“We Act in the Community” Project for Veterans and Volunteers: Registration Has Opened

Applications have opened for the free project “We Act in the Community” for male and female veterans and volunteers. At least 100 participants will be able to take online training on local self-government and tools of civic participation, and 40 selected participants will attend a three-day offline bootcamp. This was reported by the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine.

The project will help participants understand:

• who makes decisions in the community;
• how the local budget is formed;
• where to find the necessary data;
• how to prepare well-founded proposals.

The practical goal is to provide knowledge and support for work on specific changes: for example, improving a local veterans’ support programme or taking residents’ needs into account when restoring public spaces.

The online stage includes an introductory meeting and 15 training sessions with practical assignments. Participants will study the work of local self-government bodies, the budget process, public procurement, open data and mechanisms of civic participation. They will learn to prepare information requests, appeals and proposals and to build constructive interaction with local authorities. Recordings of the sessions and training materials will be available to participants.

Based on the results of the online course, the project team will invite 40 participants to a three-day practical bootcamp. Together with trainers, they will analyse budget decisions and procurement, prepare documents and develop action plans for their communities.

After the bootcamp, these participants will receive mentoring support. Mentors will help refine the idea, define the sequence of steps, work with data, prepare documents and establish dialogue with local self-government bodies. The support will include individual and group consultations and feedback while working on the initiatives.

The invitation is addressed primarily to male and female veterans, as well as volunteers from communities across Ukraine. Experience of working with authorities is not required. What matters are motivation, a vision of the issues the candidate wants to work on, and readiness to devote time regularly to study and practical assignments.

Selection for the online stage will be based on motivation. Selection for the bootcamp and mentoring stage will take into account learning results, the quality of completed assignments and the motivation to apply the knowledge in one’s own community.

Participation is free. You can apply until 21:00 on 30 November 2026 via this link.

The “We Act in the Community” project is implemented by the NGO “Zvytiazhtsi” under the programme “Empowering Veterans to Participate in Local Democratic Processes”, with the support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

Source: Zaporizhzhia Regional State Administration (zoda.gov.ua), https://zoda.gov.ua/news/81200/projekt-dijemo-v-gromadi-dlya-veteraniv-ta-volonteriv-startuvala-rejestratsiya.html