An online strategic planning session of the Ukrainian World Congress and the International Institute of Education, Culture and Diaspora Relations, Lviv Polytechnic National University, took place on 14 January 2025.
Paul Grod, the President of the Ukrainian World Congress, sent greetings to the participants. Dr. Roman Zyla, UWC Executive Director; Yevgeniya Petrova, Honorary Chair of the World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organisations (WFUWO); and Lyuba Lyubchyk, Chair of the UWC’s International Educational Coordinating Council (IECC) took part in the event. The proposals from the IECDR were presented by Iryna Kliuchkovska, IECDR Director; Andriy Yatsiv and Oksana Piatkovska, Deputy Directors; and Oksana Horda, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute.
Iryna Kliuchkovska expressed the gratitude to each of the partners for their professional assistance in all the Institute’s endeavours, as well as for their support and positive energy. The Director of the IECDR assured that «we will develop our partnership by building strategic work plans for the next year». She informed about the main areas of the Institute’s research activities, which are: migration studies, Ukrainian studies as well as creation of content that can be useful for Ukrainian schools.
Andriy Yatsiv told the participants of the strategic session about the comprehensive study «Ukrainian Saturday and Sunday Schools in Europe: Responses to the Challenges of War» conducted by the Ukrainian studies experts of the IECDR and Iryna Kluchkovska shared plans for its presentation, which would provide an opportunity to deepen the topic actualisation of the Saturday and Sunday schools, which are the golden fund of Ukrainians.
The participants also expressed their wish to actively use the Institute’s already well-known innovative product – the Ukrainian Educational Universe website. In addition, they expressed their readiness for further cooperation and offered their help with the organization of joint events, one of which could be UWC Days. This would provide an opportunity to present the work of the Ukrainian World Congress in a comprehensive manner and share relevant experience.
In conclusion, the participants agreed that such a strategic session is an important and fruitful event that will help to clearly define the tasks and ways to accomplish them, and undertook to continue to cooperate. Roman Zyla once again congratulated the IECDR team on their significant achievements and wished them new scientific achievements in the coming year.
