EU NEIGHBOURS. Overnight, life in lockdown has become a new and disturbing reality across the world. But as people adapted and got used to the new conditions over time, EU4Youth experts and beneficiaries have came up with useful hacks to share with their peers and inspire one another.
In the Kyiv and Luhansk regions of Ukraine Coach and Life Skills Development Specialists shared tools and experience on how to determine the focus and look through the positive side of change.
“I’m grateful to the project that it gives such useful opportunities in this difficult time. The ideas from other project participants inspire me to change, to develop and quickly adapt to new reality. The ideas shared ispire me to move forward to new business projects!” said Tatiana Plotnikova from Sievierodonetsk, who is a beneficiary of the ‘EU4Youth: Employability and Stability in Armenia, Belarus and Ukraine’ project.
In Armenia young beneficiaries of the project who as a result have found jobs or became self-employed also shared their experiences with their peers through online meetings, as well as through exchanges via social networks. Peer-to-peer education gives extraordinary results due to the fact that the beneficiaries trust their peers more than they trust any consultant.
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The online coaching sessions have been a lifeline for many project beneficiaries:
“I lost my job due to the lockdown,” said Olga Ostapenko from Kyiv. “I was scared because of the unknown – I was an accountant, I felt I needed to find a new job, but at the same time I felt I needed to change something as the reality, my whole life had changed – but I was overwhelmed by fear and procrastinated.”
“Thanks to the coaching sessions and support from the project coach, I realised I needed to learn to work in a remote mode. I started an online course, it was very unusual, but it was also comfortable – I could choose the time convenient to me, I could repeat the topics several times, there was no haste. Now I defined my career development plan together with the coach, and I can already start to implement it during the lockdown.”
The activities are part of the EU4Youth: Employability and Stability in Armenia, Belarus and Ukraine project, funded by the European Union and the Austrian Development Agency. The project aims at empowerment and development of the employability and entrepreneurship potential of socially and economically disadvantaged young people aged from 16 to 35 years old, especially young women.
