On March 26-28, 2024, a training camp was held in the city of Yaremche and the city of Kosiv, which is the Second Stage of the Second Competition of Youth Initiatives for the Protection and Preservation of Local Heritage within the framework of the ARPI project "Promoting Youth Civic Participation in Decentralized Communities", which has been implemented since September 2022 with the support of the NED Foundation.

The training participants were 20 leaders of CSOs and youth initiative groups from Lviv, Poltava, Rivne, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Ternopil, Odesa, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Sumy, Khmelnytskyi, Chernivtsi and Chernihiv regions, who passed the preliminary selection based on the results of 105 applications received and processed within the framework of the competition from initiative groups from 23 regions of Ukraine.

As part of the camp program, young activists took part in interactive trainings on civic representation (advocacy). Knowledge on heritage advocacy will be useful to the camp participants when planning their own public participation campaigns to achieve systemic changes in approaches to heritage. The main idea of ​​such campaigns is the involvement of residents in heritage issues, their awareness of personal responsibility for preserving for future generations unique tangible and intangible cultural values, which are passed down from generation to generation. This heritage is often the only core of the identity of communities, a source of pride for each resident, which, however, is easy to lose due to general negligence and indifference.

The camp participants also had the opportunity to hear about successful cases and implemented initiatives in the field of heritage firsthand. The following shared their experience:

• Volodymyr Hrynishak, director of the NGO “Nadvirnyanskyi Tourist Information Center” with the topic “Krasnodvir - an initiative that changed the city”;
• Hanna Gavryliv, founder of the “Heritage UA” Foundation with the topic “Cultural heritage as a new area for investment”;
• Roksolana Martyniuk, head of the promotion, ties and economic development department of the Kosiv City Council, coordinator of the cross-border project “The World of Carpathian Rosettes - measures to preserve the uniqueness of the Carpathian culture” with the topic “The path of transformation of the “carpet workshop” or how the Center of Carpathian Culture appeared in Kosiv”.

In addition, each of the camp participants had the opportunity to present their organization/initiative group and talk about their own experience in implementing projects in the field of heritage.

A separate block was devoted to training on preparing and improving grant applications for the ARPI subgrant competition for NED co-financing, aimed at involving residents of Ukrainian communities in activities to preserve their cultural heritage. After the camp, its most motivated students will be able to submit applications and, based on the results of the selection, receive a grant to involve residents of their communities in preserving and popularizing cultural heritage in communities. A total of 6 subgrants will be provided for up to $2,000 each. The deadline for submitting applications or the “happy line” is April 23, 2024.

Thanks to our trainers, speakers and participants for an extremely driving, informative and valuable camp!

We would like to remind you that the Heritage Ambassadors initiative is a continuation of the NED-supported projects “Heritage for Development” (2019-2020) and “Heritage for Development-2” (2020-2021), aimed at supporting local communities in preserving and promoting local heritage. Thanks to these projects, over the past three years we have implemented a number of changes to Ukraine’s strategic policy documents and expanded the scope for involving Ukrainian CSOs in preserving and managing cultural heritage. From 2019 to 2022, civil society leaders, united by project activities, 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 preserving local histories, antiquities, and even in revitalizing “communal” castles and palaces.