2020 surprised us in different ways! The format of this year’s Fourth Forum of Youth Workers is no exception. On December 1 and 2, youth workers watched the Forum on the First Youth TV Channel. It was a real two-day TV about youth work:

• Motivational morning TV show on how to keep yourself on your toes and achieve high results in your work
• A story about the latest news of youth policy in Ukraine
• Ukrainian youth policy forecast: what winds and cyclones should we expect?
• Free TV shop of digital tools for youth work
• Reality show “Digital tuning of a youth worker”
• Culinary show “123 UAH”
• Author’s program “How to outwit quarantine?” or five video stories about successful community youth work
• HARDtalk with experts on youth worker competencies in 2025. What should you be like in five years to be interesting and useful to young people?
• International online videoconference of youth workers
• Broadcasting of the award “Best practices in Ukrainian youth work 2020”
• “Late Youth Show” (it was stylish, fun and surprising 🙂
• Big quiz game “Youth policy and quarantine: adapt or postpone?”
• Advertisement (well, it can’t be avoided) of opportunities for youth workers.

We all attentively watched the forum for better understanding of youth policy, gained new skills, competencies and learnt from the experience of successful youth work and cases. But our organization was not just a spectator at the Forum. Vira Usyk, youth worker and vice-president of the organization, moderated an interesting Hard-talk discussion “The truth about youth workers in 2025”. The guests of the studio were Irina Belyaeva, director of the Youth Policy Department of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine; Serhiy Zamidra, deputy chairman of the All-Ukrainian Association of Communities, former head of the village of Nemishayev and deputy of the village council; Yulia Tkachuk, deputy director of the USAID/UNITY program; and Olena Chernykh, project manager of Youth for Democracy in Ukraine, the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine. The discussion was interesting, frank and incisive. Follow the link to watch: https://youtu.be/wxBbbtC5acc

We invite you to subscribe to the First Youth Channel on YouTube where you can not only watch all the programs of the 2020 Forum, but also follow the latest news, because the First Youth Channel continues its work. Link is here.

During two months, a team of organization’s experts carried out the project “Strengthening Youth Social Work Caritas-Spes in Ukraine” with the financial support of the German government, the German Catholic Foundation “Renovabis” and the organization of child protection of the Catholic Church in Germany Kindermissionswerk “Die Sternsinger”. The project was implemented in two slots, called “Management Workshop” and “Light Up Life” (leisure organization for young people).

The aim of the project was to promote the development of competencies in administrative personnel and finance management for effective interaction and mental health support of staff and employees of health facilities for children and adolescents and for training group leaders and leisure organizers by improving creative thinking skills, time management and mastering the tools of administering online and offline events.

The target audience of the project was 30 representatives from Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhya, Kyiv-Zhytomyr, Lutsk, Mukachevo, Kamyanets-Podilsky Dioceses and Lviv Archdiocese.

The partners were the Training and Research Center for Personnel Development and Leadership of Borys Hrinchenko University of Kyiv and the NGO “Space of Equal Opportunities” (Sumy).

The main activities within the project were:

1. Ten online trainings by the organization’s experts and partners about administrative, financial and personnel management and project approach in management.
2. Eight online trainings by the organization’s experts and partners on the topic of methods, technologies, tools, basic approaches to the organization of offline and online group work, basics of first aid, psychology, sustainable development etc.
3. One-day online workshop from experts about youth work, design, public speaking, creative thinking etc.
4. One-day final event – presentations of activities developed by project participants.
5. Mentor support of participants by the organization’s experts while doing homework and preparing for project presentations.

Among the most important results are:

• 16 members of the Management Slot improved their knowledge of self-management techniques, including time-, resource-, human-management, as well as acquired skills in planning and division of responsibilities in the team; acquired the competencies of a project manager within the implementation of the project approach in management, in particular, got acquainted with the concepts of sustainability and fundraising, as well as acquired new knowledge in the field of financial management during the implementation of their own projects; mastered techniques of effective communication and overcoming conflict situations, learned to recognize the syndrome of emotional burnout and got acquainted with methods of prevention of emotional burnout.
• Participants prepared a mapping of their own organizations (capabilities) with the identification of weaknesses and strengths; analysis of the financial viability of the organization and a map of financial goals; conflict maps to minimize consequences and recommendations for managing one’s emotions; analysis of time stealers and factors from the outside world that hinder the implementation of tasks in the organization.
• 14 participants of the “Light up life” slot gained skills of using digital tools, facilitating online and offline group work methods; learned first aid basics, sustainable development and its global goals, youth policy and tools for influencing youth decision-making in the community, time management and psychological features of communication with children and adolescents.
• Participants developed and presented four of their own online activities to work with vulnerable children and youth within their work in Caritas Spes camps, rooms, kindergartens.
• All participants established strong partnerships and started working on joint projects.

We are very grateful to our partners Caritas-Spes Ukraine for trusting us, to all participants for engagement and willingness to develop themselves and their organizations, and to all coaches and experts for their professionalism and active position.

Paid internship in the non-governmental organization “Young Agents of Change”!

It is an opportunity for active young people to gain experience in implementing national and international youth projects, acquire new knowledge and skills, start to carry out their own social initiatives, get useful acquaintances and contacts.

Basic requirements for candidates:

• willingness to join social initiatives aimed at involving young people in the social and political life of Ukraine and Europe;
• fluency in English (oral and written);
• Microsoft Office skills (Word, Excel, Powerpoint), Zoom and Google tools (forms, joint documents);
• self-organization (punctuality, diligence, ability to prioritize tasks);
• initiative, active civic position;
• experience of volunteering, participation in international projects or previous activity in public organizations will be an advantage.

Intern’s Responsibilities:

• assist with the implementation of international projects: participate in online meetings with international partners, prepare documents, interim reports, etc.;
• administer online events;
• prepare publications for social networks (Facebook, Instagram);
• translate materials and the organization’s website into English;
• purchase necessary items (stationery, branded products, etc.);
• other responsibilities pursuant to the interests of the trainee and the current needs of the organization.

Internship conditions:

• remote online work according to the schedule convenient for the trainee (sometimes during weekends), it is suitable for students;
• part-time employment (on average 1-3 hours a day);
• approximate start of the internship is mid-November 2020;
• duration of internship is 3 months;
• compensation for the trainee is UAH 3,000 per month;
• letter of recommendation based on the results of the internship;
• possibility of non-competitive participation in international Erasmus+ programmes after the end of quarantine;
• possibility of further expansion of responsibilities and employment in the organization’s projects.

To apply for a vacancy please email at info@yac.org.ua and send your CV and cover letter (up to one A4 page) describing the motivation to work with the NGO “Young Agents of Change” and the expected results of the internship. The language of the resume and letter is English.

Deadline is November 13, 2020. 

Looking forward to seeing you in our team 😉

We are constantly striving for self-development and improvement in order to be institutionally capable, create a lot more opportunities for young people and be more actively involved in the establishment of civil society in Ukraine.

In order to set changes in motion, you should to be honest with yourself, admit your weaknesses and defeats, know your strengths and weaknesses, give a chance to your ideas, aspirations and dreams, believe in yourself and your team, learn to rejoice in victories, be open to new things, take responsibility and sincerely believe in what you do.

That is why the team of the NGO “Young Agents of Change” met to hold a strategic session at the end of September 2020. The planning process included collective analytical work to analyze the current reality, develop a strategy and determine the organization’s priorities for the coming years, operational management and action plan for 2020-2021, in particular, according to the SCRUM project system. The meeting was attended offline and online by 13 most active members of the organization.

Based on the results of strategizing, as well as further refinement, a strategic plan for the development of the organization for 2021-2023, along with an operational plan for 2021-2022 will be developed. The approved strategic plan will be published on our website later.

The strategic session was conducted by business coach Natalia Muzyka with the support of ISAR “Ednannia” within the program “CSO Organizational Development Grants” (2019-2024, USAID Civil Society Sectoral Support Initiative Project).

Join our team and become an agent of change! Remember that you need to act today to make tomorrow bright!