Odesa Youth Municipal Center Seeks ₴40M for Renovation Amid Funding Gaps

The members of the Standing Committee on Planning, Budget and Finance decided not to allocate 40 million hryvnias for the repair of the building that will house the Youth Municipal Center.

Natalia Soinikova, head of the Youth Policy Division of the Department of Internal Policy , explained that the Youth Municipal Center had won a grant from the United Nations Development Program for 149,000 USD to begin repairs to the building. However, to receive this money, there must be co-financing. The total cost of the work, she said, is 42 million hryvnias.

"That is, the grant is for 6 million, and we have to add 40 million. Does the Department of Finance even know that we need to allocate an additional 40 million?" asked Oleksiy Potapsky, chairman of the commission, to Andriy Zaritsky, acting director of the Department of Finance of the Odesa City Council.

The latter, in turn, said no.

Soynikova replied that they were only preparing a draft decision for the session to amend the program "Youth of Odesa - 2023-2025". Therefore, Vasyl Ieremia, a deputy of the city council, proposed to postpone consideration of the allocation of this money to the next commission:

"According to the current legislation, we cannot talk about money now until the changes are made to the program. Therefore, let's first make changes to the project in the program, and then we will consider the issue of funding."

Interestingly, an hour earlier, the Commission on Education, Sports and Cooperation with Public Organizations had agreed to allocate these 40 million hryvnias.

In general, it is planned that after the renovation, the premises will be able to host a youth hub for gifted youth, etc. NGOs will be able to submit applications on the relevant portal and use the premises. The municipality has four months to implement the grant, but the partners agreed that the deadline could be extended.

According to the chairman of the commission , Oleh Etnarovych, the building once housed a college, which is now out of operation, and specialists from the Odesa State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture were involved in the renovation project."

The Department of Internal Policy also hopes that in the future this center will be able to become self-sufficient.

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