The Parallel Space Forum was held in Vinnytsia. It is a fair opportunity for NGOs and active Vinnytsia citizens to talk to Vinnytsia City Council officials from different departments, attend workshops on their NGO development and meet other initiative Vinnytsia residents who want to join the city development.
A week before the Forum, the Forum steering committee had to change the event format. It is due to quarantine restrictions and Vinnytsia City Council recommendations not to gather people in one place. That is why the Parallel Space Forum was organized in two locations – the City of Contents HUB and Creative Space Artynov with a limited number of participants in rooms.
“Communication and searching for common points between civil society and local authorities is a strategic priority for the development of the City of Contents HUB. That is why a municipal enterprise Institute of Urban Development always supports such events as the Parallel Space Forum meaningfully, institutionally and technologically. Many thanks to representatives of the relevant departments of Vinnytsia City Council for partnership, preparation and participation in the Forum. We hope that the number of officials willing to tell the community about their programs, projects and opportunities for cooperation with civil society will only increase. This communication will become commonplace and everyday not only at major events,” Valentyna Tkachuk, Head of the Civil Society Development Division of the Institute for Urban Development.
Briefings were held for 5 hours by representatives of the relevant departments of Vinnytsia City Council. Director of the Department of Economics and Investment Maksym Martianov and Deputy director of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of Vinnytsia City Council and the chief architect of Vinnytsia Yevhen Sovinskyi were keynote speakers at the City of Contents HUB. One more briefing was led by Oksana Yatsenko, Director of the Department of Education, and Oleksandr Wesseleni, Director of the City Marketing and Tourism Department, parallelly at Artynov Creative Space.
Such events as the Parallel Space Forum are always communication and synergy, breaking stereotypes and finding new partners. The Forum is the result of a civil society request to communicate with representatives of the departments of Vinnytsia City Council, to interact and find common solutions to various problems and needs. The other key result of the event was the meeting on planning new projects between NGOs. As the City of Contents union of organizations, we see our main task in establishing relations between civil society institutions, local authorities and CSOs," Olena Danilova, Head of the City of Contents CSO network, said.
In addition to the briefings, two workshops were held (also in parallel in both spaces), which were aimed at the organizational development of NGOs. Andrii Sydorenko, consultant for organizational and team development, Head of the CareYou special project for journalists and co-founder of BrainCult, spoke about personal and organizational vitality, how to form and maintain it. Accordingly, at the same time, a workshop on adaptation to changes, or how to turn resistance into involvement, was held in Hub, conducted by an expert in the field of motivational management from Kyiv, Tetiana Yemilianova.
The main goal of the Forum is actively involve the public sector in community development, establish communication with relevant departments of the City Council and increase the organizational capacity of local NGOs in the post pandemic period. We will make every effort to continue to hold such meetings for all citizens. Please, follow the announcements on the page: https://www.facebook.com/hub.misto.zmistiv/
