The fourth meeting of the "Community Support Team" was held at the Ministry of Reconstruction of Ukraine under the leadership of the Deputy Minister of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure Oleksandra Azarkhina and with the participation of Tetyana Lomakina, adviser to the President of Ukraine on barrier-free issues.
The main task of this working group is to unite the efforts of representatives of initiatives, programs and projects aimed at restoring local development, with the aim of coordinating restoration measures and determining the priority needs of communities.
“The Ministry of Rehabilitation plays a key role in accessibility and accessibility issues. Today, the state focuses its efforts on improving the regulatory framework, harmonizing European standards in barrier-free issues. We strive for the implementation of barrier-free principles to be a mandatory, end-to-end component of the process of both the physical reconstruction of regions and the provision of services on the ground," Oleksandra Azarkhina emphasized.
For her part, Tetyana Lomakina, an adviser to the President of Ukraine on barrier-free issues, shared her experience of working with territorial communities on issues of barrier-free implementation.
"A barrier-free society is a dream that we should strive for despite the war and related obstacles. After all, barrier-freeness concerns each of us in matters of free access to work, education, communication and movement in space. At the local level, we strive for Ukrainian communities to work on programs and action plans in the context of barrier-free implementation, to implement and measure results and achievements," said Tetyana Lomakina.
We would like to remind you that projects, initiatives and programs of development partners working on the restoration and development of the capacity of territorial communities are invited to participate in the meetings of the working group. Proposals can be sent to the Secretariat of the working group at the e-mail address: [email protected] .
The Mayor of Slavutyka Urban Territorial Community Yury Fomichev shared his experience of implementing barrier-free access at the local level.
"The barrier-free concept for the city of Slavutych means, first of all, the creation of a comfortable environment for all its residents. When we started this process in 2020 at the initiative of First Lady Olena Zelenska, we had no idea how important and practical this issue would turn out to be. However, soon the inhabitants of Slavutych expressed their need for barrier-free access, which is felt by everyone. It so happened that Slavutych became a special barrier-free laboratory, where we implemented and continue to work on a number of projects and initiatives in the context of accessibility for the first time. Now every new project that we launch in the city passes through the prism of barrier-freeness and is analyzed by our team to take into account the interests of all social groups", - said the Mayor of Slavutych, Yury Fomichev.
Olena Nesterets, an expert on the development of health care services of the "Community-led Inclusive Recovery" (CLIR) initiative, spoke about CLIR's approach to the implementation of barrier-free practices on the ground.
"The CLIR initiative is aimed at comprehensive expert support of territorial communities, the main component of which is the implementation of a barrier-free environment in communities. At the same time, it is the communities that act as the leaders of change, because they best understand the needs of their residents, in particular, people with disabilities and other vulnerable population groups. Our joint work in barrier-free issues is focused on two main directions. First, we help in the development of the vision, goals and objectives for barrier-free accessibility, which will be implemented in the Development Strategy of each territorial community. Secondly, we are looking for ways to remove barriers that require immediate solutions in various areas of community life. Together with community representatives, we are developing solutions on how to fix these barriers and what opportunities can be provided to local residents," Olena Nesterets added.
