The second wave of selecting partner communities to cooperate with the Polaris Programme in the area of ‘Education at Local and Regional Levels’ has been completed. Twelve new communities have joined the partnership, in addition to the ten existing partner communities. This brings the total number of communities participating in the educational component of the Programme to 22 from 16 regions of Ukraine.

A total of 61 communities (28 urban, 19 settlement, and 14 rural) from 21 regions of Ukraine applied to partner with the Programme. The largest number of applications came from communities in the Dnipropetrovsk region, with eight applications. Following a two-stage selection process, Programme experts selected 12 partner communities, comprising nine urban and three settlement communities:

• Berezhany urban community (Ternopil region)
• Valky urban community (Kharkiv region)
• Hoshcha settlement community (Rivne region)
• Drohobych urban community (Lviv region)
• Kryvyi Rih urban community (Dnipropetrovsk region)
• Kolomyia urban community (Ivano-Frankivsk region)
• Novoorzhytske settlement community (Poltava region)
• Rava-Ruska urban community (Lviv region)
• Sarny urban community (Rivne region)
• Teofipol settlement community (Khmelnytskyi region)
• Shpola urban community (Cherkasy region)
• Khotyn urban community (Chernivtsi region)

Applications were received from 18 June to 11 July 2025. Between September 2025 and May 2026, communities will receive expert guidance and support from the Programme.

How were communities selected?

Applications could be submitted by the community leader, their deputies or the head of the community’s education department.

The selection of communities took place in two stages:

The Polaris programme is open to supporting communities that were not selected as a result of the competition. Local self-government representatives can apply on the Polaris website to receive advice on promoting education management at the local and regional levels.