages,” said Maria Yurina, representative of the Department of Education and Science, Youth and Sports of the Zakarpattia Regional Military Administration.
In 2023, the Youth Council of the Zakarpattia Regional Military Administration conducted a survey to identify the needs and interests of young people to promote the development of youth policy in municipalities and the region in general:
“Among the directions of our work is outreach to the youth of the entire oblast. We conducted a survey about their problems and needs in order to quickly respond to challenges and develop cooperation. 1850 participants took part in the study. Its results and recommendations were summarised in a manual that will be publicly available,” said Victoria Kenidra, Head of the Youth Council at the Zakarpattia Regional Military Administration.
In her opinion, if the municipality knows what drives young people, it will be able to find common ground and implement useful initiatives and projects together.
An important point in the creation and establishment of a youth advisory body is a high-quality partnership and cooperation with local self-government. The main concern is to avoid turning into a “puppet” organisation. This was emphasised by Lesia Holoyad, Head of the National Association of Advisers on Youth Affairs, who shared her experience of creating and functioning of the Youth Council in the Zboriv municipality of the Ternopil Oblast:
“We started with 6 members of the Youth Council. Now we cover the social needs of the municipality, and not only those that concern the youth. We created a youth media space, Bavovna-HUB and other projects. We realised that our activity was no longer a hobby but a job,” she said.
According to Maria Manziuk, Head of the Youth Council of the Tiachiv City Council, everyone is capable of bringing change. She believes that youth activity has a positive effect on the image of the municipality. Firstly, young people run social media accounts and talk about their public activities and projects they implement in the municipality. Secondly, they attend workshops and other events, present their activities and their municipality among participants from different regions of Ukraine (and beyond). Thirdly, members of youth councils, who are skilled in writing projects, knowledgeable about the functioning of local self-government, good at communication and have leadership qualities, are a great human resources reserve of the municipality.
“Youth councils are needed to encourage young people to be active and involved in municipal life. By investing money, time and attention in young people, we are actually changing the present and investing in the future,” said Pavlo Lohvinov, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD.