The Agency for Private Initiative Development has completed an evaluation of youth initiatives that provide specific measures to save and preserve cultural heritage that is suffering from war or is neglected by society.

 Preparation of full project proposals was a homework assignment following the results of the training camp "Public Participation Campaigns to Save the Cultural Heritage of Ukrainian Communities" on April 5-8, 2023 in the city of Yaremche. Seventeen out of twenty-one training participants coped with the task, submitting their own initiatives to the competition, which specified the project concepts submitted at the first stage of the program. We are grateful to all participating CSOs who made efforts to unite stakeholders in their communities, finalized the concepts of their own initiatives, and submitted full project application forms. Below is a list of the submitted initiatives, where the top five are those that received the highest number of points according to the evaluation results and which ARPI plans to support with microgrants for co-financing from the NED fund.

• NGO “UNION OF MINORITY WOMEN” (Mensk city territorial community, Chernihiv region), initiative “Wooden “eyes” of the Minority”
• Charitable organization “Artistic colors” (Pryluky city, Chernihiv region), initiative “Creation and ensuring the functioning of the summer youth school “Pryluky”
• NGO “Okhtyrka Youth Center” (Okhtyrka city united territorial community, Sumy region), initiative “Okhtyrka: heartbeat of Slobozhanshchyna”
• NGO “Zhytomyr regional organization of the Ukrainian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments” (Zhytomyr city, Zhytomyr region), initiative “Virtual 3D restoration of destroyed architectural monuments of Zhytomyr region and installation of information stands-stencils with images of destroyed buildings or their parts”
• NGO “Center European Integration of Slobozhanshchyna” (Trostyanets Urban Territorial Community, Sumy Region), initiative “Theatrical Costumed Excursion: Through Historical Explorations of Antiquity: “Feel Like a Defender of the European Outpost!”
• Public organization "Tysmenytsia Plast Foundation" (Tysmenytsia territorial community, Ivano-Frankivsk region), initiative "Interesting Museum" - Activation of the work of the Stepan Havrylyuk Tysmenytsia city history museum through the introduction of multimedia technologies and holding events for youth, with the involvement of the Plast youth of the Yakov Holub Preparatory Kuren of the Ukrainian Youth Youth Union"
• Public organization "Strategy of the Future" (Ketrysanivka rural territorial community, Kirvohrad region), initiative "Preservation of the intangible cultural heritage of the Ketrysanivka rural community through communication between youth and bearers of the authentic culture of the community"
• Trade union organization of educators of Medzhybizh TG (Medzhybizh territorial community, Khmelnytskyi region), initiative "A series of trainings to involve youth in the development of the cultural heritage of the Medzhybizh community and the direction of the revival of intangible heritage communities"
• Public organization "Union of Local Historians" (Kamyanka, Cherkasy region), initiative "Holding the festival "Distillery traditions of Kamyanshchyna" in a man-made grotto - an architectural monument of the 18th century"
• Public organization "Center for the Development of the Studenyansk Community" (Studenyanka rural territorial community, Vinnytsia region), initiative "Holding the improvement of "Shipota" - the cradles of the village of Studen"
• Public organization "Resource and investment center for community development "Territory of Success" (Novomyrhorod urban community, Kirvohrad region), initiative "Research art site "AURA Zlatopil gymnasium"
• Charitable association "CF "MHP-Hromadi" (v. Berezivka, Vinnytsia region), initiative "Publishing the book "Berezivka": History of the village of Berezivka, Vinnytsia region from the origins to the beginning of the war"
• Public organization "Harmony" (Demydiv territorial community, Rivne region), initiative "Second life of the Reizya tract"
• Public organization "Ust-Putilya rural organization "Zlagoda" (Ust-Putilya territorial community, Chernivtsi region), initiative "Heritage advocates: support and promotion of local youth initiative groups"
• Public organization "Orely" (Vyshgorod territorial community, Kyiv region), initiative "Preservation and functioning of Ukrainian heritage through the reconstruction of a Ukrainian hut for the further creation of a living museum"
• Public organization "Innovative horizons of Ukraine" (Kyiv), initiative "Cultural monuments of unbreakable Ukraine: audio PodСast cycle"
• Public organization "Impact Center SKHID.UA" (Sevierodonetsk), CSO moved to Ivano-Frankivsk), initiative "Skhid Hub "United by Victory"

The Youth Initiatives Program is ongoing. Its participants are preparing to implement micro-grants, as most of them offer activities to increase the activity of the community population, primarily young people, to help them understand the role and importance of local heritage, and increase their motivation to participate in activities to interpret local heritage. In addition, within the framework of the Program, we continue to collect stories dedicated to the positive impact of cultural and natural heritage on the lives of Ukrainian communities (https://forms.gle/BKDW2i7WPEHV7Vj48).

For detailed information on the development of the youth initiatives program, follow the web and FB page of the Agency for the Development of Private Initiatives. NGO ARPI sincerely thanks all declared CSOs and initiative groups for their interest in the heritage of their communities and the desire to act thoughtfully and thoughtfully towards its salvation and prosperity and will definitely meet with everyone at the youth initiatives forum that will be held at the end of the project. The program is implemented within the framework of the project "Heritage Advocates: Support and Promotion of Local Youth Initiative Groups" with co-financing from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The project is a continuation and strengthening of the results of ARPI's activities with the support of NED. Thanks to these projects, a number of changes were introduced to strategic policy documents and the scope for CSO involvement in the preservation and management of cultural heritage was expanded. From 2019 to 2022, network leaders prepared cultural and natural heritage interpretation plans for 18 communities from 13 regions of Ukraine, and also achieved significant progress in involving community residents in the preservation of local histories, antiquities, and in the revitalization of "communal" castles and palaces.