Advocacy training took place on 15-16 June 2021 in Kyiv, in an offline format for the first time since the pandemic started, as Covid-19 restrictions are lifted. It was focused on the basic principles and approaches to the organization of the advocacy campaign, developing an advocacy plan, the analysis of issues, tools, search and involvement of stakeholders, examples of successful and failed advocacy campaigns etc. The training was done in cooperation with the Ministry of Youth and sports of Ukraine and the All-Ukrainian Youth Center, and the overarching topic of the event was youth policy and initiatives. Participants were chosen based on the projects they submitted that are targeted at youth or are initiated by youth.
During the first day, participants worked with the trainer Mr. Oleksandr Ravchev in one big group learning about advocacy in general, exercising in developing advocacy plans, engaging stakeholders etc. During the second day, participants worked with three trainers from the All-Ukrainian Youth Center with a focus on advocacy of youth initiatives. The participants were also able to work on their individual projects with the supervision of the trainers. Such a focused and structured approach allowed the participants to obtain practical skills and knowledge and gain perspective and receive support with their own projects, which will lead to more immediate results and may yield more effective projects and advocacy campaigns. Being in a group of peers who all deal with youth also gave the participants the opportunity to get contributions not only from the trainers but also from their peers.
The second day was led by trainers of the All-Ukrainian Youth Centre – Maksym Lutsenko, Viktor Zolotarenko, and Anastasiia Holovchenko. They held a number of exercises directed at practical cases of advocacy, showcased the main mistakes that can be made during an advocacy campaign. In the end of the day, the participants pitched their projects, and the group selected three projects to work together on in detail.
Trainers:
Oleksandr Ravchev, expert in advocacy and communication
Maksym Lutsenko, Viktor Zolotarenko, and Anastasiia Holovchenko, experts of the All-Ukrainian Youth Centre
