The Agency for Private Initiative Development has completed the evaluation of youth initiatives that provide for specific measures to protect and preserve cultural heritage. The preparation of full project proposals was a homework assignment following the results of the training camp, which took place on March 26-28, 2024 in the city of Yaremche and the city of Kosiv. All twenty participants of the training coped with the task and submitted 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 mobilize 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 six are those that received the highest scores according to the evaluation results and which ARPI plans to support with microgrants with co-financing from the NED fund.  

1. NGO “Center for Sustainable Initiatives” (Zdolbunivka urban territorial community, Rivne region), initiative “Secrets of the building on the factory”

2. NGO “Noosphere Association” (Dnipro city), initiative “The heritage we are losing: cultural and archaeological monuments on the verge of destruction due to Russian armed aggression”

3. NGO “Union of Women of the Minority” (Mensk urban territorial community, Chernihiv region), initiative “Wooden “eyes” of the Minority”

4. Myrhorod city youth public organization “The future is behind us” in partnership with the youth council under the Myrhorod city council (Myrhorod community, Poltava region), initiative “Discover Myrhorod”.

5. NGO “Northern Cultural Capital” (Novobilou community, Chernihiv region), initiative – board game “Tasty Chernihiv region"

6. NGO "Rehabilitation Center "Green Grove" (Sursko-Litovsk rural territorial community, Dnipropetrovsk region), initiative "Wonders of the Mokra Sura River Basin. Geology. History".

7. NGO "Khmelnytskyi Regional Youth Public Association "Territory" (Kamenets-Podilskyi city, Khmelnytskyi region), initiative "Bakota - revival of flooded heritage"

8. NGO "Youth Communication Center "Positive Pavlograd" (Pavlograd city, Dnipropetrovsk region), initiative "Mykolaiv (Igren) painting on the territory of Pavlograd region. Preserve! Restore! Popularize!"

9. NGO “Okhtyrka Youth Center” (Okhtyrka, Sumy region), initiative “Okhtyrka: History Among Us”

10. NGO “Nadvirna Tourist Information Center” (Nadvirna, Ivano-Frankivsk region), initiative “Doors to the Past: Research, Promotion and Preservation of Heritage in Communities of the “Salt of History” Cluster”.

11. NGO “Platform of Creative Activity and Social Development “Grain of Unity” (Storozhynets, Chernivtsi region), initiative “Cultural Hub: Youth on the Guard of Heritage”

12. NGO “Olexandriyska Youth” (Olexandria, Kirovohrad region), initiative “Ethno-Laboratory “At Home”

13. NGO “Ukraine is Culture” (Letychiv village, Khmelnytskyi region), initiative “Ukrainian Classical Literature as a Code of Invincibility of modern Ukraine".

14. NGO "ACTS. Good Ideas Unite" (Pechenyzhyn community, Ivano-Frankivsk region), initiative - printing of the collection "Easter Hayevkas"

15. NGO "BOLGRAD DISTRICT ORGANIZATION "NEW GENERATION" (Bolgrad community, Odesa region), initiative "Tabasha caroling. Preservation of the national tradition of the Bulgarian diaspora of Ukraine in the village of Tabaki, Bolgrad district"

16. NGO "Gorodok Region Development Agency" (Horodok city, Lviv region), initiative "Know your own! Let's recreate the unique wedding wreath of the Gorodok region of the late 19th - early 20th centuries."

17. Charitable organization Charitable foundation "Heritage.UA" (Lviv), initiative "At the White Courtyard": Revitalization of the park-monument of landscape art "Park of the 19th Century"

18. NGO "Creative Association "Tlumatskaya Palette" (Tlumatskaya urban territorial community), initiative "Children's ethno-folk show "Forest Song"

19. NGO "Youth Community Emmanuel" (Khorostkiv, Ternopil region) initiative "Folkbum - Karaoke of National Identity"

20. NGO "MUSEUM GATE" (Voznesensk, Mykolaiv region), initiative "Tavria vibe"

Congratulations to the six winners of the Second Competition, who are preparing to implement microgrants, 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.

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. We are sincerely grateful to 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 we will definitely meet with everyone at the Second National Forum of Ambassadors of Cultural Heritage of Ukraine, which 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 2024, 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.