{"id":15662,"date":"2020-09-15T11:26:29","date_gmt":"2020-09-15T09:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inrespublica.org.ua\/?p=15662"},"modified":"2020-10-08T10:52:23","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T08:52:23","slug":"vid-mriyi-do-diyi-molodizhnomu-tsentru-u-volnovaskomu-rajoni-donetskoyi-oblasti-buty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inrespublica.org.ua\/en\/aktyvna-hromada\/vid-mriyi-do-diyi-molodizhnomu-tsentru-u-volnovaskomu-rajoni-donetskoyi-oblasti-buty.html","title":{"rendered":"Active Community. From Dream to Action: There will be Youth Center in Volnovakha District of Donetsk Region Anyway!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, in the spring of 2019, at the initiative of the district administration, Yana Tvereza, the regional coordinator of the All-Ukrainian Initiative \u201cActive Community\u201d 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 \u2013 about 800 thousand hryvnias. The leadership of the district and the region promised to allocate funds in the format of 50\/50.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2013 to pay for the cost estimate documentation (approximately 80,000 hryvnias).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut 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,\u201d Olena recounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere 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 \u2013 400 thousand hryvnias\u201d, the head of the initiative group explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, initially, almost a million hryvnias was allocated for the creation of the Youth Center, but the local authorities abandoned this idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur team took an active part in webinars held by the \u201cActive Community\u201d. There we learned where and who we can call on for help. We wrote to the Regional State Administration, the President\u2019s 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,\u201d Olena adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n