On June 29-30, the Nationwide Ukrainian Conference on the results of the first cycle of the Democratic School program was held. Among other things, the conference included a presentation of the network of Docudays UA film clubs.

Since March 2016, 32 schools from different regions of Ukraine, supported by the program coaches, implemented projects and introduced a set of measures to democratize the education process, the school culture and the school governance, to study the principles of democracy at various school classes, and to develop partner relationships with parents and communities.

The conference gathered together about 170 participants who represented 32 schools that actively participated in the program during 2016-7 (teachers or school administrators, community members, students and parents from many regions of Ukraine), the Program’s coaches and partners, and invited guests and journalists.

“We are moving away from the cliches which we used to hide behind, and starting to involve young people into active civic and community life. Youth is our future, it is our present. And it is very important today to show them and give them the necessary instruments, tell them about responsibility and allow them to take that responsibility,” commented the deputy minister of youth and sports Oleksandr Yarema during the Conference.

At the Conference, the DOCU/CLUB project was presented as a part of the Project Fair, among other successful projects that aim to develop civic and social competences and teach human rights at schools. The program director of Docudays UA Gennady Kofman and the festival’s program coordinator Viktoria Leshchenko told the conference participants about the achievements of the project and offered them to join the network in order to to keep on developing in the sphere of human rights protection.

The Conference was organized by the European Wergeland Center in cooperation with the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science and the Council of Europe, supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The header photo is taken from the Facebook Page the European Wergeland Center. The Democratic School program (courtesy Maksym Korodenko)