This time, we will consider the experience of the Siverskodonetsk urban community, which, within the framework of the project "Side by Side: Cohesive Communities", is forming a modern approach to identity as a mobile code, allowing residents to feel connected to home regardless of their current geography.
As Yevheniya Boyko, head of the Siverskodonetsk City Military Administration, says, the meaning of partnerships is not in the very fact of signing agreements, but in creating an environment where people feel comfortable coming together, preserving their identity, and implementing joint projects.
“We can no longer think only in terms of ‘helping here and now,’” she emphasizes.
MEDICINE, LAND AND EDUCATIONAL SPACE IN KYIV
One of Siverskodonetsk’s long-standing partners is the Ukrainian Urban Territorial Community in the Obukhiv district of Kyiv region. It is there that the relocated Siverskodonetsk City Multidisciplinary Hospital and Rehabilitation Department operate. The facility is staffed by doctors and other specialists, and the host community has gained access to quality secondary healthcare services.
An important step was the decision regarding the land. Thanks to the leadership of the Ukrainian Community, the municipal enterprise of Siverskodonetsk received a land plot of over 2 hectares for use.
Unfortunately, the project to build housing for doctors and teachers did not receive a grant from the European Investment Bank and the European Commission, but the community does not give up hope for its implementation, in particular through an open competition.
The Siverskodonetsk community also actively cooperates with the district state administrations of Kyiv - Svyatoshynska, Podilska, and Solomianska. Significant support was provided thanks to the head of the Solomianska RDA, Serhiy Movenko: the community's education department rented premises to create an educational space for the youngest residents.
Currently, work is underway to equip it to begin full-fledged operation.
"FOREST COTTAGE": A CENTER FOR SOCIAL COHESION IN TRANSCARPATHIA
A separate important direction is the partnership with the Kamianska and Velykoberezka communities in Transcarpathia. Last year, the Kamianska TG organized quality recreation for children from privileged categories.
A significant part of the interaction with these communities concerns the “Forest Cottage” project. This is the actual territory of the Siverskodonetsk community – a complex of buildings on a land plot of over 8 hectares.
It is planned to create a social cohesion center here with opportunities for children's leisure and recreation, create new jobs for community residents, provide them with social housing, and in the future, create a modern rehabilitation space.
The concept of the project is to preserve the identity of the Siverskodonetsk community, trust, and mutual support. Partners are already helping to implement these ideas, which could become a model of full integration.
"We are forming a modern approach to identity as a mobile community code: so that every resident feels connected to home regardless of their current geography, in order to unite the community again," concludes Yevheniya Boyko.
The experience of the Siverskodonetsk community demonstrates how, through medical, educational, and infrastructure cooperation, it is possible not only to support people in relocation, but also to create real prerequisites for return and recovery. Over 2 hectares of land for housing, 8 hectares for "Forest Cottage", a relocated hospital and educational space in Kyiv - all these are concrete results of systematic work.
