On October 22, the first stage of the project "Youth School of Municipal Administration" ended. The project is being implemented by the Volyn Regional Youth Public Organization "Association of Young Reformers (AMoRe)" and the Student Trade Union of Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University, with the support of the "Voice of the Public" Project. The goal of this project is to raise the level of civic and political culture of student youth in Lutsk, as well as to attract young specialists to service in local self-government bodies.
40 young Lutsk residents, namely senior-year students and graduates of higher education institutions in the city of Lutsk, attended 6 informational sessions over the course of a week. During the training, the project participants learned about the nature and organizational-legal foundations of local self-government, the main powers, forms of work and structure of local councils and their executive bodies, the procedure for completing internships and the procedure for hiring young specialists in the divisions of the Lutsk City Executive Committee, as well as about the methods and spheres of influence of public organizations on the activities of local self-government bodies and the opportunities for young people in decision-making at the local level. Experts on these issues were deputies of the Lutsk City Council, employees of the Lutsk City Executive Committee, experts and representatives of public organizations of the city. The sessions themselves took place in the premises of the Faculty of History of Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University. The final session for the project participants was conducted personally by Lutsk City Mayor Bohdan Shyba. The meeting took place in the session hall of the Lutsk City Council. The young people had the opportunity to hear from the city mayor about what the city council and its executive bodies do every day, as well as what new projects await the city in the near future. In addition, the project participants had the opportunity to ask Bohdan Shyba questions. Therefore, the meeting took place in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. The next stage of the project "Youth School of Municipal Administration" will be an internship for young people in the divisions of the executive bodies of the Lutsk City Council, which will last two weeks. During this period, each of the project participants will be able to feel like an official of local self-government bodies: every working day, after classes at the university, they will come to the department or directorate they have chosen and perform the tasks assigned to them by the internship supervisors. In this way, the youth of Lutsk will not only know about the activities of local self-government bodies in theory, but will be able to see in practice the real daily work of the Lutsk City Council and its executive bodies. At the final stage of the project, testing of all project participants on knowledge of the covered topics is planned. Those who successfully pass the test will receive a certificate of participation in the project. And the best graduates of the "school" will be recommended to the deputies of the Lutsk City Council as public assistants.
Photo by Oleksandr Alforov