YMCA Lviv talks about how 2020 turned out for the organization. About the projects that were implemented, skills and knowledge that our youth received, partnerships and support… As well as about the planned work for 2021 and the possibility of creating joint projects.
Over the past year, YMCA Lviv has continued to grow and develop in the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdown and isolation has not prevented us from moving to the planned goals but it has just transferred most of the activities into the online format.
An important achievement of the organization was the creation of a large-scale opera dedicated to the warrior and singer Vasyl Slipak. The opera combined contemporary art and archaic Ukrainian songs; Opera united dozens of creative and sincere professionals who made a worthy cause and also, became mentors for many of us.
Participation in the value-oriented projects helps us to not only professionally develop but also to improve as individuals and produce good things. Next year we will continue to work in this direction, to implement our own ideas exchanging experiences and views!
The COVID-19 outbreak changed our plans, with the main task of maintaining the acquired contacts through online communication and finding solutions that would help our projects to succeed. We are grateful to our partners from KFUM KFUK I District Aarhus and YMCA Calgary for their decision to support the YMCA Lviv and create a common international youth environment in the face of modern challenges and changes.
We dream of premieres of the young opera “Ukraine —Terra Incognita” in Ukrainian and world opera houses. So that Ukrainian youth can feel their strength and opportunities, be able to freely realize their talents and have inspiration to implement their own initiatives in moments of external challenges. In 2020 these were the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic in the world. We hope for more favorable and warmer conditions in future.
Our priorities:
We also do:
- international culture exchanges, interdisciplinary projects (theatre, music, singing, virtual art), art experiments …
- Mental health for the youth
- Expert research for international partners
- Development of the youth creative space Y-residence
Now, we are looking for the YMCA partners for organizational development and invite the experienced volunteers. On our progress please read «Innovations impmemented by YMCA?»
YMCA Lviv in 2020
Thanks to support of our partners KFUM og KFUK i Distrikt Aarhus Lviv youth have the opportunity to undergo leadership and self-development training, learn democratic decision-making procedures and try to manage own projects.
Despite the pandemic, 2020 was a very busy year for us. In winter, together with our young marketers, designers and SMM specialists from the YMCA Lviv Youth Council, we launched a crowdfunding campaign at the BIG IDEA crowdfunding platform to start creating a modern young opera. Despite the lockdown, we managed to enlist the support of two hundred donators and collect the planned amount in April.
In spring, while adapting to the online activities together with our young video makers we created a pilot video of trainings on traditional singing “Way to the personal sound” and a video concert “Songs for Vasyl’” supported by Lviv City Council.
In June, the preparations, trainings and a promotional campaign for the first opera part “Myth of Ancestry” launched due to support of the International Renaissance Foundation. This Myth became the singing matrix for the Young Opera “Ukraine – Terra Incognita”. We have formed a project team so that young YMCA leaders become assistants to qualified managers to see how the project is being created and to get a new experience. All summer and autumn we worked on the production of this non-standard opera, which combined Ukrainian archaic singing, symphonic music, free jazz, video art and futurofolk costumes. Thanks to the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation (an institution of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine), the premiere of the opera was successfully presented in a video format. Now, we are looking for partners to perform it in the concert halls in live format.
In November, our young PR people promoted the Ukrainian-Polish music video concert “Lemkovyna-Lem” in a partnership with the Polish Society of Contemporary Music.
At the end of year, we conducted a Laboratory of Social Projects, supported by Lviv Oblast State Administration and the Youth Embrace project supported by SIDA. The young leaders were trained in team building, design thinking, idea creation and testing, fundraising, working with donors, project implementation, communication campaigns and public speaking.
In addition, we managed to take part in a number of online trainings and, to visit the YMCAs of Boyarka and Verkhovyna in Ukraine.
Now we are actively promoting opera together with our local youth and foreign partners. We hope for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, to further develop the young projects of YMCA’s English Club, the Young Video Blog School, the Protiah art project, media literacy courses and art workshops.
