Challenge
Prior to the outbreak of war in Ukraine, young people were vulnerable to divisive rhetoric, hostile and over-simplified narratives, and recruitment by far-right radical groups. The perceived slow pace of reforms and the lack of meaningful civic, political, and economic opportunities led many Ukrainians, but disproportionately its youth, to disconnect or emigrate. Now, young people who remain in Ukraine during the conflict are looking for economic opportunities to support themselves and their families and ways to engage civically to create the Ukraine they hope to see.
Solution
The UNITY activity aims to foster vested ownership among young people in Ukraine’s democratic, European future by further mobilizing youth leadership of a values-based conception of Ukrainian identity grounded in innovation, engagement, and pluralism. Making Cents International is supporting IREX in achieving this goal through youth innovation, entrepreneurship, and career preparedness that expands economic opportunities; broadened youth engagement in civic and community problem-solving; Ukraine’s pluralism and respect for diversity driven by young people; and research and learning on youth-related data, trends, and approaches that inform youth policy and programming.
Making Cents’ Ukrainian and Washington-based experts aim to apply their technical leadership to several program areas. This includes supporting entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship among youth, including through an entrepreneurship training curriculum, seed funding, competitions, incubators, and social entrepreneurship festivals that will connect young entrepreneurs from across Ukraine. In addition, we intend to provide technical input to a soft skills curriculum to be implemented across program activities and transferred to/ultimately owned by local organizations.
To support learning under the project, Making Cents also aims to provide technical expertise to research activities by ensuring that the activities are innovative and creative, engage youth in leadership roles in research, and build youth and youth-serving organizations’ research capabilities.
Youth Economic Opportunity
Many young people in Ukraine struggle to find their first jobs, lack access to information on promising careers, and do not have the skills employers need. Contextually, migration is causing a dearth in skilled young labor, COVID-19 is causing an economic downturn, and discriminatory practices continue to cause inclusion issues in the labor market.
Within this context, in Spring 2021 the UNITY program conducted a labor market landscape and found that young people aged 30–34 are the most economically active at 83.3 percent, with those aged 25–29 following closely behind at 79.6 percent. Ukrainian youth aged 15–24 show a lower level of economic activity (33.7 percent). This low rate in the youngest cohort is mainly due to their high level of engagement in education (84.1 percent), postponing their entry into the labor market.
Making Cents is pivoting activities now, in light of the outbreak of war in Ukraine, and completed an addendum to the Labor Market Assessment. This addendum explores youth entrepreneurship pathways during instability, informed by lessons learned from the previous conflict in the Donbas region in 2014.
Redacted UNITY Labor-Market Assessment Final Report (English)
Applying a Trauma-Informed Approach to Youth Programming
Prolonged experiences of war and conflict can have adverse impacts on people and communities, including complex reactions to potentially traumatic events. For this reason, Making Cents is incorporating a trauma-informed approach across all activities in Ukraine, including supporting other youth-serving organizations within the UNITY consortium to learn about and apply this approach in their programming. To do this, Making Cents developed a checklist on Trauma-Informed Approach for Youth Programming. The checklist is designed to support local organizations in applying a trauma-informed approach to the design, management, and implementation of programs for youth aged 15 to 35. Structured around the six principles of a trauma-informed approach, the checklist offers organizations actionable guidance through “key practices.” To bring the checklist to life for these organizations, it also includes a fictional organization and two fictional staff members who apply a trauma-informed approach to their work. The checklist is available in both English and Ukrainian.
Additionally, to introduce teams to the checklist and support them in learning more about its use, Making Cents developed an accompanying three-module training series on trauma-informed approaches to youth programming. This training series included an introduction to trauma concepts, an overview of the checklist along with principles of trauma-informed practices, and space to explore practical applications in youth programming.
Applying a Trauma-Informed Approach Checklist (English)
Applying a Trauma-Informed Approach Checklist (Ukrainian)
Youth-Led Secondary Education Needs Assessment Report
This report provides details on the methods, results, recommendations, and lessons learned from a youth-led needs assessment conducted by the UNITY program to understand the effects of the full-scale Russian invasion on Ukraine’s secondary education system. For the assessment, focus group discussions and surveys were completed by teachers and students currently engaged in the secondary education system across various regions of Ukraine. The report highlights barriers and facilitators in the promotion of learning outcomes among students in secondary education and key learnings on the use of a trauma-informed and remote approach to youth-led research in an emergency setting.
Youth-Led Secondary Education Needs Assessment Report (English)
Youth-Led Secondary Education Needs Assessment Report (Ukrainian)
Trauma-Informed Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL)
Engaging in monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL) activities within an active war zone poses substantial challenges. The comprehensive impact of the full-scale Russian Invasion has compelled program implementers in Ukraine to reassess and adapt their program design and delivery methods across all activities to respond to the dynamic, evolving situation.
In response, Making Cents-as a UNITY partner providing MERL services-heightened its focus on trauma-informed practices. The linked briefs below (available in both English and Ukrainian versions) offer guidance on applying a trauma-informed approaches to MERL processes and activities. They outline best practices, encompassing ethical considerations and strategies for effectively involving vulnerable populations as both team members and participants in MERL activities.
UNITY Trauma-Informed MERL Learning Brief – English
UNITY Trauma-Informed MERL Learning Brief – Ukrainian
Supporting Youth Entrepreneurship
In our ongoing efforts to support youth entrepreneurship, we are collaborating with three local partners to support young entrepreneurs in three crucial areas — coaching, creating alternative income streams, and expanding their customer base.
Our partnership with School of ME includes a second round of activities focused on providing grants and coaching support to existing youth-led small and medium size businesses. This assistance is vital for these enterprises to pivot and sustain their operations within the challenging war context. We have worked with 20 inspiring youth-led enterprises and recently selected another 20 for an upcoming round of support. In the summer of 2023, we worked with School of ME to adapt the same model of supporting youth-led enterprises to focus on supporting an additional 15 youth-led social enterprises.
We, also, are partnering with Promprylad to develop podcasts and webinars to equip youth with the tools, information, and lessons learned from other youth to find money-making opportunities via freelancing and in the gig economy. To date, we have successfully produced in-demand digital products that continue to gain significant traction, with some episodes attracting over 50,000 views.
We also started collaborating with Center 42 to support 15 youth-led enterprises ready for entry into international markets and leverage the heightened awareness of Ukrainian markets to connect with global customers and buyers.
Furthermore, to support access to the various financing opportunities that have arisen since the invasion, our team sends a newsletter to youth-led enterprises and supporting organizations on current and pending financial opportunities on a bi-weekly basis and provides coaching guidance for youth-led enterprises during the financing application process.
These activities are some of many that demonstrate our commitment to empowering young entrepreneurs and fostering a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem, and we eagerly anticipate the continued progress and success of youth-led enterprises. Stay tuned for further updates.
Grants Program
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Ukraine National Identity through Youth (UNITY) Activity implemented by IREX and its partner Making Cents International (Making Cents) sought grant applications from qualified entities to provide technical support.