What will be the Caritas-Spes Social Strategy in Ukraine?

On April 25, 2019, a working meeting of six diocesan directors of Caritas-Spes Ukraine and ten responsible for working with volunteers and employees of the Mission within the framework of the project "Strengthening local self-organization and civic engagement in Ukraine", implemented with the support of the German government and the Renovabis Foundation, was held in Christian Recreation Center Caritas-Spes Yablunytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk region.

The President of Caritas-Spes in Ukraine, Fr. Petro Zharkovskyi announced the launch of the project "Strengthening local self-organization and civic engagement in Ukraine", aiming at developing the social ministry of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as initiating a number of social changes in local communities.

It is expected that in three years seven project teams and active lay people from 40 Roman Catholic parishes will be trained and start working in the field of social project management and charitable activities.

Ruslan Kraplych, the head of the first year project, presented the project and suggested that the diocesan Caritas-Spes office chose the communities where the project participants will be selected, trained and grouped into seven project teams. He also announced six two-day training seminars on social management strategy and civic participation. Besides, he declared the Summer Project School and the mentors' involvement, which provides assistance to communities in creating and developing social services and implementing social innovations through the development of relevant projects.

For their part, the directors and leaders of social services of the communities participating in the working meeting invited about 60 communities from all over Ukraine to take part in the project.

As a result of the working meeting, a strategy was developed and an implementation roadmap of the project "Development of a course to strengthen local self-organization and civic engagement in Ukraine" was formed.