Author: Elena Palivoda

In 2022, with the invasion of Ukraine, Rostyslav and his colleagues understood that they could play a positive part in serving their communities by using their new skills in organizing volunteerism and their professional expertise as educationalists.  As such the ‘Inspiration Café’ was born and its first project was to establish an Educational Hub in Uzhhorod, in Zakarpatska oblast, which, with EU funding, was able to provide a safe, learning environment for more than 500 children displaced by the war.  From the experience of being part of the Educational Hub and from facing the challenges of how to support and grow a community organization, Rostyslav realized how important it was for community initiatives, particularly those led by young activists, to access guidance and practical support for development of strategies and resource mobilization.  This was the motivation for Rostyslav to design his ‘Enroot Resilience’ project, which became the focal point of his civil society fellowship.

Through ‘Enroot Resilience’ Rostyslav has produced and published a series of mini-training videos aimed at guiding Ukrainian grassroots organisations to take their first steps in community projects.  The videos have had more than 15,000 views and have been complimented with networking activities facilitated by Rostyslav.  The networking events were opportunities for activists to meet up and share experiences on developing projects and finding resources.  Rostyslav reflected on the success of these activities:

“Learning by doing is probably the most effective way to build capacity for community projects, but learning from the practical experience of others is extremely important. I have learnt so much from listening to the testimonies of activists during our roundtable discussions”.

To conclude his fellowship project Rostyslav hosted a ‘Time for Resilience’ forum, with a mixture of more than 100 offline and online participants.  The day-long event involved inputs of lots of different practitioners from civil society, including from other civil society fellows, such as Hanna Nishnindze who delivered a session on Fundraising, and was well-supported with participation from the management of the National Youth Council and local office for Erasmus+ coordination.  The feedback from the forum has been excellent:

“Many of the young activists used it as a springboard for building new partnerships,” noted Rostyslav, “with others, since the forum, successfully taking on community leadership positions.”

Taking on board the lessons learned from the fellowship, the initial ‘inspiration café’ organization has now been transformed to a CSO called ‘Education 360’ and, with Rostyslav’s and his colleagues’ increased organizational capacities, the CSO has a clear strategy and annual plans.  Rostyslav intends to continue to split his time between his formal school teaching duties and the activism managed through ‘Education 360’.

Watch a series of videos to help grassroots organisations to take their first steps in community projects (in Ukrainian only!):

1) The Art of Grant Writing: You will learn the key stages of writing a grant proposal and effective strategies to ensure a successful outcome.

2) Communications and Promotion for CSOs: You will learn how to increase the visibility of your organization through effective communication and promotion.

3) Forming partnerships: You will learn how to create strong partnerships to sustain and strengthen the organization. 

4) Scaling: You will learn how to grow your community and distribute your products or services.

5) Project Planning: You will learn the important steps and strategies that will ensure the success of your project.

6) How to prevent emotional burnout?: You will learn how to take care of your emotional health and avoid emotional burnout.

7) How to successfully fundraise?: You will learn about the most effective methods of attracting financial resources for your organization.