Modern hubs instead of abandoned soviet clubs a - this is a goal of Olha Olasiuk, head of the culture departmnentof the Liubeshiv village council in Volyn Oblast. The woman is actively working to ensure quality cultural life in her community and even initiated changes that were supported by the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications. 

This story is part of the Governance Champions campaign by the USAID HOVERLA Activity. It is a series of publications dedicated to Local Government Day featuring professionals who bring outstanding results to the community through their daily work.

Olha Olasiuk, a teacher of social and pedagogical disciplines, has been working with children from socially vulnerable families for twelve years: “My work has always been about care and development. I saw that children from vulnerable categories are often left out of active life, they need support and the opportunity to discover their talents. That's why I kept thinking that this impact could be much wider if we worked at the community level,” says Olga.

So Olha joined the local government and became the head of the culture, youth, and sports department of the Liubeshiv community. One of her greatest achievements was the creation of the Youth Council, which includes almost four dozen active young people ready to write and implement projects.

Olha then took on a new challenge to develop a youth development strategy. To understand the needs of young people, the village council conducted an in-depth survey with USAID HOVERLA Activity support. The results showed that the biggest youth need is spaces for communication.

Svitlana Kukh, a Lyubeshiv resident, says: “I would like to find like-minded people and exchange ideas, experiences, and projects with them. We need our own space for youth, which we didn't have. It is important to ensure that educated, engaged young people who want to stay in our community.”

So Olha started researching the available premises and found out that a quarter out of 28 clubs and cultural centers in the Liubeshiv community, do not operate at all.

“One of the clubs was built back in 1956, is now 68 years old, and its deteriorated condition is evident. Currently, seven of these buildings are not suitable for use, they need to be repaired and modernized,” describes Olha.

After collecting this information, she assembled a working group to develop a vision for modernizing clubs and libraries in the community and drafted a reform project. Olha sent these developments to the Ministry of Culture to show that it is impossible to provide quality cultural services in these institutions and that they needed to be reformed. However, the community did not receive permission to renovate unusable clubs due to outdated legislation.

Therefore, the village council turned to the USAID HOVERLA Activity to help implement legislative changes. In July 2024, an offsite meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee was organized in Liubeshiv, where the Liubeshiv Mayor chairman raised the issue of renovating cultural institutions. The lawmakers were convinced that cultural service centers in Volyn Oblast were not working properly. In October, during the Mayors' Briefing in Kyiv, the issue was raised again, and the Ministry expressed its readiness to listen to the community and work together.

As a result, communities, Members of Parliament, the Ministry, and representatives of the USAID HOVERLA Activity are working on legislative changes to enable communities to decide what kind of cultural institutions they want to have.

“We strive to create modern creative spaces that will attract people of all ages. These should be places where everyone can showcase their talents, learn something new, find like-minded people or just watch movies. We believe that we will make cultural services accessible and interesting for everyone,” shares Olha Olasyuk.

This publication was prepared based on materials of the non-governmental organization “Icebreaker” (ShoTam media) which were created within the “Effective Solutions for Progressive Communities” project and were made possible by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the generous support of the American people through USAID HOVERLA Activity.  The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.