Community without Barriers

To increase the involvement of women, people with disabilities, including IDPs, and other vulnerable groups in developing a barrier-free environment in the Lutsk city community through interactive gaming methods.

The issue of accessibility may not seem that important, especially in times of war.
But accessibility is much more than just ramps for people in wheelchairs. It’s about creating an environment where everyone, regardless of their circumstances, can live and thrive fully. This includes accessibility for people with visual and hearing impairments, ease of navigation for tourists, convenience for parents with strollers, and ensuring the overall safety and well-being of all residents.
Collaborating on these issues will help create a Lutsk where everyone feels comfortable, valued, and able to fully participate in community life.

Workshop on adapting the World of Communities game, focusing on developing key messages and behavioral models that will serve as the foundation for the thematic application.

Development and production of a thematic application for the World of Communities: Accelerator-III, “Community without Barriers”.

Training for public sector representatives and conducting Game Sessions by them based on the "Community without Barriers" scenario at the Lutsk City Council.

Developing a scenario and running a government simulation game, "Community without Barriers," for engaged residents of the Lutsk Territorial Community.

Development of an analytical report and presentation of the results from the Government Simulation Game, highlighting the problems and needs of residents in the Lutsk Territorial Community.

Scenarios:

“Community without Barriers: The Dawn”

The development of inclusive and barrier-free communities in the aftermath of a rapid end to the war and transition to post-war recovery.

“Community without Barriers: The Lingering Night”

The development of inclusive and barrier-free communities in the context of a protracted long-term war.

Training

public sector representatives to become game master-facilitators for the 'World of Communities' game, using the 'Community without Barriers' application.

Who is the target audience?
Public sector representatives (preference is given to civil society organizations whose target audience is women, people with disabilities, including IDPs, and other vulnerable categories of the Lutsk MTC).
What do you get?
A certificate of “Game master-Facilitator” and a copy of the game for your organization.
Learning Framework
Step 1: Basic Game Master course in a workshop format, led by a certified third-level master (2 participants per organization).Step 2: Conducting training games within your own organizational environments.Step 3: Special game workshop using the "Community without Barriers" application (1 participant per organization).Step 4: Running 2 training games with the target groups of your organization.

Government game modeling

Objective: To verify, develop, and engage residents in the implementation of the Community Without Barriers program*.

Taras Pakholiuk

architect, urban planner

The goals of the whole community are more important than the goals of individual groups.

We had scandals, quarrels, arguments. Today is simply a phenomenal day, but for me personally the conclusion is this - only by uniting and realizing that the goals of communities are more valuable than the goals of a separate social group, because their achievement increases the added value of the city and the community as such. Only after this understanding were we, in principle, able to achieve what we have achieved. And so I want to thank everyone.

Alla Domanska

deputy of the Lutsk City Council

You should not be afraid of complex important projects and hide from them behind simple solutions.

We all understood today that we need to unite, and only by uniting we can achieve great goals, although it seems to me that this was precisely the most difficult thing for us to do, in fact, to unite, because we were able to understand it, but we probably did not realize it 100% And this is something that we still need to think about, how to actually implement this unity in practice.It also seems to me that we all have this temptation to first of all grasp for the implementation of those things that are simple and easy to implement. We all wanted to do something simple quickly and refused global projects because they are complicated. They are expensive, they require a lot of resources. And this thing that I would like to change in each of us is not to be afraid of those difficulties, and to set big goals.

Evgeny Pavelchuk

entrepreneur, teacher, volunteer

A systemic approach is more important than situational solutions.

Some projects were implemented according to the residual principle. We will do what we have money and resources for. So I think everyone needs to come to the conclusion that bigger is not always better. Let it be better to have less but better than to have more, but few people need it.

Kateryna Shklyoda

deputy of the Lutsk City Council

Reintegration of veterans is something that can unite a community around common development goals.

Given the fact that in our community, assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine is a priority, 50 million UAH will be allocated to the Veterans Hub in this year's budget, this once again confirms that this decision is correct, timely, and expresses the opinion of absolutely everyone. This is the most important insight for me today, that really no one has objections to the importance and support of our defenders.

Results Overview

Conclusions & Recommendations

The format enabled a diverse group of over 100 community residents, representing various age groups, social backgrounds, and professions, to not only learn about the key aspects of the local special program in just 4 hours, but also to actively engage with it and find their role in its implementation.
The results of the modeling highlighted the importance of an integrated approach to addressing barrier-free accessibility within the community. The event also showed that citizens are eager to engage in meaningful social processes, as long as the 'rules of the game' are clear and transparent, even in times of instability and limited resources.
A strong sense of social optimism, resilience, and a willingness to tackle the complex, interconnected challenges of community development were evident among the residents of the Lutsk community, with many demonstrating a readiness to prioritize the collective good over the interests of smaller groups

The project was implemented by the NGO Laboratory of Changes with financial support from the UK Government, as part of the project 'Women. Peace. Security: Responding to the Challenges of War', carried out by the Ukrainian Women's Fund in partnership with the NGOs La Strada - Ukraine, the Association of Women Lawyers of Ukraine 'Jurfem', the Women's Information and Consulting Center, the Ukrainian Foundation for Public Health, and the Women's Perspectives Center, with support from the Office of the Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and the Office of the Government Commissioner for Gender Policy.

Analyzing the needs of target audiences and generating ideas for implementing the Lutsk City Program "Community without Barriers" through the "World of Communities" simulation game.

To increase the involvement of women, people with disabilities, including IDPs, and other vulnerable groups in developing a barrier-free environment in the Lutsk city community through interactive gaming methods.

Context

Project stages

Thematic application “Community Without Barriers”