In Mykolaiv, they will give out $10,000 to each youth initiative: who will use the money this time?

At the meeting of the executive committee 25 March 2026 they approved the regulations for the new stage of the “Youth Public Budget”. The international organization “Save the Children” proposes to implement, for now, 5 projects of 10 thousand dollars each by the end of the year based on the voting results. Young people aged from 18 to 28 years will be able to submit their own ideas. Before the start of applications, hackathons for participants will be held from 27 March to 3 April, then from 6 to 28 April project submission will continue, and from 6 to 26 May they will be checked and evaluated. The voting itself is scheduled for the period from 15 to 28 June, and the results are to be finalized by 2 July.

You can vote for the submitted initiatives in two formats: online via the e-DEM platform or on paper at designated points. For this, the premises of the Department for the Provision of Administrative Services of the Mykolaiv City Council and the Tourist Information Center at 20 Admiralska St. are to be used.

Last year’s pilot project of the “Youth Public Budget” showed that there is interest in this format in the city. Then about 6500 residents took part in the voting, and among the 18 submitted ideas 10 winners were selected, each with funding up to 8 thousand dollars.

Last year’s winners of the pilot contest:

1. “Modular sports ground of Matviivka” — Кравченко Олексій Олександрович — 1173 votes
2. “Sambo for the Unbroken – the science of winning” — Красножон Віталій Павлович — 1017 votes
3. “Safe road home” — Андрієвський Іван Олексійович — 560 votes
4. “Garden therapy in the Family Square” — Коробкова Олена Мирославівна — 528 votes
5. “Sports Navigator: try what you’ve never tried!” — Везель Дмитро Ігорович — 375 votes
6. “Responsible parenting in a youth space” — Щоголев Дмитро Миколайович — 343 votes
7. “Know Your Rights – Know Your Rights” — Бережевська Крістіна Олександрівна — 340 votes
8. “Urban garden: promoting plant cultivation and building food security” — Лівандовська Олена Артемівна — 340 votes
9. “Youth ArtKor-hub of Velyka Korenykha” — Метліцька Неоніла Миколаївна — 334 votes
10. “Equipping a youth space at the Mykolaiv Center for Vocational Education” — Кисіль Вікторія Ростиславівна — 332 votes

One of last year’s winning ideas has already turned into a real space: in the Korabelnyi district on 23 January 2026 a modern youth center was opened at the Mykolaiv Center for Vocational Education, created within the “Youth Public Budget” in partnership with Save the Children and the NGO “ISTOK”. So the current contest for the city is no longer an experiment on paper, but a continuation of a model that has at least partially produced visible results.

Now the city authorities are again betting on small but quick initiatives that can be brought to results before the end of the year. And the main question now is not whether young people have ideas, but how actively the residents of Mykolaiv themselves will go to vote and whether the next contest will not dissolve in the city’s usual bureaucracy.

Previously we wrote:

• An island of ideas amid the storm of war: a modern Youth Space opened in Korabelnyi
• Money for Mykolaiv residents’ ideas: “Public Budget” returns – the city council wants to spend 21 million
• Mykolaiv chooses a hero for the mural: a student proposes to create an art symbol of the city
• Cultural evacuation: “Korabelnyi” packs its suitcases, “Yunist” — the facade, and youth — into a media studio
• Youth breakthrough in Mykolaiv: the Ukrainian-Danish House opened