The first National Competition “The Youth Capital of Ukraine” was completed on 16 February.

The presentation of the finalists took place in Kyiv, with the participation of the representatives of Dnipro, Vinnytsya, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kamyanets-Podilskyi, Kremenchuk, Lutsk, Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil, and Kharkiv.

They delivered presentations at HUB 4.0 space premises. According to the results of the jury, which consisted of the representatives of international organisations, Lviv became the youth capital of 2018.

As the winning city, Lviv will benefit from the All-Ukrainian Youth Forum in 2018 held in the city, promotion of the city at the European level, increase of the image and level of trust in the city authorities, establishment of cooperation with the European youth capitals, encouragement of young people’s participation in the the city life, conducting of a sociological research on youth in partnership with UReport.

Ihor Zhdanov, Minister of Youth and Sports, congratulated the participants and winners of the competition:

“I sincerely congratulate the city of Lviv on a well-deserved victory! I am also grateful to all 55 participants, large cities and AHs that submitted their applications and showed that youth policy in Ukraine is being implemented at the local in addition to the national level.”

In general, the competition has demonstrated many interesting examples of active youth work in the regions, youth organisations’ projects, examples of joint activities of youth and local authorities.

It should me mentioned that the competition was initiated by the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Institute of International Policy and the National Youth Council of Ukraine. The contest was supported by the Association of Ukrainian Cities and Association of AHs.

The main purpose of the competition is to intensify cooperation between youth and local self-government, as well as to facilitate the creation of comfortable conditions for the development of youth in Ukrainian cities.

Starting from 2018, this competition will be held in Ukraine annually, designating the best city for living and development of young people.

Photo: Maryna Khromykh