For objective reasons, the film club moderators and the Network team have been changing their plans and looking for new ways to achieve their goals. However, resilience and joint efforts helped them overcome all obstacles and implement their advocacy ideas despite everything. Let us take a closer look at the advocacy results. 

Several film clubs have concentrated their advocacy efforts on resolving the issues of children and youths. 

Tetyana Lekhnyuk

Tetyana Lekhnyuk, moderator of the Docudays UA Film Club at the secondary school #62 in Lviv, has been planning to work on issues that adolescents face due to the war: lack of communication, psychological and social support, insufficient physical activity, lack of socialization of internally displaced children in new collectives, etc. Tetyana was able to fascinate the youths with documentary films and tabletop games; moreover, they have found new friends and earned teamwork skills. The advocacy campaign resulted in the development of the “Synytsya” programme for social and psychological support of children and a tabletop games club. The administration of Tetyana Lekhnyuk’s school has already approved these programmes and recommended them for implementation at the school. As for the film club moderator, she plans on offering them to other class teachers and moderators of school film clubs. 

Olena Arutyunyan

The advocacy campaign by Olena Arutyunyan, moderator of the Docudays UA film club at the Central Ukrainian State House for Artistic and Technical Creativity in Kropyvnytskyi, focused on socio-emotional support and adaptation of internally displaced children, as well as kids from large and military families. Together with her colleagues, Olena has developed proposals to the “Emotions Express” Programme for Emotional Resiliency Formation and received positive results upon pilot implementation of the programme and the “Maximum” lyceum at the Kropyvnytskyi City Council. The decision on including the Programme into the annual plan of the educational establishment for the school year 2024/2025 has already been approved. 

Olha Kotok

The advocacy campaign by Olha Kotok, moderator of the Docudays UA Film Club at the Rusyvel Lyceum in the RIvne region, was aimed on solving the issue of patriotic education of schoolchildren and coordinating the pedagogues’ efforts on formation of Ukrainian national and civil identity of schoolchildren. Its relevance is supported by the fact that 175 teachers from 10 lyceums of the Hoshcha territorial community have joined the advocacy campaign. The events encouraged teachers to become more motivated and active in fostering patriotic values in their students. Participants gained new knowledge and techniques that allow them to more effectively integrate national and patriotic education into the educational process. As a result of the advocacy campaign, the Educational Department of the Hoshcha Village Council approved the creation of a working group to develop a draft program to strengthen the Ukrainian national and civic identity of students. The community has already started working on the initiative.

Vira Karpinska

Vira Karpinska’s advocacy campaign, initiated by the Docudays UA Film Club at the Municipal Library in Lviv, will have significant impact all over the country. The film club moderator proposed to unite the efforts of library workers and specialists from the Probation Center to help juvenile probation clients and juvenile offenders, involving them in the socio-cultural life of the community. For teenagers, it was their first experience of participating in a library event. A chance to influence the content of proposed activities was especially valuable to them. The programme of social and educational activities for juvenile probation clients at libraries, developed by Vira Karpinska, has already been approved by the management of the State Institution “Probation Center.” The next step will be to expand the project to other localities and implement it at libraries across Ukraine. In December last year, all sectors of juvenile probation in Ukraine already held joint working meetings with representatives of local libraries to coordinate cooperation. This will launch a network of cultural institutions that will actively contribute to socialization of juvenile offenders.

Several other film clubs of the Network, which operate at libraries, have actively joined the DOCU ACTS 3.0 programme. Maria Kulpinska and Olha Halak, moderators of the Docudays UA film club at the Chemerivtsi Central Library in Khmelnytskyi, focused their efforts on raising the environmental awareness of the community. The events held as part of the campaign helped form a community of eco-activists and environmentalists in the community. Due to surveys conducted among the community members and the action plan based on their results, the organizers managed to increase the level of eco-culture of the participants by 60%. The program resulted in the village council’s approval of the Programme for Environmental Protection Measures, developed during the advocacy campaign.

Another resident of Khmelnytskyi, Zoya Filipenko, moderator of the Docudays UA film club at the Khmelnytskyi Regional Universal Scientific Library, came up with the idea to create a business hub at the library of the Yarmolyntsi community to help internally displaced people and low-income people with employment, re-education, and skills necessary to start their own businesses. In the course of the campaign, the initiative group realized that community residents urgently need knowledge that would help improve their financial situation and gain a decent standard of living. The campaign resulted in the approval of amendments to the Community Investment Attraction Programme at the village council session, and the proposals developed during the campaign will be taken into account in the monitoring of the Community Development Strategy up until 2027. 

Photo: Screening at the Docudays UA film club at the Youth Initiative Center

Nataliya Kostyshyn, moderator of the Docudays UA film club at the Youth Initiative Center in Chervonohrad, Lviv region, joined the programme to advocate for the creation of public spaces based on a network of libraries to unite and integrate the residents of the Dobrotvir community and the IDPs. To accomplish this task, it was crucial to not only form an understanding in the community that modern libraries should be platforms for communication, informal education, and public events, but also to redesign the activities of the libraries themselves. The advocacy efforts resulted in the preparation and approval of the Community Library Network Development Programme, which will correspond to the needs of the community's residents. 

Anzhelika Penkina

An advocacy campaign by Anzhelika Penkina, moderator of the Promin film club at the Shostka City Central Library in Sumy region, focused on increasing media literacy among community residents and IDPs. During the campaign, the community's libraries hosted media literacy events for senior citizens aimed at developing critical thinking and the ability to recognize fakes. As a result, the community realized that fostering information hygiene skills should be systematic. Therefore, local authorities approved the relevant amendments to the Programme of Socio-Economic and Cultural Development of the Shostka City Territorial Community. 

Hryhoriy Kurachytskyi

Hryhoriy Kurachytskyi, head of the Docudays UA film club at the NGO “Pryazovska Human Rights Group,” who is also the film club moderator and an IDP from Mariupol, was concerned about the problem of a significant lack of free psychological assistance for IDPs living in Dnipro. He focused his efforts on making changes and additions to the relevant programme in the city of Dnipro. During the discussions of the documentaries with the audience, the idea emerged to involve volunteer psychologists who are ready to provide psychological assistance to IDPs into the “Pryazovska Human Rights Group.” This idea was realized through partnerships with other organizations. In addition, based on the results of the campaign, an appeal was sent to the mayor of Dnipro with a request to amend the upcoming Comprehensive City Development Programme for 2025-2026 to include a paragraph on an expanded package of social services for defenders of Ukraine, victims of armed aggression, internally displaced persons, and volunteers through the social commission mechanism, in order to expand the availability of psychological assistance services and include NGOs as its providers.

 Meeting of the Docudays UA Film Club at the NGO Locator Media

The advocacy campaign of Nataliya Kryvoruchko, moderator of the Docudays UA film club at the NGO Locator Media from Tokmak, Zaporizhzhia region, was aimed at reducing conflict situations between IDPs at temporary accommodation centers (TACs) in Uzhhorod and local residents. The aim of the campaign was to raise awareness among IDPs about the rules of staying at the TACs and their rights to social housing. While working on the implementation of the campaign, its participants developed Rules for responsible persons at the TACs and filed for their approval to the Department of Social Protection of the Population of the Zakarpattya Regional State Administration.

Larysa Shuvalova, moderator of the Docudays UA film club at the Uzhhorod Center for Cultural Initiatives “Fortetsya UNG,” focused her advocacy campaign on the issue of information accessibility by introducing an easy-to-read format and simple language. With the aim of influencing public opinion and government officials, the campaign initiators developed an information booklet and a brochure explaining the advantages of the easy-to-read format and the basic rules for presenting information in this format. The proposals for expansion of information accessibility developed during the campaign were submitted to the Uzhhorod City Council and included in the Strategy for Creating Barrier-Free Space in Uzhhorod, as well as the Action Plan for its implementation for 2025-2026.

Tetyana Bondarenko and Volodymyr Shabanov, moderators of the Forum film club at the NGO “Priority” from Oleksandrivka in the Kropyvnytskyi region, also achieved impressive results. For their community, the problem of employment of internally displaced persons is especially urgent. The activists came up with an interesting and effective solution: IDPs and people in difficult life situations are involved in paid community service on landscaping, and they find assistance in their training to perform the work needed in the local community. As a result of the campaign, the Oleksandrivka Village Council decided to prioritize the employment of IDPs in the community by engaging them in paid community service with partial funding from the local budget and received a package of proposals to supplement the Comprehensive IDP Support Programme for 2023-2025 regarding employment and other types of assistance to people in challenging life circumstances caused by the war.

Yuliya Davydiuk, moderator of the “OVRUCHdim” Film Club at the Pokaliv Lyceum in Zhytomyr region, is convinced that cultural and architectural monuments require special attention and protection in times of war. The goal of her campaign was to get the Ovruch community to adopt a decision in favor of creation of the department for the protection of cultural heritage and the historical environment, as well as to preserve the local monument of national importance. The Ovruch City Council did not support the moderator's initiative, although the issue of preserving and protecting monuments is a pressing one in the border community. Therefore, the campaign initiators filed a request to the Zhytomyr Regional Administration, asking to support their efforts of creating a department for the protection of monuments. Meanwhile, with the support of local authorities, activists in the settlements of the Ovruch and neighboring Slovechne territorial communities have already started work on preserving important historical and cultural sites (the Zaruchaiv Church, millstones from the old mill found during the campaign, and the installation of memorial and informational gabions in the village of Skrebelychi). Moreover, the programme for middle and high school children titled “Study and Preservation of the Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Ovruch Area” is awaiting approval and implementation at the Center for Children and Youth Creativity of the Ovruch City Council.

Tetyana Volkova, moderator of the “Poza prokatom” (Beyond the Box Office) film club at the “Positive Pavlohrad” Youth Communication Center in Dnipro region, in her advocacy campaign rallied the community to improve the condition of local rivers. The community members not only cleaned the banks of the Vovcha River, but also took measures for its biological reclamation, meaning the purification of water in the river by stocking it with fish, based on the recommendations of scientists involved in the campaign. The campaign initiators have developed proposals for changes and additions to the Pavlohrad Environmental Protection Programme for 2025-2027, and the city council has already included them in its plans. In the future, the activists plan to develop a city programme for mechanical cleaning of riverbeds, counteract poachers, and create an awareness campaign aimed at citizens and fishermen. 

Summarizing the results of her advocacy campaign, Tetyana Volkova said: “Because of the war in our country, many people feel anxious, lonely, and tired. Meetings at the film club really inspired us, and the discussions about advocacy actions, actions of influence, and future plans all give us hope, making us feel that, despite everything, we have an impact on what is happening to our lives and our city.” 

We are convinced that these words are an excellent explanation for the success of all the advocacy campaigns of the Network's film clubs within the framework of the DOCU ACTS 3.0 program. 

The Network team thanks all moderators for their enthusiasm and perseverance in achieving their goal. We are looking forward to new advocacy projects – there will definitely be more to come.

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.