Voter and Civic Education BRIDGE Workshop in Ukraine, June 2018

BRIDGE VCE Workshop June 2018 Ukraine Group PhotoIFES Ukraine in cooperation with the joint IFES-Central Election Commission (CEC) Administrative Center for the Training of Elections Process Participants, and with the financial support of UK government and USAID, conducted a BRIDGE modular workshop on Voter and Civic Education V3.

The workshop main objectives were to explore the concepts and different approaches of civic education, electoral education and voter information in order to aid informed decisions about their use in a Voter and Civic Education programme; also, to explore the merits of a long term, strategic approach to Voter and Civic Education. Therefore, the workshop was constructed on Eight Step approach of implementing the VCE programme.

The workshop was conducted during June 19-22, 2018 at “Triplske Sontse” Hotel, in Kyiv, Ukraine. The workshop was facilitated by international facilitator Natia Kashakashvili and two workshop-level Ukrainian facilitators Tetyana Bibik and Oleh Hryshin. Twenty-nine participants from the CEC of Ukraine, International and Local NGOs attended the workshop.

The sessions engaged the participants with high interaction and enabled them to discuss the various steps of development and implementation of the Voter and Civic Education Programmes. Some of the sessions encouraged participants to be creative and therefore the atmosphere throughout the sessions remained very positive and joyful.

The workshop has met its objectives. Final evaluation was arranged by targeting the stakeholders’ learning outcomes and future usage of the knowledge. One of the main achievements that NGO representatives have mentioned was the opportunity given for them for networking with the CEC of Ukraine as well as International Organizations (IFES, OSCE, USAID). Participants have evaluated the workshop content as very beneficial for the upcoming 2019 Elections; apart the other vast volume of new information received, they have highlighted “WARM” approach to be one of the novelties in systematic approaches discussed during the workshop. Some participants noted their astonishment about the vast volume of the information being delivered within four-day workshop, and along with the lots of practical exercises.

At the end, all the participants have received certificates in recognition of completion of 4-day VCE workshop.

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