The Lviv region has launched the first stage of dialogue sessions focused on implementing social innovations and finding integration solutions for the return of Ukrainians. Rokada initiated the dialogues with local communities. Similar events are scheduled to take place in the Vinnytsia and Rivne regions.
As part of the YOUA project – “Strengthening Community Resilience for Return and Reintegration” – the foundation’s team will assist communities in developing ideas and will provide professional guidance for each initiative through to its implementation.
“The first such meeting took place in Drohobych, Lviv region. We worked on initiatives that address existing challenges. The community strives for change, understands the existing barriers, and has good human potential for implementing modern infrastructural, service, and communication approaches,” explains Ivan Chubukin, expert on developing social innovations and integration solutions.
Recently, in the Drohobych community, Rokada conducted a study showing that five areas require attention: affordable housing, social integration, information and navigation, employment, coordination and cooperation.
“We cooperated with the Ukrainian Center for Public Opinion Research Socioinform, which professionally helped to identify the needs of people in the communities – these are issues of quality social services, economic potential, including the labor market, community activism, etc. Such data allow not only mapping the demands and expectations but also helping the communities prepare solutions that will facilitate the return and effective reintegration of people who left due to the full-scale invasion,” explains project manager Alla Krasovska.
In the communities, Rokada invites representatives of local government bodies, the social sphere, education, medicine, the employment service, public and charitable organizations, business, internally displaced persons, veterans, people who have returned from abroad, and active citizens to the process of forming innovations.
“We strive for solutions to be born not from the top down, but directly within the communities – with the participation of those who work with people every day and know the local context well,” notes Alla Krasovska.
The next stage of dialogue meetings is the presentation of developed initiatives to community managers. In Drohobych, a budget of up to a quarter of a million hryvnias was provided for the implementation of the most effective one.
“At the same time, we will accompany communities at all stages – from the formation of the concept to its presentation. It is important for us that the proposed solutions are realistic, meet local needs and can become the basis for long-term changes,” adds Alla Krasovska.
Dialogue meetings will also take place in the Boryslav and Novyi Rozdil communities of Lviv Oblast, Tulchyn, Bar, and Ladyzhyn in Vinnytsia Oblast, and Dubno, Zdolbuniv, and Sarny in Rivne Oblast.
The project “Strengthening Community Resilience for Return and Reintegration” is implemented by the Charitable Foundation Rokada within the framework of the project “YOUA – Shaping New Paths, Building the Future of Ukraine,” which is implemented on behalf of the German Government and implemented by GIZ Ukraine: Sustainable Economic Development.
The YOUA project provides exclusively technical assistance and does not influence personal decisions regarding return to Ukraine. Participation in events and the use of services are strictly voluntary for individuals considering return, those who have already made such a decision, or those currently in the process of reintegration after returning to Ukraine.
