In November 2020, the Foundation for the Promotion of Democracy and FICDD (Foundation for Christian Democratic Development) held a series of three seminars united by the general idea of building a Conservative Christian Platform in Ukraine.
The first event of the series entitled “Media Activity. Blogging. Media campaigns” was held at the First Congress Hall on Khreshchatyk and gathered 21 participants. The participants discussed practical issues of working with the media in modern conditions and examples of successful conservative media projects.
The main topics of the reports:
- Information campaigns.
- The fourth wave of media.
- Information hygiene and security.
- The idea of a conservative magazine: from design to realization.
- Establishment of the Conservative Christian Platform civic action network.
Among the lecturers were:
- Valentyn Krasnopyorov, public figure, expert, founder of the Last Capitalist public forum.
- Maksym Vikhrov, Ukrainian Week magazine.
- Vladyslav Vasyl, journalist, media expert.
- Vitaliy Ovcharenko, PhD in History, popular blogger.
Yuriy Mindyuk, Director of the Foundation for the Promotion of Democracy, spoke on behalf of the Foundation.
The next event was dedicated to the topic “Advocacy campaigns. Lobbying campaigns. Conducting large actions” and gathered a total of 23 participants. Speakers shared their experience of successful advocacy campaigns, in particular, Taras Shamaida, “Language Unites” initiative and co-coordinator of the “Freedom Space” movement, spoke about the successful experience of the campaign to protect the Ukrainian language, which ended with the adoption of the relevant law. Serhiy Ryabenko, Head of the Legal Department of the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language, spoke about the decommunization campaign, and Adrian Bukovynskyi, President of the All-Ukrainian Charitable Foundation “Family”, about the campaign to protect family values. Eduard Kurgansky, Deputy Chairman of the Committee of Entrepreneurs of Ukraine, also spoke about the history and undercurrents of the “Save the Individual Entrepreneur!” campaign, and Yaroslav Bozhko, Director of the Center for Political Studies “Doktryna”, about conservative messages in the media.
The seminar participants also attended a “Project Fair” where projects were presented by the Youth Nationalist Congress, the Statehood League, the World Leadership Forum, the National Alliance, the Ukrainian Strategic Studies, the Christian Rescue Service, the Reformation NGO, and the Last Capitalist public.
The last event was dedicated to the topic “Cooperation between parties, NGOs and churches. Conservative Christian Platform” and gathered 26 participants. It featured presentations on the following topics:
- Outlines of the conservative movement. Are there any prospects for creating a conservative party in Ukraine?
- The possibility of applying the social teaching of the Catholic Church in the political realities of Ukraine.
- Messages and narratives of the Conservative Party.
- The Conservative Political Project in Ukraine: Ideology, Personnel, and the Image of the Voter.
- Building a public conservative pre-party movement.
- Conservative revolution as a way to win the political struggle.
The speakers were:
- Yuriy Mindyuk, Director of the Foundation for Promotion of Democracy.
- Yuriy Pidlisnyi, PhD, Head of the Ethics-Politics-Economics Program, Head of the Department of Political Science at UCU.
- Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, MP, Deputy Chairman of the Golos party.
- Valentyn Krasnopyorov, public figure, founder of the Last Capitalist public forum.
- Yaroslav Bozhko, Center for Political Studies “Doktryna”.
- Ihor Kharchenko, Center for Society Development, Ukrainian Republican Club.
It is worth noting that the events were held in compliance with the current standards for holding events, including compliance with the mask regime, the use of antiseptics, and social distancing. The program was also planned in such a way that no more than 20 people were in the room at a time. Modern methods of online communication were used to disseminate information and attract more participants. All events were broadcast live on social media pages.