Citizen Engagement in the Lugansk and Donetsk Regions

About this grant

The program goal is to engage residents from economically depressed settlements in eastern Ukraine in revitalizing their communities. Over the next two years, the Regional Development Agency "Donbass" will deepen its community development work in one rural and seven urban population centers in order to strengthen the capacity of leading community-based organizations to effect social change. Activities will include training community leaders, convening public participation workshops, mapping community needs and resources, advising on local development projects, and promoting citizen participation in community life. In the previous grant period, the grantee expanded its efforts to 12 new communities to engage residents in local revitalization efforts through participation in decisionmaking and in the establishment of productive social enterprises. There are now over 30 communities in which it is engaged. Initiated in 1997, the agency supports the implementation of market reforms in the economically depressed Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.