The next summit of communities ‘Communities in Action’ was held in Dnipro

The organising team

As the previous project ‘Healing Communities’, the current Community Summit ‘Communities in Action’ was prepared and organised by the team of the Patriarchal Foundation Mudra Sprava, headed by the project coordinator, Fr Lyubomyr Yavorskyy. Specialist trainers who participated in the previous stages of the project were also involved: Svitlana Buhay, a business practitioner with experience in building large-scale business projects, Andriy Rozhdestvenskyi, co-founder of the consulting company AR Consulting, educational projects Leadership in the Mountains and Scholar. With their respective knowledge and experience, they contributed to the organisation and quality moderation of the summit.

About the project

The ‘Communities in Action’ project focuses its efforts in several key areas to improve the functioning and interaction of communities.

One of them is the creation of thematic clusters in various areas, such as education, entrepreneurship, culture, youth initiatives, etc. The clusters bring together active community members to work on specific issues, providing opportunities for mutual support and knowledge sharing.

Another goal of the project is to improve internal communication through training and the introduction of modern digital tools. This allows communities to better coordinate their activities and share information, which is important for effective decision-making.

Moreover, it is planned to develop inter-cluster interaction aimed at sharing ideas, experiences and resources between different sectors of activity; organising public communication campaigns that raise awareness of important local projects and initiatives; and evaluating and expanding clusters to ensure their sustainability and attract new members. This enables communities to maintain sustainable development by integrating new initiatives and new participants into their activities.

The implementation of this training and information project involves a summit for several communities and further online lectures on various topics for all participants.

Participants’ impressions after the summit

According to the participants themselves, the ‘Communities in Action’ summit was an excellent platform for sharing experiences and ideas between participants from different regions, which allowed them to establish new partnerships and start working together on projects aimed at improving the lives of local communities.

“Communication with the summit participants, who are representatives of the initiative groups of four territorial communities — Pokrovsk, Chernihiv, Novomoskovsk and Pidhorodne from three eastern regions — Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk — facilitated the exchange of experience in organising successful communication between different sectors of the community, developing strategies for coordinating their actions to implement joint projects and solve problems arising from crisis situations,” says Inna Talash, a psychologist from the Pokrovsk City Counsel.

Representatives of Pokrovsk emphasised the importance of such events, which not only promote the emergence of new ideas but also open up opportunities for the development of local initiatives. Working together on projects that have a real impact on communities will help ensure sustainable development of the territories, as well as increase the level of involvement of residents in public life.

“In the near future, Pokrovsk educators will be able to continue to develop their leadership potential at online training sessions as part of the ‘Communities in Action’ project and be inspired to create new projects aimed at strengthening the educational potential of our community,” added Inna Talash.