All-Ukrainian youth NGO “Foundation of Regional Initiatives” (FRI) – a powerful center for building social youth movement and training leaders of a new generation in Ukraine.

“Foundation of Regional Initiatives” (FRI) – a youth NGO that works all over Ukraine with the goal of fortifying the youth movement institutions, training and supporting the active members of youth associations and supporting the development of student and youth initiatives in general.

Mission of the Organization

  • FRI unites active Ukrainian youth which maintains proactive positions in the current national issues.
  • FRI was established with the aim to strengthen the institutions of youth movements.
  • FRI provides active Ukrainian youth with information on educational programs and trainings and therefore contributes to personal and professional development of youth.
  • FRI provides support to overall regional youth initiatives.

History of the organization

  • 2002 – the local NGO “Foundation of Regional Initiatives” (FRI) in Uzhgorod city (Western Ukraine) was established.
  • 2004 – 20 organizations in 17 local districts were founded.
  • 2004 – FRI became a nation-wide organization with registered local branches in every administrative district of Ukraine.
  • 2010 – 53 local FRI organizations registered in all Ukrainian districts.

In 2009, FRI:

  • organized about three hundred events;
  • had more than 10 000 young people attending the events;
  • had one of the largest networks of activists and partners.

The most interesting International Projects are:

  • Implementation of the Ukrainian-Kazakh projects with the following goals – to design and launch the youth magazine “ZaDelo!” (“Let’s get to work”) and to establish a network of youth activities together with the Youth Informational Service of Kazakhstan in accordance with the “Youth Direction” project;
  • Implementation of the joint German-Polish-Ukrainian project on cooperation called “EuroBus”;
  • Project “Big Trash of a Big City” conducted by the local FRI branch (Dnipropetrovsk), Slovak organization “People in Trouble”, and the Fund “Europe of the XXI”;
  • Joint celebration of the Days of Europe in Novuy Rozdil with the Greek Embassy in Ukraine and the representatives from the Greek Ministry of Education.
  • Workshop on public activity with Theodor-Heuss-Kolleg, the Robert Bosch Stiftung and the MitOst Association assistance

The most interesting national projects are:

1) A successful public lobbying campaigns against:

–the legalization of coercive work of Ukrainian graduates (Jun-Dec 2008)

–the restriction of existing rights of students in Ukraine (April-Aug 2009)

-the reduction of public order in Universities (Jan 2010)

2) Annual Summer Camp “Leader” that takes place in July and is held near the mountain Goverla.

3) Public Campaign “Youth Guard”: youth is watching you!” – All-Ukrainian civil campaign, which aims to monitor and control the election commitments given to young people by different political forces during the elections.

“Youth Guard” includes 10 non-governmental all-Ukrainian youth organizations and 2 associations of the student government.

4) Saving the destruction of the oldest cinema in Ukraine “Bommer”

5) and hundreds of other various regional projects.