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The ninth meeting of the Working Group on Public Safety and Recovery (WGPSR) was held in the Chornobaivka Community, dedicated to the results of two years of cooperation and discussing priorities for 2026. The meeting, which took place under different conditions from the first meeting two years ago (then they sat "above the ground", now "below the ground"), brought together representatives of the authorities, the public, and service providers.
During these two years of work, several initiatives aimed at both public safety and social cohesion were implemented in the Chornobaivka community. Among the key initiatives:
- Purchase of a quadcopter for the community police officer, which is now used to inspect territories, identify violations, locate garbage dumps, detect hemp crops, and monitor unauthorized movement of transport.
- Installation of video surveillance cameras in the community.
- Transfer of equipment to the local fire department.
- Arrangement of a sports ground in Kyselivka to attract youth and children to sports.
- Installation of firefighting stands in community institutions.
- Strengthening the activities of the working group itself through the purchase of equipment and furniture.
Another initiative is currently planned for implementation in the coming months.
The participants of the WGPSR also discussed current challenges and plans for 2026.
The security situation in the community remains dynamic, and in addition to artillery shelling, the community faces the problem of kamikaze drones, but this does not prevent planning development projects. Among the announced priorities for 2026:
- Arrangement of safe public spaces in the community's settlements.
- Installation of playgrounds.
- Arrangement of a veteran space with rehabilitation rooms and simulators for the military.
- Launching a university of the third age.
- Providing structural units of the local fire department in Kyselivka and Posad-Pokrovske.
- Engaging experts to assist in developing a strategic environmental assessment, charter, comprehensive spatial development plan, and medium-term forecast with public investments.
- Expanding digitalization opportunities for the community and involving residents in this process.
- Mentoring support and involving specialists in writing grant applications and supporting projects.
- Training and advanced training are also a priority, especially in communication during war, working with veterans, conflict resolution, digital security and literacy.
The participants of the meeting expressed hope for the continuation and deepening of cooperation, as well as for the fact that community requests for support for services that ensure public safety will be updated and financed in the next phase of the project. The importance of taking local needs into account, not just at the regional level, was emphasized.
As a reminder, the WGPSR in the communities was created in the summer 2023 by orders of the heads of the military administrations within the framework of the initiative "Kherson region: public safety and recovery in conditions of change", implemented by the "Union" Foundation with the assistance of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Ukraine with the financial support of the Government of Denmark.
Over the course of two years, 54 working group meetings were held in six communities of the Kherson region, where WGPSR operates. Approximately 730 participants took part, of whom 140 were unique. The number of participants is continually growing, indicating a positive dynamic that involves people in the process. More than 20 initiatives and several grant projects in public safety and social cohesion were implemented.
