IF YOU WANT TO SUCCEED, BECOME AN ACE OF YOUR BUSINESS: SCHOOL OF LEADERS’ 2023

On July 24-27, 2023, Kyiv hosted the annual School of Leaders for sex workers, who came from all over the country of Ukraine.  [School of Leaders is a traditional annual event organized by CO "Legalife-Ukraine", which consists of several thematic trainings for sex workers.] This year’s training was devoted to two topics: negotiations, public speaking, presentations and project management in crisis conditions.

Any business starts with your desire. Yes, yes, with your personal desire. And success of this business  depends on how strong and sincere this desire is, on what you are willing to do to get what you want. From this notion began the training of Sergiy Novikov, dedicated to conducting negotiations, public speeches and presentations.

 [Sergiy Novikov is the founder of CEO of the Independent Trade Union in the League of Masters Thebestworker].

How to conduct successful negotiations? How to interest potential partners and get their support? How to present yourself and your proposal? Why are we afraid to speak in public and how can we overcome this fear? These and other questions concern our activists because the answers to them will help to improve lives of sex workers.

According to Sergiy’s experience, you need to start by thinking about what you - personally - really want, what gives you a sense of satisfaction, joy, maybe remembering your old unrealized dreams. As it turns out, even this first step is not easy. It is not easy to abandon generally accepted norms and morals, and to get rid of the excess that burdens us and separates other people’s desires from our own... It is not easy to be honest, even with yourself. Now, in times of war, many of us desperately need to regain this ability to "want," to awaken our inner desire pipeline, and to learn how to combine personal goals with professional development. We’ve discussed our goals, desires, illusions, and realities for two days. It was emotional, frank, heated, and sometimes even painful.

We hope that when emotions calm down, our participants will apply the knowledge and skills gained to benefit themselves and our community.

"LEADERSHIP, PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND RESPONSIBILITY IN CRISIS CONDITIONS. PREVENTION OF BURNOUT"

When the first steps towards the goal are made, difficulties are overcomed, and you think that "peaks are conquered" - do not forget: the world around us is unpredictable. There is no stability, life is full of unexpected "gifts": pandemics, wars, natural disasters. Or, perhaps, your partners’ plans have changed or your interests no longer coincide, and any agreements have become irrelevant.

Could this events and risks be predicted? How can you continue to operate in a crisis? How not to lose inspiration, maintain your mental health and support your team? We devoted the next two days of our set of trainings to these questions, and Olena Vertynska, our longtime friend, coach and psychologist, helped us to figure it out.

Regular and systematic training of members of the community of sex workers in Ukraine is one of the main directions of activities of our organization. Especially since new people organically join our friendly team. We do our best to provide our colleagues with all necessary resources, knowledge and skills for the successful development of their human rights and advocacy activities. But our School of Leaders is not only about knowledge and experience, professional and leadership development. Each such event is a long-awaited meeting with friends, like-minded people, it’s fun adventures, laughter and tears, it’s an opportunity to be among equals and understanding people.

Happy birthday to our friends. Peaceful sky to all of us and may your wishes come true!

This time there were heart-to-heart conversations, and stories about personal problems, and advice from friends. Here we all learn to listen to each other.

Four days, full, bright, useful for both the mind and the soul of the participants. Unfortunately, they passed by very quickly, but we know that no less exciting meetings await us in the near future. So, see you again!

We thank our partners CO "100% LIFE", IF "Renaissance" for their support and the opportunity provided to unite and develop the community of sex workers of Ukraine!

We sincerely thank to our friends and trainers — Elena Vertynska and Sergiy Novikov — for the knowledge and skills they imparted, which made these days as useful and interesting as possible for all participants. Thank you for your openness and our good mood!

Team of CO “Legalife-Ukraine"