This time, the training was meant for moderators who have already opened their own film clubs but have not yet participated in our mentoring programs. For 5 months, 40 participants have been learning the theory of film club organization, and mentors provided them with recommendations regarding screenings and preparation for discussions. The participants also applied their knowledge in practice under the guidance of their mentors.
Khrystyna Hatalyak, Nataliya Kozhemiaka, and Oleh Ohredko already had experience of mentoring in the DOCU ACTS program, while for Larysa Holovko, Maria Symkovych, and Maria Mendzhul, the program was their first experience as mentors.
Air raids, shelling, unstable internet, proximity to the frontline, workload at their main jobs - there were many reasons that made the process of studying and communicating challenging. Nevertheless, the team of mentors and mentees coped with all the difficulties and challenges with dignity.
During the months of training, our mentors held more than 200 screenings in their film clubs, 67 of which involved experts. They organized online discussions and joint screenings, joined discussions organized by other film clubs, and learned new tools for film club activities.
Photo of the workshop participants
As part of the DOCU ACTS 3.0 program, the mentoring program participants visited Uzhhorod, where Maria Mendzhul and Maria Symkovych, with the support of Khrystyna Hatalyak and Oleh Ohredko, held an offline training session for them. Moderators from all over Ukraine met in Zakarpattya to share their experience of film clubs' legal education work and gain new knowledge on working with emotionally difficult topics during the training session.
At the end of March, a number of mentees joined the Retreat School for moderators, which took place for four days in Kyiv. The School participants learned about advocacy, heard stories of successful advocacy projects of the Network's film clubs, and received tools and advice from invited experts to help them succeed in advocacy.
We are proud that many participants of the mentoring program submitted their ideas to the DOCU ACTS 3.0 advocacy project competition. Three of them were selected, and Tetyana Volkova, Nataliya Kryvoruchko, and Larysa Shuvalova have already started working on implementing advocacy campaigns in their film clubs.
Photo of the seminar participants
The Network's team is sincerely happy with the results of the DOCU ACTS 3.0 program. We are confident that the moderators will effectively use this new knowledge in their work. Nina Khoma, head of the DOCU/CLUB Network, says, “In this third mentoring program, we have taken into account the best practices from previous similar programs, as well as requests of our mentees and the expertise of the mentors. We’ve considered the challenges and realities of the wartime, as well as increased the duration of mentoring from three to five months. This combined approach allowed the program participants to let the new material sink in and practice organization of events with the support of mentors. We were able to organize more in-person meetings and training seminars, some of which included invited experts and audience surveys.”
The several-month training marathon of the first part of the DOCU ACTS 3.0 program has undoubtedly lit new stars in the friendly DOCU/CLUB community. We are looking forward to hearing more stories of influence and success stories from our colleagues!
The development of the DOCU/CLUB Network is funded by the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and Fondation de France.
The opinions, conclusions or recommendations are those of the authors and compilers of this publication and do not necessarily reflect the views of the governments or charitable organizations of these countries. The authors and compilers are solely responsible for the content of this publication.
