Ukrainian Peacemaking School 2014-2016 – supported by the British Embassy in Ukraine, together with the All-Ukrainian NGO Consortium; UPM mission is to prevent and transform violent conflicts in Ukraine. UPM is engaged in the creation and institutionalization of the profession of social mediator – an expert in the preparation and organization of inclusive multilateral public dialogues in communities with actual or potential violent conflicts. Schools of Social Mediation were held, the graduates of which are representatives of public organizations, volunteer initiatives, the education system and local governments from eight regions of Ukraine, as well as trainings for journalists and psychologists.
The Ukrainian Peacemaking School developed
6 framework strategies for the transformation and prevention of conflicts in Ukraine by joint efforts of local activists and representatives of local authorities.
In the Odessa region, 2 studies were conducted: “Level of trust of the population in various sources of information and news: Border regions of the Odessa region” and “Local identity and interethnic interaction of the south of the Odessa region: problems and directions of transformation”
and a documentary film “Imagine Bessarabia” was shot , as well as a social campaign – “I am a citizen of Ukraine”, which emphasized that ethnicity does not contradict civic position.
The research ‘Voluntary Association of Territorial Communities: Peculiarities of Perception of the Implementation of the Law in the Odessa Region’ was conducted using the method of analyzing open sources of information, three focus group surveys of representatives of small and large communities in the southern and northern districts of the Odessa region, as well as included observation during the seminars “Prospects for the Development of Local Self-Government in the South of the Odessa Region within the framework of the Ukrainian Peacemaking School project”, which were held for local self-government bodies of the Bolgrad, Tatarbunar, Izmail, Reniy and Kiliya districts. 53 representatives of the specified communities, including village heads and local activists, took part in the seminars.
