Two AHs of Ivano-Frankivsk region have become participants in the initiative "Democracy and Community Development through Understanding and Developing Local Heritage", which started in September and is scheduled to end in December 2017.

This project is aimed at strengthening the capacity of local governments and activating the processes of democratic and economic development, as well as increasing the level of youth participation in local governance of the new Bila Berezhskaya and Pechenezhynska united territorial communities. The project's goals will be achieved far from the traditional way (for example, training in democratic processes, youth leadership or conducting project writing seminars that have been popular for decades), but by increasing the understanding of local government representatives and youth community leaders of the importance of wise use of the cultural and natural heritage of their area.

The project implementer – the Agency for the Development of Private Initiative – decided to implement this idea, based on the firm position that carefully preserved and qualitatively interpreted local tangible and intangible heritage hides a wide variety of opportunities for the development of local communities and, thanks to this, accelerates and makes the processes of decentralization in Ukraine minimally painful. In addition, reasonable management of natural or cultural objects and unique acquisitions of intangible culture is, in fact, the basis for preserving the values ​​inherited from tens or even hundreds of generations of predecessors.

The project provides for measures to improve local heritage management skills for further preservation and promotion of its objects. It is planned to organize study visits for deputies, public leaders and active students to already developed local heritage objects. This is the Vygodskaya Narrow Gauge Heritage Center, which was opened in 2015 and is now not only successfully operating, but also serves as a local hub for community change. Also, creative workshops on the development and preservation of local heritage will be held in the Bila Berezhskaya and Pechenezhynskaya communities, with the participation of not only managers and active AHs, but also local historians, specialists in the field of architecture, spatial planning, landscape design, interior designers and other specialists for planning work with heritage.

Project participants will gain new knowledge and skills on the importance of heritage for local development. In this direction, it is planned to work with schoolchildren, whose potential and energy should be directed precisely to initiatives for the wise use of the cultural heritage of their parent communities and thereby guarantee the territory of sustainable development, in fact, for its own future. For this target group, each AH will conduct highly specialized trainings on entrepreneurship (with a visual example of the activities of local entrepreneurs around the Heritage Center in Vyhoda) and presentation skills through mastering the skills of debating and persuasion. At the final stage of the project, a joint debate tournament for the two communities will be organized among the young project participants, where sharp discussions and bright ideas around controversial topics regarding the priority, importance and applied role of local heritage are expected.

In order to strengthen and increase the effectiveness of communities' activities in using local heritage for economic development, project experts will develop a manual for local officials, active and thoughtful community leaders, including youth leaders. There has been no such resource in Ukraine so far. This manual in electronic format will be available on the website of the Agency for the Development of Private Initiative, announced and distributed in the partner network of the project "Support for the Decentralization Reform in Ukraine" and in social networks.

The implementation of the project should be a successful, even correct, start of a comprehensive, well-thought-out activity of, at present, two pilot communities with colossal local heritage resources. The project team will provide the necessary intellectual and creative potential, as well as powerful expert support for successful planning and creative decisions in development issues and guarantee that its experience can be easily replicated for other newly created ATCs and not only in the Ivano-Frankivsk region of Ukraine.

The initiative “Democracy and Community Development through Understanding and Developing Local Heritage” is implemented by specialists of the NGO “Agency for the Development of Private Initiatives” within the framework of the project “Support for Decentralization Reform in Ukraine”, which is administered by the All-Ukrainian OPORA Network and co-financed by the British Government through the British Embassy in Ukraine.