A remedy for procrastination. 13 social action projects

The project hackathon organized by the RM Caritas-Spes Ukraine has taken place!

On September 8-11, 2021, in the village of Yablunytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk region, about 70 participants from 26 cities and 16 regions, united in teams, developed projects aiming at positive social change in their communities. At the end of the hackathon, each team presented its results, and the winners will receive the necessary support from the Mission to finalize and launch their projects.

An interesting fact is that the participants were aged from 16 to 64. The distance between the represented cities from west to east (Kliachanovo, Zakarpattia region - New York, Donetsk region) is 1520 km. From south to north (Odesa-Boryspil) 504 km.

Hanna Skytova, hackathon coach, assessing the event, said, "Hackathon is an anti-procrastination format, because there is an idea and a few days to develop it! Even admiring the magnificent Carpathian landscapes, the participants had no chance to waste time, because all the discussions, exercises and debates were specific and substantive. In addition, there was an opportunity to pump the public presentations skills, effective teamwork, powerful networking and project management. The idea of the hackathon was not only to get ready-made solutions for the project ideas implementations, but also to form an active community of like-minded people who will be able to continue creating change. I would add that the projects presented at the hackathon were very different: those supporting children and youth, promoting the development of their activity and creative ideas; those aiming at creating an innovative space, educational (projects using modern information and IT technologies that will be useful in community life); environmental (which will add more harmony in the community life with nature, will be able to improve the environment and the environmental culture level of the community); projects on inclusion and intergenerational integration, as well as projects aiming at building dialogue and promoting community cohesion. I wish success to each team, and see you soon! Let our applications become the seeds that will grow into powerful trees of implementing projects that will improve the lives of the people in our communities!", summed up the 4-day training Hanna Skytova.

Olena Shevchuk, project manager of the Strengthening Local Self-Organization and Civic Engagement in Ukraine Project, said that the competition for participation in the project hackathon was 5 people per place, therefore, despite the increase in the planned number of participants, many had to be denied participation. "We planned to gather 40-45 participants, but when we saw how many applications were received and what interesting solutions were offered by the applicants, we decided to allow more teams to work on their ideas and prepare social action projects. It was a real challenge for us - to almost double the number of participants, to gather teams from different parts of Ukraine, from east to west, from south to north, and at the same time to provide interesting and useful content, and most importantly, to work out ideas and find the best solutions to solve the problems that their teams set themselves. These four days were full of drive, new connections and discovering the diversity of Ukraine through the people we gathered. The greatest appreciation for us is the opportunity to support social action projects that will help unite communities and solve local problems."

Olena also noted that the next stage would be a project competition, for which applications must be submitted no later than September 30.

The organizers admitted that the greatest value of this hackathon was the cultural exchange and joint search for solutions to the individual regions' needs.

Coach Inna Kaniuka said that the project hackathon was an integral part of the social action project managers training.

The space created by Caritas-Spes Ukraine has become a guarantee of creative thoughts, actualization, immersion in the society's problems, search for the best life changing practices and the work of opinion leaders to unite society.

The Autumn Project Hackathon in Yablunytsia has become a springboard to victory for many people looking for support and willing for change. The most valuable resources of the trainers' work were, of course, the participants, not wasting a minute to achieve their expectations and the arrival purpose. Fired hearts and shining eyes were the highest appreciation of our work.

There was a lot of feedback from the participants about overcoming barriers. Not only did the Hackathon provide solving problems tools in communities, but also became a destroyer of myths and social clichés.

Caritas-Spes Ukraine conducted the training as a part of a three-year project Strengthening Local Self-Organization and Civic Engagement in Ukraine funded by the German charitable foundation Renovabis. It provides microgrants for the social action projects implementation. The second stage of the competition lasts through September 30, 2021. The next activity within the project will be the III All-Ukrainian Public Forum, which will be held in November.