Event reports
Day one: team building and personal deputy experience
The project “Academy of political education” exists more than 5 years and has for its aim political education for the representatives of political party “Democratic Alliance” and its youth wing. This year for the first time the seminars were organized also for the representatives of “Samopomich”. Each group consisted of 24 participants, where each party was represented by 12 people from different regions of Ukraine. The seminar started with ice breaking activity and greeting words from organizers. In their greeting words the organizers emphasized the importance of informal education for young politicians. Moreover, a certain attention was given to the presentation of KAS work in Ukraine.
Halyna Bordun, a coach, mentor and the deputy of Lviv regional council from “Samopomich” party, and Oleh Berestovy, the deputy of Brovary city council, head of the “Democratic alliance” fraction, businessman in education sphere, became the speakers of the first working day. Halyna Bordun spoke about the formation of team through political recruiting. She explained how and whom to engage in team; what to offer these who want to be part of the team; why to engage. According to Bordun, in case of political parties it is important to be present at events that touch different issues and speak about party position on these issues. Besides, the communication with voters through social networks is of huge importance but it is not the reason to forget about the traditional ways of communication and informing as for instance party newspaper. It should be also remembered that each contact is significant and the initial motivation of people who join the team must be taken into consideration and respected.
Being elected as a local deputy at 21, Oleh Berestovy spoke about his personal challenges on the current position. At his 25 as a local deputy Oleh implemented many infrastructural and social projects. To his main achievements belong e-petitions to the city council, youth programme 2016, civic budget since 2017, youth department since 2018, kindergarten reconstruction in 2018, public hub in 2019, the library of the future 2019 etc. According to Oleh, there are 10 things that each person and especially these who want to have the political career should improve - public speaking, personal image, discipline, financial independence, social capital, self-confidence, self-possession, financial support, team and family support.
Day two: voters targeting and motivating volunteers
Peter Noordhoek (in Odesa) and Monique Vogelaar (in Vinnytsia) were the professional trainers of the Eduardo Frei Foundation (Netherlands) during the second and third working days. They spoke on requested by the participants topics of political targeting and motivating volunteers. In their input they connected both theoretical (what is targeting, main types of targeting, how to engage volunteers, motivation etc.) and practical tasks.
Within the practical part the participants learned to define their main ideas and looked for likeminded people in the group practicing in such a way the targeting skills and learning targeting approaches. They spoke also about the importance of voters’ research before conducting their targeting, discussed whom to target at first – supporters or opponents, defined the key targeting message etc. Some of the participants who already did the political campaign shared their personal targeting experiences from “door to door” campaigning to more modern approaches as using Viber thematic groups.
Besides each of the political party group participants specified five main values of their party and defended them in open debates that gave them the opportunity to practice their public speaking skills.
Day three: pitching and presenting skills
On the third and last working day each of the participants pitched as if they were holding a political campaign speech in front of their voters. In their 2 minute pitch they described the problem with which they want to take part in the election campaign, proposed the possible ways of its solution and explained why the voters should support them. Their pitching was evaluated by the trainers and other participants.
During the feedback session participants highly appreciated the level of organization and seminar content. They think that the materials were taught in easy language and interactively that ensured the individual and group involvement of young politicians during the seminar.
