Ukraine project

The School of Community and Public Affairs (SCPA) and the Institute in Management and Community Development (IMCD), working in partnership with the Canadian Bureau of International Education (CBIE), delivered an intensive seven-week program in CED during the summer of 2005 in collaboration with the CBIE's Community Economic Development Ukraine (CEDU) project. In the summer of 2006 a five-week program took place that included four courses, internships and site visits.

For more information on the CEDU project, please consult the project website at www.ced.org.ua.

Program Update

The CBIE officially requested a three-year extension of the project by CIDA. This request is now being studied by the agency.

On June 9, 2007, at the third Lessons Learned Conference held in Cherkasy, Ukraine, Concordia University signed memorandums of understanding with Cherksay State Technological University and Uzhgorod National University.

The Community Economic Development Ukraine (CEDU) Project officially began operation in January 2004, and is scheduled to end in December 2007. The project is financed by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and is managed by the Canadian Bureau of International Education (CBIE).

The CBIE is an umbrella non-governmental organization comprised of 200 colleges, universities, schools, school boards, educational organizations and businesses across Canada.

The CEDU Project will provide Canadian expertise in community economic development to a wide variety of partner organizations in Ukraine. The goal of this initiative is to help communities empower themselves, to mobilize their resources, start community initiatives, and work in partnership with local authorities. CEDU will operate in three regions of Ukraine, in areas where local communities have clearly demonstrated their profound desire to improve their socio-economic conditions.

As stipulated in the report entitled "Investment in the Human Spirit: Community Economic Development Ukraine," the goal of the CEDU project is to implement social and economic initiatives that develop sustainable local communities that work with local government and small businesses, using principles and practices of good governance, to improve the quality of their economic, social and environmental conditions.

The CEDU Project has three objectives:

Support and strengthen replicable locally formed and locally governed community development associations and community-based ventures in three regions in Ukraine
Put in place an institutionalized framework in local communities and in higher educational institutions to support initiatives in community economic and social development
Carry out replicable community economic and social micro-projects within participating communities.

Concordia’s involvement in this project was in two phases. The first phase, which was held during the summer of 2005, involved extensive classroom training provided through the Centre for Continuing Education's Institute in Management and Community Development and the SCPA's Graduate Diploma in CED. The second phase, which was held in the summer of 2006, provided further course work as well as internships within Montreal-based CED initiatives.

The Program

For two consecutive summers, 10 professors from two universities in the Ukraine, Uzhgorod National University and Cherkasy State Technological University, participated in the program. They were accompanied by a translator, who attended all classes and activities to provide simultaneous translation for the participants.

Four courses were given during the six-week program. Each course ran from Monday to Thursday at the SCPA. In addition, participants were taken on site-visits (CED initiatives and enterprises) in Montreal, Huntington and the Eastern Townships. Participants also did an internship during their stay in Montreal.

The Concordia Coordinating Team

Lance Evoy, Director of the Institute in Management and Community Development and Eric Shragge, Principal of the School of Community and Public Affairs (SCPA) were co-cordinators of the Project. Perry Calce, Coordinator, Academic Programs and Curriculum Development at the SCPA, played an administrative role with the project and was assisted by Eric Abitol, the Project tutor.