A Place Where Young People Can Be Free: how the history of youth spaces is connected to Ukrainian agency

It may seem that youth centres are a story of independent Ukraine. But if we look at youth spaces more broadly — as places where young people could meet, organise, learn, discuss issues that mattered to them and take action together — their history goes back much further than 1991.

Across different historical periods, Ukrainian young people created and used different kinds of spaces: gymnasium clubs, libraries, Plast scout homes and student residences. Political systems, rules and physical spaces changed, but one need remained the same: having a place where young people could be more than participants in a system created by others — a place where they could shape their own ideas, organise and make decisions.

Ahead of Ukraine’s Independence Day, we decided to look back at this history: how youth spaces in Ukraine have evolved and how, alongside them, young people’s agency has developed — their ability to set their own goals, organise, take action and influence the communities and environments they live in.

So, where did organised work with young people begin, and where did it take place before modern youth centres emerged?

Gymnasium clubs, libraries and working in secret

Before 1917, young people were not yet considered a distinct target group for organised youth work. Two developments played an important role in creating spaces where young people could learn, meet and organise.

The first was the network of gymnasiums. Students formed various clubs, often semi-secret, where they studied Ukrainian history, geography and language. They met in bursas — boarding houses for gymnasium students — or in rented rooms. These became some of the earliest informal spaces of Ukrainian youth life, where young people could not only study but also meet and build connections with one another.

Photo: “Old Lviv Photographs”

Libraries were another important part of this emerging network. In the Russian Empire, some operated clandestinely because books and other literature brought from Galicia were subject to censorship and bans. Books were hidden, passed from hand to hand, read and discussed. One common format was the presentation of papers: someone would read one or two books, prepare a paper and present it to the group. In this simple way, libraries became places not only for reading, but also for discussion and the exchange of ideas.

The scouting movement and the first youth homes

The emergence of the scouting movement brought new approaches to working directly with young people across Ukraine. The scouting method also included dedicated spaces — scout homes where young people could meet, spend time together and organise activities.

One example can be found in Lviv. In what was then Khmelovskoho Street, a Plast scout home was set up in the attic of the house of Oleksandr Tysovskyi, one of the founders of Plast.

There is a documented account that in October 1918, shortly before 1 November, Dmytro Paliiv — a Ukrainian military and political figure — visited the home and gave Plast scouts instructions to conduct reconnaissance around Lviv. The information they gathered contributed to the success of the November Uprising.

Another interesting example comes from Zolochiv in Lviv Region, where children who were members of Plast built their own scout home themselves. A similar youth space existed in Kyiv, the “Scout Detachment of Naumenko Gymnasium”. It was a scouting group based at a gymnasium that had its own space and even its own flag.

These were not youth centres in the modern sense. They were homes, classrooms, attics and other available spaces that young people turned into places for shared activities and community life.

Student residences were another important type of youth space. One example was the Academic House in Lviv. It had a library, an assembly hall and a dining room, and hosted exhibitions. But perhaps most importantly, it had student self-government. Students did not simply live there. They took part in running the building, paid for their accommodation and helped maintain the space. It was therefore more than a dormitory: it was a centre of student life largely shaped and managed by the students themselves.

Photo: “Old Lviv Photographs”

The possibility of having a space of your own — somewhere to meet, organise, make decisions and take responsibility — is an important thread running through the history of youth spaces in Ukraine.

The Soviet system: when youth spaces served the state

When Soviet rule returned to Western Ukraine in 1944, this model was replaced. The Soviet system introduced its own network of youth spaces: Houses of Pioneers, clubs and extracurricular education centres.

In some ways, the model resembled the infrastructure of the scouting movement. But the key difference was who controlled it. The Soviet state systematically created these spaces, filled them with different clubs and activities, and gradually expanded the network across Ukraine.

It is difficult to describe Houses of Pioneers as civil society institutions. They were part of a state policy aimed at shaping young people according to a particular ideology. The space existed, but the state decided what it was for and what could happen there. Much of this infrastructure remained in Ukrainian communities even after the Soviet period.

In the 1970s, another model emerged in the Soviet Union: youth and adolescent clubs. They became common in larger cities and even had a specific funding mechanism. One to two per cent of the housing payments collected by local housing maintenance offices was allocated to support these clubs.

How modern youth centres began to emerge

In the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, many adolescent clubs simply disappeared. Some premises became restaurants, while others were transferred to different institutions or forms of administration. The Ministry of Youth continued to collect statistics on adolescent clubs until around 2007, but eventually even this practice disappeared.

Following the Revolution of Dignity in 2014, together with Olena Podobied-Frankivska and Oleh Slabospytskyi, we initiated a project with the support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in the United States. With our first grant of USD 40,000, we began researching what remained of different forms of youth work: adolescent clubs, extracurricular education centres, Plast scout homes and other youth spaces.

We held around ten discussions in different regions of Ukraine. Together with local stakeholders, we tried to answer a basic question: What should a youth centre in Ukraine actually be? At the same time, we began developing a quality mark for youth centres.

This work gradually contributed to the development of the Model Regulation on a Youth Centre. We drew on experience from Lithuania, research into European practices and the approaches behind the Council of Europe’s Quality Label for Youth Centres. We combined these ideas with Ukrainian experience to develop a model suited to the Ukrainian context. The next important step was an amendment to the Budget Code, which gave local communities the opportunity to finance youth centres.

Young people are not a target audience — they are actors

In 2017, we established the Association of Ukrainian Youth Centres. We deliberately set out to build a network: to train people, share approaches, develop practical documents and support youth centres in their development. The Model Regulation on a Youth Centre became one of the key foundations for this work. But it soon became clear that having a model and the necessary documents was not enough.

The First Constituent Assembly of the Association of Ukrainian Youth Centres.

At one point, for example, the Donetsk Regional Administration decided to create 80 youth centres to mark the region’s 80th anniversary. Many spaces were renovated and new ones were created. But then a simple question emerged: where do we find the young people? There was a name — “youth centre” — and there was a physical space. But there was not always an understanding that a youth centre should not start with a building. It should start with young people.

Gradually, we moved towards a different approach: first ask young people what they need. If there is no demand, why create or renovate a space? This is also at the heart of the European approach to youth work: youth spaces and services should respond to the needs and interests of young people.

Today, Ukrainian communities understand this much better. In many places, young people’s demand for such spaces is even greater than what the community currently has the resources to provide. This is why a youth centre is not simply a place for leisure.

It is a space for non-formal learning and civic education, where young people can develop outside the formal education system and in their free time. It is a place where they can meet their peers, build social skills and competences, explore their interests and gain experience.

But today, even this is not enough. A youth centre is also about young people participating in community life, supporting their initiatives and creating opportunities for self-organisation. This is why, as the Association, we work to strengthen and support youth centres, help them find resources, develop programmes and — most importantly — shape their work around what young people actually need. Because a youth centre should be more than a place where young people spend their free time. It should be a space where they can learn, act, organise themselves and have a say in what happens around them.

 

This article is based on a conversation with historian and youth movement researcher Yurii Yuzуch.