The Association of Ukrainians in Victoria (AUV) held a very positive and interactive workshop in Essendon yesterday. The workshop was titled “A Strategic Overview on how best to position Ukrainian presence as a community in Victoria” and was led by Max Dumais, an experienced independent facilitator. Max’s involvement was jointly funded and sponsored by Dnister and AFUO.

Participants organised themselves into tables for group discussions and gave community members the opportunity to voice their thoughts on particular topics that are relevant to the Ukrainian Community. Max posed a series of questions/topics and each table discussed and brain-stormed each topic. Groups entered their ideas and comments into a computer system using a keyboard at each table. These ideas and comments were immediately displayed on a large screen for all to see. For some topics, well over 100 ideas and comments were posted.

At the end of the discussion, the facilitator reviewed the full set of comments with the participants and produced a set of common themes summarising all the comments. Max will now prepare a detailed report including these comments and themes for AUV, who have committed to make this report available on their website.

Chairman of Dnister, David Hassett quoted “It was wonderful to have so many positive comments about what the community has achieved in the last 70 years and to see so many encouraging and creative suggestions for our future!”