Solutions from Ukraine: social café opens in Vinnytsia, dedicating 10% of income to youth support

Rubryka spoke with the initiators about how to open a social enterprise for youth spaces.

What is the problem?

The war in Ukraine has proven that today, it is essential to support and help each other. One effective tool of such mutual assistance is a social enterprise—it generates resources to solve social problems and unites people around common values.

What is the solution?

The social café "Coffee in a Square" has opened at the Vinnytsia Regional Youth Center "Kvadrat" ['square' in Ukrainian – ed.] with 10% of its income earmarked for supporting youth spaces in the region.

How does it work?

"Coffee in the Square" – more than just a coffee shop

Vinnytsia Regional Youth Center "Kvadrat" is a participant in the pilot project among eight youth centers in Ukraine, "Start: Social Entrepreneurship." The project aims to increase the financial sustainability and professional level of youth centers in Ukraine. To do this, social enterprises will be created on their basis, which will not only work with a social purpose but also bring profit. The youth centers will be able to use the funds received to implement their initiatives.

Nadiia Melnyk, director of the "Kvadrat" youth center and a deputy of the regional council, stated that the team had been developing the idea of a social enterprise for about two years. To make a final decision, they conducted a social media survey to determine what visitors would like to add to the youth space.

^{Director of the youth center "Kvadrat", Nadiia Melnyk. Photo: Vinnytsia Regional Council}

The café at the "Kvadrat" youth center began operations in March. The Board of Common Communal Property of Territorial Communities of Vinnytsia Region allocated part of the premises for the café, while the youth center set up a co-working area. As a social enterprise, 10% of the café's income goes to the "63 Squares" initiative, enabling 63 communities in the Vinnytsia Region to purchase furniture, equipment, or office supplies needed for youth spaces.

"Youth should stay in Ukraine, help build it, and our task as a regional youth center is to support it, help, and build spaces for youth in the Vinnytsia region," Nadiia Melnyk says.

Does this really work?

As the center's director says, in a month of work at "Coffee in the Square," the enterprise earned more than 100,000 hryvnias. Ten percent, or about 11,000, will be directed to help the recently created youth space of the Tyvriv territorial community, which will open its doors to young people on April 10. In particular, they plan to use these funds to purchase beanbags and flipcharts for the space.

"Today, we are one of the first to implement a project to support and develop social entrepreneurship based on a youth center. Our experience as a municipal institution will become an example and a roadmap for other youth centers that will introduce social entrepreneurship in their own," Nadiia Melnyk is confident.

The "Kvadrat" youth center director adds: "Coffee in the Square" closely cooperates with local authorities and has already received a proposal from the Department of Veteran Policy to train veterans in coffee culture. The center also shares experience with students and holds workshops on creating social enterprises based on educational institutions. During the coffee house's operation, two territorial communities joined the event to develop social entrepreneurship and underwent a four-hour intensive course on starting a social entrepreneurship from scratch.

For reference:

The initiative is implemented within the framework of the project "EU4Youth Phase III — Strengthening sustainability and social inclusion of young people", implemented by the NGO "Youth Platform" and the NGO "School of me" in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania and the Central Project Management Agency (CPVA) with the support of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine and financial support from the European Union.