Shaping the future of the city together with youth from the UPSHIFT programme

Last week, the City Development Institute warmly welcomed young people who are eager and capable of re-imagining and transforming Zaporizhzhia.

This meeting gave us a unique opportunity to meet with girls and boys participating in UPSHIFT, a global youth social innovation and social entrepreneurship program from UNICEF. Young innovators from Zaporizhzhia shared their ideas for social projects, impressions of living in our city, and emphasized their needs. Like real entrepreneurs, these teens all have detailed action plans for their dream projects. What they need from local authorities is openness to dialogue and support to implement their social initiatives.

We expect a City Youth Center, which is yet to be established in Zaporizhzhia with assistance from UNICEF Ukraine, will become a platform for cooperation between local authorities and active youth. This new space, friendly to all boys and girls, young men and women, should be a center of youth activity, creative potential, innovations, and policy-making.

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The UPSHIFT program in Zaporizhzhia is implemented by the Cultural League of the East with the support of UNICEF and the Government of Japan.