The UPSHIFT programme’s road to success in Ukraine
This is how youth projects have changed since the programme launched five years ago
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UPSHIFT, a youth innovation programme run by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), was launched in Ukraine in 2018. The first city that opened its doors to the programme was Kharkiv, where young people got the opportunity to find out more about social entrepreneurship, develop their own innovative ideas and get support for their implementation. The majority of the projects were aimed at supporting people with disabilities. These included creating a sign language course and inclusive candle-making workshop. The projects provided not only part-time work for people who live with disabilities but also an opportunity for creative fulfilment and socialization.
Later, UPSHIFT expanded into the Donetska and Luhanska regions. Enrollment lasted from 2018 to 2021, enabling young people to develop existing skills and acquire new ones. The Upshifters implemented about 60 socially important projects in places like Mariupol, Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Sievierodonetsk. Most of the initiatives focused on the comprehensive development of adolescents and young adults. These included financial literacy classes for boarding school students, a simulator app that helps to distinguish real news from fake news, and an emotional relief centre with an art therapy studio and pottery workshop. Through the UPSHIFT programme, young people became each other's support and pillars of strength.
Young people from the industrial regions were particularly focused on environmental problems. For example, in Mariupol, Upshifters created a laboratory for research on soil, water, food and air. This project has become a platform for future scientists and provides important assistance to monitoring organizations. Elsewhere, in Kramatorsk, a team fought for clean air in their city by producing bio-fertilizers from fallen leaves and preventing them from being burned.
Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the UPSHIFT programme continued to transform lives, in compliance with all safety restrictions. In Kupiansk, a city in the Kharkivska region, Upshifters cleared a 500-square-metre area of the dangerous aeroallergen ragweed and distributed sachets containing the seeds of perennial plants that prevent ragweed pollen from germinating. Meanwhile, in Kyiv, another team worked to help elderly people keep in touch with their families during quarantine and launched a website with video tutorials to help the elderly learn how to use smartphones.
The full-scale war that started in February of 2022 caused serious humanitarian challenges across Ukraine. In response, young Ukrainians, the driving force of communities, came to help fight those challenges and develop solutions. In Kharkiv, Upshifters rescued abandoned animals, young people in Ivano-Frankivsk conducted first aid training for civilians, and the residents of Lviv developed a navigation calendar for internally displaced people, which contained vital information about hospitals, educational institutions, administrative offices and humanitarian headquarters. Furthermore, young people from all over Ukraine recorded podcasts to help with teenagers’ mental health, developed financial literacy courses together with Diia web-portal and conducted motivational training camps for displaced teens.
From 2022 to 2023, UPSHIFT enrollments took place in the Zhytomyrska, Kirovohradska and Lvivska regions. Current initiatives are aimed at support, development and unity. Upshifters create spaces for studying, communication and useful leisure activities. They also invite experts to speak about media literacy, volunteering, sex education, career guidance and more. The mental health of Ukrainians is also currently in the focus of youth attention. For example, in Kropyvnytskyi, psychology students, under the supervision of teachers, conduct free therapy sessions. And in the Zhytomyrska region, programme participants organize training on stress resistance and eating disorders, and conduct art therapy sessions.
In its more than five years of existence, UPSHIFT has become a community of active and caring young people from all over Ukraine. Having started out in eastern Ukraine, today the programme is conducting enrollments in six western regions. Participants say that UPSHIFT has helped them to believe in themselves and given them opportunities for professional development, learning about project management, teamwork and communication. And now, in times of war, the programme has become a safe place for young people in which they can express themselves and provide help to others.
