“The hromada has long been in an information vacuum: we only had one rayon newspaper and it was in demand only among the older generation. There were no information platforms through which all hromada residents – students, pupils, entrepreneurs – could be informed. That is why we launched social networks and quickly got 1000 FB-page followers, which is a good thing considering that there are 10 thousand residents in the Sofiyivska AH,” says Maksym Khoruzhevskyi, moderator of the website of the Sofiyivska hromada.

Subsequently, after the launch of social networks, hromada representatives analysed that this tool alone would not cover the task of high-quality communication with all AH residents. The most difficult thing to do was to comply with the current legislation on public information disclosure. The website, once provided by the oblast administration, has not been updated for 15 years, had an outdated design, did not allow to search for information or publish the necessary data.

In 2017, the Sofiyivska AH joined the second cohort of partner hromadas of the “Decentralisation Offering Better Results and Efficiency” (DOBRE) Programme. It was also the start of getting acquainted with the public IT organisation SocialBoost, a DOBRE partner, and the Dosvit platform.

The Sofiyivska AH became the first hromada to create its new website on the Dosvit platform, that enables hromadas to create their own websites in accordance with the modern IT canons. SocialBoost specialists have developed a platform that takes into account hromadas’ wishes gathered during the strategic sessions.

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