The place has become a meeting point for proactive and concerned citizens. Here young people and others will have an opportunity to implement various social services for the community, to learn, to develop, to communicate with each other. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n What prompted the idea, what the Centre is like and how its creators fought for premises and financing \u2013 these are the topics we discussed with<\/em> Andrii Pavliuk, the communication coordinator of the All-Ukrainian Initiative \u201cActive Community\u201d.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 How did it all start for Skadovsk Youth Centre and how did it all start for you personally?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 It all began back in 2014. Then I had just returned home from enlisted military service and felt the need for changes not only in the whole Ukraine but in my town too. The war had just started, and I was left in Skadovsk as a military instructor. I wanted to do something useful in addition to dealing with military affairs. At that moment, I did not yet know neither about the Institute Republica nor about Active Community Initiative. I got a call from Artem Kostiuchenko, the Head of the NGO \u201cYoung and Proactive\u201d who said that there was an activist, Mrs. Valentyna, who was planning to go to Kyiv. I contacted her, and she explained that she was looking for active young people. When I went with her to the capital, I got acquainted with Active Community Initiative, I saw what kind of people the activists were, what passion and energy they had \u2013 and an idea came into my mind: what if we create such an initiative in our town? Artem Kostiuchenko supported the idea. This is how the idea was born, but at that time we had no support so it receded into the background. During the next 3-4 years we travelled a lot across Ukraine, we saw many youth centres, hubs, zones for development and implementation of cool projects. We felt again that we wanted to create something like that in our town. In 2017, we started going to the local authorities and asking for premises. We were denied, although there were enough premises in the town. Then we applied for government grants several times, but we were also denied because nobody knew us and because Kherson Oblast were the so-called \u201cred zone\u201d: the corruption level is high, the region is close to Russia. In 2018, we met Andrii Kononenko, a local entrepreneur. He introduced us to his father who had premises but they were in an awful state. The condition was to put them in order. The problem was that there was no sewerage, so we started digging the sewer line ourselves. At first, there were many of us, then only three left out of 15. Passion was gone; people saw that there was a lot of work but no money. We cleaned and prepared the premises but the repairing still required a lot of money. Everything stopped again because we had no funding. At that moment, we met Nastia Klymentenko, a USAID representative in Kherson Oblast, and she told us that they planned to give mini-grants \u2013 up to 15 thousand dollars. We had a prepared project application because we had sent it to many places before. We edited it a little. Then we submitted it but did not get the grant again. We were already thinking about giving up the premises. Then Nastia called us again and introduced us to other grantmakers who were also representatives of USAID. They liked our idea and immediately agreed to provide us with funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 What are the main projects of the Centre?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 Youth Council, Photo Contest, Media School, Film Discussion Club, FRI (Foundation of Regional Initiatives, \u2013 the editor). We wanted to organize a huge camp on the island of Dzharylhach together with the FRI. When we were preparing the grant application for that project the deadline was already approaching and we were afraid that we would have no time to submit it. However, we did it, and the project was supported. Then the quarantine started. The Centre has opened but with certain limitations, for example, only gathering in groups of up to 10 people is allowed. During the first two months after the launching of the project, we had been editing and adapting it to new circumstances. We cancelled the FRI camp because of the ban on holding mass events. We discussed it all with USAID, and they increased funding by 30%. Difficulties arise in utilization of funds because we have never received such grants; we are learning to work with such amounts of money. In addition, there are difficulties because of the quarantine. Later we were given a reception as an additional premise. Since the ceiling in the building was very high, we were able to add the second floor. The others helped us to develop, for example, the Bohdan Hawrylyshyn Family Foundation sent us sunflowers. We planted them in the yard; the local residents brought us books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 <\/em>Please tell us about the logo of the Centre. What does it mean?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 <\/em>When we were working out the project, we did not yet know what the logo would look like, how to do it, where to order it.Anton and I were sitting in the office of a local entrepreneur who rented premises in the House of Culture. His son studies in Kyiv to become a designer, and he was interested in the fact that there would be a professional 3D printer at our Centre. Therefore, he decided to help us and created a logo for the Centre. It represents a house, a residential building, a lighthouse, and the title \u201cLight House\u201d \u2013 this is not a single word but two separate words \u2013 Light and House. It represents a lighthouse, which means the House of Light Ideas. An addition, there is a location sign, in other words, a spot on a map. He designed it all and thus really supported our project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 Please describe the opening of the Centre.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 <\/em>We have been functioning for a little bit more than a month. We had to be opened on 25 April but rescheduled the opening for 25 May. There were guests from Kherson, from different departments and divisions. We planned to hold an event during the opening; it was described in the grant application. There had to be many famous persons: journalists, screenwriters, etc. It was all cancelled due to the quarantine. Therefore, we found another solution: we planned a schedule and every hour invited a new group of 10 people into the Centre. Then we repeated all the information about our Centre to each group. Now many NGOs want to conclude a cooperation agreement with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 What are your plans for the nearest future?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 <\/em>There are trash cans for garbage sorting in our yard. An architect is coming to us soon to develop the yard project. A muralist is also expected who will paint a mural on a 16-meter wall. There are people who usually gather in a nearby alley, get drunk and speak foul language. It is important for us to show them that there is an alternative. We have cycling activists. They are sportspersons who want to promote this activity in the town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 Tell us more about the media school: whom is it addressed to?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 <\/em>I have always had an idea to share my experiences in journalism: I have been engaged in photography for 15 years, I have worked on local television. Within the grant project, there are age restrictions: from 14 to 35, but when grant funding ends, we are still going to continue this project, and there will be no age restrictions. We will form separate groups to make people comfortable. We were very pleased with a huge number of submitted applications. Even when I turn somebody down I redirect them to other courses, for example, to computer classes for seniors that are to be launched in the nearest future, or to films clubs where films are discussed. The participants are very different: children, a librarian, a Greek Catholic Church cleric, sportspersons, a Brazilian of Ukrainian origin. The media school course consists of 11 classes. We give background information, basic skills, some knowledge in the field of media. I and guest speakers, journalists teach photography: how to take pictures, how to edit them. Everything is taught at the primary level to help a person understand whether it is interesting for him or her, whether this person wants to do it. We teach people to shoot with a professional video camera, to edit footage. There will be video blogging classes, we will explain how to work with YouTube, Instagram, what is PR, etc. The course also includes classes on the basics of journalism, aerial photography classes, streaming classes. Their homework is to write an article for our website Skadovsk.city. Children who want to be journalists write an article, take pictures and post them on the website after approval by the editor. We can make them press cards and offer to work for us as freelance correspondents. Other participants are going to make a film showing how people studied at the media school. There are also participants who are going to make a photography exhibition. The main ideas our Centre was opened for are the following: to take people off the street, to teach them something useful, to give them an opportunity to understand, through non-formal learning, what they want to do in life. And the third and the most important idea is that I want a large media group to appear in Skadovsk which will present information truthfully, promote Skadovsk as a resort town, and it would be a resource able to send socially important messages to the society. <\/strong>All the classes held at the Centre are free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note.<\/em><\/strong> The mission of Active Community Initiative: to achieve prosperity through the democratic development of Ukrainian communities. The goal set for 2025: to activate at least 1% of the citizens and to involve them in decision-making process and promotion of reforms in Ukraine on a systemic basis for prosperity of Ukrainian communities. This initiative was established as a part of the activities of the Institute Republica. We work to increase the conscious activity of citizens.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Author: Tetiana Kavunenko, the head of the Press Service of the All-Ukrainian Initiative \u201cActive Community\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The idea of youth centres is not new. It is a fairly common practice in European countries. However, opening of the youth centre in a small town turned out to be a challenge. Lack of funding, lengthy search for premises, a bunch of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":15097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1080],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/inrespublica.org.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/skadovsk-foto-000.jpg\")
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