The story of the struggle to establish a Youth Center in the village of Vilne in Volnovakha district of Donetsk region began as far back as in the spring of 2019. Olena Koniushok, the head of the initiative group, recounts all the vicissitudes: negotiations, meetings, letters to members of Parliament.

So, in the spring of 2019, at the initiative of the district administration, Yana Tvereza, the regional coordinator of the All-Ukrainian Initiative “Active Community” in the city of Volnovakha, together with Vilne village head Oleksandr Polchenko and a representative of the Volnovakha District State Administration, agreed upon the location of the future Youth Center (it was supposed to be the premises of the village cultural center) and the funds needed for its establishment and arrangement. The amount turned out to be quite large – about 800 thousand hryvnias. The leadership of the district and the region promised to allocate funds in the format of 50/50.

In December 2019, young people held a meeting with the village head. He promised that he would support this idea and that a Youth Center in the village of Vilne would be established.

The district and the regional authorities abode by their commitments: a subvention in the amount of 800,000 hryvnias was allocated to the budget of the village council for 2020. The village council was assigned with the only task – to pay for the cost estimate documentation (approximately 80,000 hryvnias).

“But we heard a lot of excuses and arguments from the village head suggesting that the Youth Center should not be created but a Youth Council be established instead,” Olena recounts.

At the beginning of 2020, representatives from the regional department of youth and sports came to Vilne, inspecting the premises, discussing the issue. The village head told them as well that it was not the right time for the Youth Center to be established.

“There had been no progress. The youth and activists and I wanted the center, we dreamed about how we would spend our leisure time there, but the things bumped into the village head and his reluctance to sign the documents. In the spring, he sent a letter to the district council stating that he could not allocate 80,000 hryvnias to co-finance the Youth Center and postponed the issue for 2021. Thereafter, the village head initiated the village council voting to return a part of the subvention allocated for the Youth Center back to the district budget. Thus, we were left only with the funds from the regional level – 400 thousand hryvnias”, the head of the initiative group explains.

So, initially, almost a million hryvnias was allocated for the creation of the Youth Center, but the local authorities abandoned this idea.

As Olena continues, 9 months have passed since then. The youth council, that the village head was so concerned and kept on talking about, has not been established. The local self-government has not held any meeting with the youth. No changes have taken place. All the motions to bring back the issue of the Youth Center to the session have been blocked and ignored by the village head.

“Our team took an active part in webinars held by the “Active Community”. There we learned where and who we can call on for help. We wrote to the Regional State Administration, the President’s Office, the office of Member of Parliament of Ukraine Dmytro Lubinets. We told our story on social media. Now, everyone in the district and far beyond already knows about us,” Olena adds.

At the end of August, the village council received a letter from the Regional State Administration stating that if the funds allocated from the regional level (400,000 hryvnias) were not to be used in the nearest future, this subvention would be redistributed. Thus, Vilne would be left with nothing. Those funds could only be used under the 50/50 scheme, i.e., the village budget would need to find another 400 thousand hryvnias. The village head replied that there was no money in the budget.

But the activists from Vilne did not give up. They phoned to the MP’s office asking for help again.

“I don’t know what exactly turned to be the driving force, but after this phone call we regained hope,” Olena Koniushok shares her emotions.

Then, the chairman of the district council Valerii Lubinets came to Vilne for a meeting with the community and announced that the district council was ready to allocate funds for the Youth Center again. What the village council, represented by the village head, had to do was to accept them, allocate funds for the documentation and disburse the subvention. The head reiterated on the Youth Council, goals, objectives and lack of funds in the local budget. No agreement was reached. Valerii Lubinets promised to return to the village later.

“On September 9th, many guests from the district authorities visited our village. The members of the village council and activists attended the meeting. I don’t know what had happened with the village head, but he was unequivocally ‘for’ the creation of the Youth Center this time. However, in his opinion, the Center was to be housed in the premises of the kindergarten, not the village cultural center,” Olena continues.

Having inspected the premises of the cultural center and the kindergarten, the planner noted that the hall and rooms of the cultural center were suitable for the creation of a Youth Center, and even a model youth center could be set up there. Theoretically, the kindergarten could also host the Youth Center, but it would take up a lot of time (due to the long process of documentation) and cost more money because the latter had an intended function different from that of the Youth Center.

“The youth insisted on the premises of the village cultural center. I urged the council members to support us. And hurray – they took heed of our words. An extraordinary session of the Vilne village council, held on the very same day, voted for the establishment of a Youth Center at the cultural center! Justice and common sense have finally won!”, Olena rejoices.

“I wish all the Ukrainian activists one thing – boundless confidence in themselves and their strength. As long as we are alive, anything is possible! And, in fact, there is plenty of doors where one can ‘knock’. The main thing is to have the desire to do so,” Olena Koniushok sums up.

Note. The mission of the “Active Community” is to achieve prosperity through the democratic development of Ukrainian communities. The goal for 2025 is to activate and involve at least 1% of citizens in decision-making and promotion of reforms in Ukraine on a systemic basis for the well-being of Ukrainian communities. The initiative was created through the activities of the “Institute Respublica”. We are working to increase the civil activity of citizens.