There is understanding among the YMCA movements of Belarus, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine that strong democratic governance is a way to sustainability. But there are a lot of questions about practical implementation of democratic values in structures, procedures, documents, actions, as the organizations are functioning in not easy financial, legislative and political conditions.
13-15 November 2015, YMCA Europe Training on Governance took place in Belarus, Volozhyn. 26 participants from 4 movements were thinking how to make their organizations stronger, so they are sustainable in providing good services for communities.
"For the first time in history of cooperation between YMCAs of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova we had so serious and deep discussion, study of values and organizational structure of YMCA, difference between governance and management, case studies of wrong or corrupted leadership, criteria of sustainable organization. We played a very emotional game that helped every participant to live through and feel situations of injustice and neglect in an organization, which was important to bring them on a deeper personal level of talking and thinking of effective governance". – says Alexey Kostyakov, YMCA Russia Secretary General
The participants went home with a "to do list", thinking how to distribute gained knowledge and implement skills. The training showed high motivation of the leaders.
We also spoke of development of the so-called Eastern platform, which will help to increase interaction and exchange of best practices between the four movements, and to implement the new vision of building effective governance.
This is a pilot initiative in YMCA Europe, supported by YMCA USA. We thank and congratulate all who was involved in this process – this is a good start! But we understand, that this is the beginning of long journey that requires involvement of wide range of leaders, strong motivation and constant monitoring.