Slobozhanske

Slobozhanske community is located in the Kharkiv region. The administrative center is the urban-type village Slobozhanske.

The community includes 1 urban-type settlement (Slobozhanske) and 13 villages.

Slobozhanske is located in the central part of Kharkiv region. The distance between its administrative center and the city of Kharkiv is about 52 km directly, 60.4 – 83.6 km by road. Its territory is crossed by a railway connection and the R-78 regional highway.

History

The history of the administrative center of the community – the village of Slobozhanske is connected with the construction in the 50s of Zmiyiv thermal power plant currently owned by Tsentrenergo PJSC, which is the largest power plant in Kharkiv region and one of the largest thermal power plants in Ukraine.

The Lyman lake

The community is located near the Lyman lake, which was formed at the site of the oxbow lake of the Siverskyi Donets river. After the construction of the thermal power plant, it was turned into a cooling pond. Today, the lake is also actively used for industrial fish breeding. In addition, the lake is an important recreational area not only for residents of the Slobozhanske, but also for Kharkiv residents who escape from the big city to enjoy nature and fishing here.

Economy

Slobozhanske is a community of contrasts.

The administrative center – Slobozhanske, is an industrial zone. Large industrial enterprises like Zmiivska thermal power plant, Electrical installment research plant, Zmiivska vegetable factory, and numerous machine building, metal production plants are located here.

Unlike Slobozhanske, other settlements of the community are specialized in agriculture. There are 15 farms registered in the community. The community’s future goal is to develop the food processing here.

Natural resources

In comparison with other communities in Kharkiv region, Slobozhanske possesses abundant forest resources. Almost a third of the forests in Slobozhanske community are natural reserves that are of enormous scientific, historical and cultural importance.

The community also has natural objects that are tourist magnets. The Suvorov springs and the Progin ecological reserve are among them.

Inclusive education

There are 3 inclusive groups for children with disabilities in Slobozhanske communal kindergarten No. 7. The institution is equipped with modern interactive equipment for working with children with special educational needs. The idea was implemented thanks to cooperation with international partners within the framework of the grant program. The community plans to expand this experience further.

There are a total of 7 schools and 9 kindergartens in the community.

Vocational education

Large industrial enterprises, which have been working in the community for decades, gave an impetus to the development of high-quality vocational and technical education here.

For 40 years, the Zmiiv Vocational Energy Lyceum has been training qualified workers for the electrical engineering and construction industries, public catering, electrical fitters and chemical analysis laboratory technicians for all industries.

Youth public spaces

Since 2021, Slobozhanske has started to actively develop youth spaces and non-formal education. In cooperation with local businesses, the community is implementing the project “Creative space – an incubator for education and development”. The project resulted in the establishment of the Krok youth center in the community. Its main task is to involve young people in local civic activities. Here, young people attend useful training, for example in providing medical and psychological first aid, art master classes, organize literary meetings and traditional board game tournaments. There is also a cinema here.

Since the beginning of the Russian full scale invasion, a humanitarian headquarters has been set up here. The youth of the community are actively involved in volunteering – they help war victims to apply for social assistance, unload and distribute humanitarian aid packages to those in need.

Culture

7 municipal clubs, the Slobozhanske School of Arts, the Slobozhanske Public Library and its 9 branches operate on the territory of the Slobozhanske community.

Today, there are 55 amatour groups in the Slobozhanske community, 6 of them have been awarded high state awards.

Promoting healthy lifestyle

Physical culture and sports are being actively developed in the community.

In Slobozhanske there is a stadium with a large football field and a mini field with an artificial surface, as well as a sports and recreation complex with a 25-meter swimming pool. These sports infrastructure facilities are centers of the social and sports life of the community. They contribute to bringing up talented athletes, who participate in competitions not only at the local level, but also reach high sport achievements on national and international level.

Among the students of the sambo and athletics clubs there are prize winners and champions not only of the Kharkiv region and Ukraine, but also of Europe and the world.

In order to promote sports and healthy lifestyle among the residents, a network of street sports facilities is being actively developed. In particular, the WORKOUT sports and gymnastics complex was recently equipped and a modular skate park was installed in the central park of Slobozhanske.

Healthcare

There are 1 hospital, 7 outpatient clinics and 3 village health stations in the community. These facilities were transferred to communal ownership only in 2021 and require significant modernization. Despite this, in just a year, the community achieved a lot – the roof of the Slobozhanske Hospital was reconstructed, fire alarm systems were installed, a 10-bed palliative care department was opened. The list of medical services was expanded to include colposcopy and hysteroscopy. In several settlements of the community accessibility and equipment of the village health posts was considerably improved.

One of the priorities of the strategic development of the Slobozhanske territorial community is the organization of an accessible and effective system of medical services, based on gender-balanced approach.

Community and war

The territory of the Slobozhanske community directly borders the line of hostilities, due to which the outermost settlements of the community are under constant shelling. The town of Slobozhanske, the villages of Blagodatne, Skrypai, Sheludkivka, Mokhnach and Donets were hit by air and missile strikes, as a result of which 2 people died, one of them a 7-year-old girl.

Also, as a result of such shelling, wheat and barley fields were repeatedly set on fire, which caused significant damage to local agricultural producers.

At the same time, the center of the community – Slobozhanske, became a place of refuge for almost 6,900 internally displaced persons. In cooperation with Ukrainian and foreign public organizations and charitable organizations, the community supports them with food kits and other types of humanitarian aid.

Despite the war, communal services continue to maintain public facilities.

Mayor

Dmytro Dikhtyar has been the head of Slobozhanske settlement since August 2012. After the completion of the decentralization processes, on October 25, 2020, he was elected mayor by the residents of the amalgamated Slobozhanske community.

“The first 20 days were very difficult, people didn’t understand what to do, when all the stores were sold out or closed. Coordinating the life in the community, informing residents and ensuring public order was a difficult task.

From the first days, in almost all settlements, on the initiative of residents, voluntary patrolling groups were formed to assist law enforcement agencies to ensure public order. Volunteers began to collect aid for the armed forces, and after the bombing of Blagodatne and Donets also for the victims and displaced persons.” – Dmytro Dikhtyar, the mayor of the Slobozhanske

Vision of the future

Stimulation of creation and development of industrial enterprises in the industrial zone of the Slobozhanske settlement, especially ones specialized in processing of local agricultural products, is seen as the main driver of further economic development of the community.

Another promising sphere of development is green tourism.

At the same time, there are also urgent issue of preserving the environment and creating comfortable living conditions for residents, including:

construction of a residential quarter in Slobozhanske;
creation of alternative sources of heating in the community;
improving the quality of healthcare services through updating the material and technical base of medical institutions and expanding the list of medical services.