Everyone Should Contribute To Rebuilding: Community Building Centers Will Be Created In Ten ATCs

Lviv hosted a workshop for ten communities from various regions of Ukraine that won the grants to create community building centers. With grants provided by the Western NIS Enterprise Fund and Cedos, each community will receive up to UAH 1,000,000 to open such centers.

At the workshop, community representatives had a chance to pitch their projects and try to improve them together with mentors and experts in various fields.

Community building centers are physical spaces where various social groups will gather for leisure activities, educational programs, community development, and cooperation. They can be stand-alone buildings or part of other public facilities, such as administrative centers, hubs, libraries, cultural centers, etc.

The workshop agenda included meeting with the organizers, discussions and mentoring sessions on participatory approaches, community development, architecture, and prototyping of physical spaces, as well as tours of Lviv community centers – Sputnik, Lviv Open Lab, Municipal Art Center, Jam Factory.

The project also provides for continued advisory support to communities at all stages of project implementation.

The grant amount is UAH 1,000,000 and it is meant to cover two components:

1) physical creation (arrangement) or renovation of community building centers,

2) various programs and substantial activities that shape centers’ schedule.

The winning communities are:

• Blyzniuky village community, Kharkiv region.
• Velykopysarivka village community, Sumy region.
• Horodok city community, Lviv region.
• Kovel city community, Volyn region.
• Krasnokutsk village community, Kharkiv region.
• Nizhyn city community, Chernihiv region.
• Ovruch city community, Zhytomyr region.
• Snihurivka city community, Mykolaiv region.
• Chortkiv city community, Ternopil region.
• Dobroslav village community, Odesa region.

Read more about their projects in the news.

“During these three days, we’ve really revived ourselves in the midst of wonderful people who are not only passionate about what they do, but also ready to come in charge of changes in their communities, willing and able not only to declare values but also to make them come into life. With the professional support of mentors and experts, we disassembled and reinvented our idea of the Art Garage library, and then tested and improved the solution. So we have clearly planned steps to implement the idea of the Art Garage as a truly vibrant space that will inspire joint actions for community development,” comments Kateryna Yakovets, one of the workshop participants, a representative of the Chortkiv ATC.

“In endless talks about rebuilding, the focus jumps from housing to infrastructure, from roads to bridges, but human-centeredness often gets little attention in these discussions. As well as the involvement of those who live and will live in ATCs. That is why community building centers, or third places, will serve as hubs of communication and interaction, where changes in the ATCs will be initiated. As part of the project, we created an opportunity for ATCs to collaborate with top-ranked mentors and set two goals, both about inclusion – physical and social, so that all its residents could participate in the development of the community,” – comments Iryna Ozymok, Local Economic Development Program Director at Western NIS Enterprise Fund.

“Reconstruction and recovery must rest on understanding and solidarity between people, otherwise we will hardly create the prosperous state we strive and fight for. It will be difficult for us to agree on a common vision if we do not listen, trust, and work together. The community building centers that ATCs are working on as part of this project should become physical spaces for communication and interaction, local initiatives support, involvement of disadvantaged groups, and strengthening of solidarity through joint learning, volunteering, and future planning. We are pleased to have the opportunity to provide communities with the necessary support in establishing such centers.” – says Ivan Verbytskyi, Cedos Think Tank Director.