On 24 June 2026, the Youth Forum “The Ukraine We Want to Build” commenced at the Ukrainian Village Ethnographic Complex in the Kyiv region. The forum is the next stage of the project “Youth for the Future of Ukraine: Dialogue, Research, and Creative Media Work for the Consolidation of Ukrainian Society and Orthodoxy,” implemented by the NGO Sofiyske Brotherhood with the support of the ifa/zivik programme and the German Federal Foreign Office.

The forum brought together young leaders, representatives of civil society organizations, university students, experts, scholars, and facilitators from different regions of Ukraine to reflect jointly on the values around which the reconstruction of our country can take place, as well as on the role of young people in shaping Ukraine’s future.

Participants engaged in an interactive programme consisting of lectures, discussions, strategic sessions, training workshops, and thematic rotating groups. The key topics of the forum’s first day included the common good, social cohesion, state–church relations, overcoming divisions within society, the development of youth leadership, and the role of young people in the recovery of local communities.

The participants heard presentations by Ukrainian scholars, public figures, and experts, including Hennadii Khrystokin, Viktor Bondarenko, Ilona Sokolovska, as well as facilitators Yelyzaveta Koval and Olena Shtorm.

A special place in the programme was devoted to practical leadership development workshops, collaborative work on envisioning Ukraine’s future, discussions of current social challenges and ways to overcome them, art therapy activities, and informal networking. These activities enabled participants to get to know one another better and to establish new horizontal connections for future cooperation.