The CAY team dates back to protests in 2012 against the introduction of Russian as a regional language. Back then, activists in Dnipro and in the region were harassed and persecuted.

The protest campaign “No to Degradation of Education in 2013” demanded to stop the attempts of the then Minister of Education Dmytro Tabachnyk to destroy the reform of university entrance exams by passing the External Independent Testing. This was eventually stopped. In August 2013, the Russian Federation launched an undeclared economic embargo, which resulted in the public initiating the information campaign “Don’t Buy Russian”. 

In the same year, the CAY team participated in the Dnipro Maydan and engaged in youth activism.

The year of 2014 was a period of the emergence and development of a new area of activity – volunteering. It was aimed at providing comprehensive support to the Ukrainian military and improving their combat capability. The CAY team also joined the educational campaign “Don’t buy Russian – Russian kills”.

Since 2014, CAY Team has been a member of the following volunteer communities

Creation of a youth council in Soborny and Shevchenkivsky districts of Dnipro. We implement student and youth educational projects to attract young people to the public life of Dnipro.  

The established youth councils bring together representatives of the student community and youth from different socio-cultural groups to co-develop and implement educational projects.

The main goal of the Youth Council is to engage young people in active participation in shaping society and solving pressing local problems. The council members actively cooperate with local authorities, NGOs and businesses to promote the development of youth initiatives and implement important social projects.

The youth council acts as an active intermediary between young people and the authorities, helping to solve problems affecting the city’s youth environment. The members of the organisation develop strategies and initiate activities aimed at improving the living conditions and development of young people in Dnipro, thereby contributing to the creation of a dynamic and active youth environment in the city.

The CAY team is one of the initiators of the restart of the Dnipro Youth Council. We started involving youth in the representative body of the territorial community and holding educational events in the city.

In 2017, the CAY Team initiated the creation of the Dnipro Youth Centre with the support of participatory budgeting.

Later that year, we took part in the advocacy campaign “Youth Today” on the draft law No. 6048 “On Promoting the Social Formation and Development of Youth in Ukraine”.

We co-founded the Association of Youth Centres of Ukraine (AYCU). This association allows us to work together with other youth centres on strategic initiatives, share experiences and support mutual efforts to promote the social formation and development of youth in Ukraine.

We launched an annual campaign to promote Ukrainian culture: “Love in Ukrainian”. 

We are developing public discussion tools in the communities of Sicheslavshchy, raising awareness of the ecology, in particular, the state of the Dnipro River and its tributaries.

In 2019, the CAY Team is organising the Dnipro 2.0 Anti-Corruption School.

The Anti-Corruption School Dnipro was awarded as the best youth practice in 2019.

The “Anti-Corruption Capital” Forum and the media project “On the Hook” were launched. We become co-founders of the Smoke-Free Youth advocacy campaign.

In 2020, the creation of the “STRUM” youth centre is completed. The SAM team creates a coalition of youth NGOs for which the youth centre becomes a home.

We are conducting a national expedition to youth centres in Ukraine to establish contacts among the community.

The CAY team advocates for an anti-tobacco bill.

In 2020, the Team launches a series of trainings on Media Competence in the Regions of Ukraine together with Interlink Academy.

We are conducting an investigation on the impact of tobacco on young people.

In 2021, the CAY Team is implementing the Youth Political School educational programme.

We continue our media literacy education campaign for the communities of Sicheslavshchyna.                                              A series of documentaries “Diagnosis: Free”, the authors of which include representatives of the CAY Team.

We are creating a series of interviews called “Quantum Leap into Politics” and a documentary called “Youth Wings of Political Parties”.

In January 2022, we successfully advocated for the adoption of a bill to restrict tobacco advertising.

We are actively developing a volunteer network and logistics of deliveries to frontline cities.

We are creating a series of documentaries about the crimes of the Russian occupiers in the Kyiv region. We provide psychological assistance to victims of war crimes.

The aim of the project is to provide the necessary theoretical and practical skills in public and political activity so that every young person can join in building Ukraine right now.

For the online course, we invited leading experts in the field of youth and public policy. These are specialists who have successfully implemented their projects. Therefore, they shared their useful experience for our online course.

The course consists of 10 lectures with a teaching load of 0.2 ECTS credits on the following topics:

• State-building
• Local self-government
• Civil society
• Youth policy

Currently, about 600 youth are enrolled in the course, and the number is growing every day!