Youth Connect for Ukraine aims to support young Ukrainians to lead fulfilling and purposeful lives now, wherever they are living. It aspires to support young people, including women, girls and those from disadvantaged groups affected by the war in Ukraine to have the skills and motivation to build connections in their local context and influence their own future and their communities.
We are designing training and activities to build leadership attributes that are needed in times of disruption and to support the social development of young people.
The programme’s ambition is to meet the needs of young leaders from Ukraine and Europe (aged 16–30) and equip them with the skills, resources and networks that they need to provide leadership in their current communities and in a reconstructed Ukraine as part of a European network.
In the first year of implementation, the programme took place in Ukraine Poland and Romania, where it offered leadership training and integration events in a variety of locations. The training included skills development and learning opportunities, access to information, support from experts and opportunities for networking and exchanging.
The programme is open to young leaders from Ukraine who might be internally displaced or who are currently living in Poland, and to young participants from the local communities who are interested in leadership and creating positive relationships within their communities.
In Poland, our activities focused on leadership training and integration days are taking place in Toruń and Kraków.
Partners
Our partners on this project are the Emic Foundation from Toruń, the workshops will take place 16-17 of November and 30- 1st of December.
You can sign up here=>https://forms.microsoft.com/e/38wWHCj9PD
Second Partner is the Zustricz Foundation from Kraków, where the workshops will take place 23-24th of November and 7-8th of December.
You can sign up here=> https://forms.gle/zs2oeBsbjHXA59Y68
Emic Foundation
Emic Foundation is the oldest organisation in the region providing activities for people with migration and refugee experience. They ensure the quality of their activities by providing sustainable and comprehensive support.
The mission of the Emic Foundation is to support male and female migrants in achieving self-reliance in Poland. They always put the individual and their needs first. They carry out the mission through direct support to migrants and refugees (language courses, counselling at information and counselling centres, legal counselling, job placement, psychological support) as well as institutional support and education of the Polish society. They cooperate with schools attended by children with migration experience, with companies creating friendly workplaces for foreign workers and with institutions that come into contact with foreigners. They carry out educational and information activities that present a true picture of migrants and migrant women and their living conditions in Poland.
Zustricz Foundation
The Zustricz Foundation was registered in March 2016 and was established on the basis of the informal group Ukrainian Club in Krakow, continuing the Club's activities carried out at the end of 2013. Initially, these activities stemmed from the need for solidarity in the face of the tragic events in the Maidan and focused around the organisation of support actions for the Ukrainian Maidan and humanitarian aid collections for Ukrainians who suffered during these events and the war in the East.
The Ukrainian Club in Krakow conducted and organised several meetings promoting Ukrainian culture, and co-organised stays in Poland of groups of children from Ukraine (from families of victims). It also actively participated in the ‘Album from long ago’ project carried out by the Pokolenie association, in which a total of 100 children from Ukraine and Poland took part. As a result of these activities, an exhibition of photographic works and a film ‘Children of Majdan’ were created based on interviews with the project participants. The film can be viewed on TVP Kraków in the Kontrapunkt studio.