Attracting the Young to the Voluntary Sector

Cyber security, sexual health awareness, employment and education are just some of the issues concerning young people in Ukraine today, according to U-Report, a UNICEF platform encouraging young people to voice their opinion on some of society’s most pressing issues.

U-Report is a global initiative, which has been active in Ukraine for almost two years, conducting polls on around 80 different topics so far.

But this is more than just a fact-finding exercise, according to the programme’s National Consultant on Youth Engagement Richard Herts. He explained to Hromadske how some of this data is used by the country’s policy-makers to inform their decisions.

“The Steering Committee a lot of representatives from different ministries: Ministry of Internal Affairs, of Health, Education, many of them. And actually, every three months, they would like to give their topic for us to ask young people about something because this data helps them to shape their work according to what young people actually wanted to have.”

One of the programme’s success stories so far has been in improving sexual health and rights education in Ukraine’s schools. Together with Teenergizer, a youth NGO focusing on HIV/AIDS awareness, U-Report used the data to lobby for changes to the school curriculum regarding sexual health education. Herts adds that “from this year, sexual and reproductive health at schools as a subject will be not from 9th grade, but from 8th grade, and there will be more hours, which are dedicated to this subject.”

Herts also told Hromadske that Ukraine is one of the most active countries involved in the initiative, with around 15,000 young socially-aware Ukrainians contributing to the polls.

“Those polls are not just 1-2-3, a young person can express their own opinion and we will read it. There's actually a lot of interesting things. We have a lot of young things where people are reporting about something but we didn't even mean to ask. A lot of things, which helps to, for example, understand that there are some stereotypes among young people,” Herts adds.

Hromadske spoke to Richard Herts, the National Consultant on Youth Engagement for U-Report at UNICEF, to discuss U-Report’s findings on youth.

First of all, what are the issues you have been working on? What have we learnt from the Ukrainian youth, thanks to your project?

There's a huge amount of topics that we have been raising in U-Report. It's about employment, it's about education, sexual and reproductive health and rights, different, different topics, because we make those polls every week and we have been working for about two years right now, so we've made over 80 polls with almost 80 different topics.

What have you learnt? What have you figured out over the last two years about the Ukrainian youth?

Well let's go back to sexual and reproductive health and rights… This poll was made with our friends, the NGO Teenergizer. They were asking about those topics and what they've done – they used this data to lobby one very important topic. They went to the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health, and, with, actually, their strong push and this data, they made changes [to] the curriculum. So, I think from this year, sexual and reproductive health at schools as a subject will be not from 9th grade, but from 8th grade, and there will be more hours, which are dedicated to this subject.

Photo credit: HROMADSKE

What other things like that are there? And how was this data been welcomed by the government?

Actually, very welcoming, because we have a Steering Committee, which is based on the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and we have on this Steering Committee a lot of representatives from different ministries: Ministry of Internal Affairs, of Health, Education, many of them. And actually, every three months, they would like to give their topic for us to ask young people about something because this data helps them to shape their work according to what young people actually wanted to have.

So how are the polls made?

Once in three months, the Steering Committee is collected and they are given some ideas about the polls. Also, non-governmental organisations can also suggest some topics for the poll. After that, our sociologists shape them, make them nice, and after that, we have a Youth Committee, which is actually like 25-30 young people, who look at those polls and look at if they are really understandable, and if they're interesting, because we are still a youth project.

Photo credit: HROMADSKE

So what are the most important things, besides what we have already discussed?

Well, besides that, there was a topic, for example, about cyber security. We learned that about 30% of young people actually contacted strangers on the internet, it was during the topic of Blue Whales, the suicide game on the internet. We made a lot of research on free time of young people, what they are doing in their free time, we learnt a lot about employment and education, like the most interesting topics. But, we are not just collected just to collect it and just to have it. We make it for change. Here, this is a perfect example of change.

And other examples? What are the issues you are trying to lobby with the government right now?

I don't have this infographic here, but, for example. [As I] remember, the topic I was talking about, about the Blue Whale, the suicide game. There is a non-governmental organisation La Strada, which provides services for young people who would like to commit suicide and they call the hotline to ask experts for help. And, this data helped them, for example, to shape their services etc.

Can you generally compare the Ukrainian youth to teenagers in other countries in Europe? Is there anything specific?

Yeah, there are specific things. For example, U-Report is a worldwide project, so we have about 43 countries around the world. Ukraine was the first in Europe in 2016. And, yes, we have 57 thousand respondents, but every week, about 15 thousand responding for sure. So we have about 30% response rate. In other countries the response rate is much lower. For example, from one to ten percent maximum, even though they have more people.

But, in terms of content?

In the content, a lot of very interesting ideas. Those polls are not just 1-2-3, a young person can express their own opinion and we will read it. There's actually a lot of interesting things. We have a lot of young things where people are reporting about something but we didn't even mean to ask. A lot of things, which helps to, for example, understand that there are some stereotypes among young people. For example, this poll which is next about the equality of men and women, 17% of girls, for example, said that the men should actually financially support the families. So we see that there is a small amount of young people from 14-35 years old who actually have this stereotype.