Ukraine Trauma Relief Project
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A Healing Impulse for Resilience
The War in Ukraine has awakened hidden trauma layers and is adding new trauma, leading to increased stress, anxiety and suffering. According to sociological studies, more than 90% of Ukrainians now have at least one of the symptoms of an anxiety disorder, and 57% are at risk of developing mental disorders. This risk is especially high amongst the 18 – 30y age group, since most of those on the frontlines, but also young partners, mothers and widows are strongly affected.
Young men and women returning from the frontlines or living through repeated bombardments may carry lasting psychological and physical scars. Families and friends need to pull together to support each other through these hard times. Young Ukrainians desperately need more tools and support to deal with the ongoing nature of the war and the many ways in which their hopes for the future are being impacted. New and practical approaches to resilience are needed.
The Pocket Project in partnership with Inner Foundation is offering a multi-sector, interdisciplinary approach, spreading both acute psychosocial support and trauma-informed approaches to young adults in Ukraine.
Psychosocial
Support
Counseling and Therapy: Providing accessible mental health services, including individual and group therapy, to help people process their trauma and develop coping mechanisms.
Facilitating support groups that create safe spaces for sharing experiences and mutual support, fostering a sense of community and collective healing.
Self-Regulation
Competencies
Equipping individuals with tools to understand and regulate their emotions, enhancing their ability to handle future stressors
Resilience and
Self-Regulation Training
Mindfulness and Stress Reduction Techniques: Teaching skills such as mindfulness, meditation, and breathing techniques to help individuals manage stress and improve emotional regulation.
Empowerment Workshops:
Offering workshops aimed at building emotional resilience, enhancing self-esteem, and fostering a sense of empowerment among participants.
Global Outreach and Community Building:
International Support Networks: Connecting Ukrainians with communities worldwide through offering free online education and online support from coaches and therapists.
Collaborative Initiatives:
Partnering with Ukrainian organizations, community centers, and NGOs to ground and deepen international experience in local realities.
Resilience Circles
Insight & Community
Our Resilience Circles offer group support for self- and co-regulation to Ukrainians. We are making space for the challenges we face, while strengthening our capacity to ground and respond creatively together. You will find peer support and a community where you can grow. Each Circle is led by facilitators who help to create a safe space for reflection and connection. Details on topics, schedule and facilitators can be found by clicking on the Circle of interest. There is also a registration form.
Engage
Psychosocial Support for Youth
If you are a Ukrainian and between 18-30 years old, and might benefit from receiving free & confidential 1:1 psychological support, please fill in the form below. We will coordinate you with one of our professional psychologists. Next steps and details of your meetings will be communicated in a timely manner.
Free Daily
Self-regulation
Group
All Ukrainians are invited to join a practice group that takes place at 9:15 Kyiv time every day. The group is offered Pocket Project team members, psychologists and mindfulness practitioners Daria Yemets and Oksana Ruda. The practice is 15 minutes long yet has cumulative effect and help to start the day in a more grounded way.
Support for Partnering organisations
In partnership with Nonviolent Peaceforce, we provide individual and group support for Ukrainian volunteers in frontline cities. If you are a volunteer in a partner organisation and have a personal token, we invite you to fill out the form below. We will coordinate you with one of our professional psychologists or coaches.
Resourcing videos
Self-regulation in less than 20 minutes is one click away
The project is aiming to respond directly to current needs of young Ukrainians in an ever-changing situation. If you are a Ukrainian of 18–30 years old, please help us make our offerings relevant for you by filling the Needs Assessment. It will take ~3 minutes.
Psychosocial Support for Youth
We warmly encourage you to also sign up for the group support sessions.
Volunteer Resilience Project
Free Daily Self-regulation Practice Group
upcoming events
1:1 sessions offered
Group sessions offered
Respondents experiencing sessions as excellent
Scholarships offered to Ukrainians since 2022
Core Components
Psychosocial
Support
Individual and Group Counselling: Providing access to professional counseling and therapeutic services for youth to help individuals and groups process trauma and develop healthy coping strategies.
Community Support Networks: Establishing support groups within communities to foster mutual aid, understanding, and collective healing.
Support for the
Supporters
Professional Workshops: Offering educational possibilities for the therapeutic team to establish a flow of ongoing learning and cultivate a professional sense-oriented community.
European and Ukrainian Supervision: Providing regular monthly supervision for the team of supporters to create a space of discharge and fellowship with possibility to ground and digest both personal and professional experiences.
Resilience and Self-Regulation Training
Mindfulness and Stress Reduction Techniques Teaching skills such as mindfulness, meditation, and breathing techniques to help individuals manage stress and improve emotional regulation.
Empowerment Workshops: Offering workshops aimed at building emotional resilience, enhancing self-esteem, and fostering a sense of empowerment among participants.
Global Outreach and Community Building
International Support Networks: Connecting Ukrainians with communities worldwide through offering free online education and online support from coaches and therapists.
Collaborative Initiatives: Partnering with Ukrainian organizations, community centers, and NGOs to ground and deepen international experience in local realities.
Are you with us?
Daria Yemets
Pocket Project
We welcome you to our community and invite you to join the Pocket Project Ukrainian Newsletter. This way, you are staying connected and informed about other resources and community support available through the Pocket Project:
If you have any inquiries or questions, feel free to reach out to Daria Yemets, Care Manager, via email: info@pocketproject.org
Please help to expand Trauma Relief Project in Ukraine
The project is aiming to respond directly to current needs of young Ukrainians in an ever-changing situation. If you are a Ukrainian of 18–30 years old, please help us make our offerings relevant for you by filling the Needs Assessment. It will take ~3 minutes.
History
We are creating a global healing impulse that focuses our efforts where the need is the most acute. Since 2022, we have directed the efforts of our volunteers to conduct group and individual meetings in English, German, Ukrainian with more than 17,600 participants registered for them. We focused our efforts on supporting Ukrainians and those who support Ukrainian refugees.
On February 24, 2022, Ukrainians woke up to the sound of bombs and rockets. This remains a reality to this day. There is an urgent need for spaces of safety in which we can collectively bear witness to our shared experience.
April–December 2024
A healing impulse for Young Adults
- In Partnership with Inner Foundation
- We offer is a multi-sector, interdisciplinary approach, spreading both acute psychosocial support and trauma-informed approaches to young adults in Ukraine. With main focus on group support and development of trauma-informed culture in Ukraine, we continue offering 1:1 sessions for those in need.
- See more above
November 2023 - ongoing
Volunteer resilience program
- In Partnership with Nonviolent Peaceforce
- We are offering psychosocial support for Ukrainian Volunteers that are doing their work in the frontline regions, like Kharkiv and Donetsk, and require spaces of safety and care.
- Our team of therapists have an ongoing Supervision and Resourcing Sessions to remain regulated and prevent burnout.
June–December 2023
psychosocial Support for Ukrainians in Ukraine & elsewhere
- Supported by Whale Trust & Core Funds of Pocket Project
- As the need for psychosocial support is only growing, during the 6 month of the 2023 Pocket Project offered 1:1 support for Ukrainians, especially focusing on those groups of people, who have less access to such opportunities.
- We continued offering monthly supervision to our Ukrainian and international team of therapists, keeping in heart the supporters' need for support and safe space for discharge.
May–October 2023
UKRAINIAN participation in TRAUMA-INFORMED women in LEADERSHIP COURSE
- We offered 80+ scholarships for Ukrainian women, that are leading NGOs or hold a leadership position in the fields of psychology, education, social work and other. Aiming to create a caring and supportive community for the women, we are opening Ukrainian Triads, Peer-groups and Integration Sessions.
- See more here
October 2022–May 2023
Health & Support for Ukrainian refugees - Germany
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In Partnership with German Foundation for Engagement and Volunteering and Alliance4Ukraine
- We utilized funds to better coordinate our volunteer efforts and to set up an event platform to coordinate Support Calls specifically for Ukrainian refugees in Germany and for volunteers supporting Ukrainian refugees in Germany.
- We tailored our supporting efforts accordingly to the Needs Assessment, that was filled in by Ukrainians in Germany.
October 2022–May 2023
Health & Support for Ukrainians in Ukraine and elsewhere
- Since 1 October 2022 we offered Support Calls not just for Ukrainian refugees in Germany, but for Ukrainians anywhere in the world. The trauma-informed expertise of the facilitators and the safety of well-held, coherent group spaces provides opportunities for those in need to sit together and ground in somatic awareness, deep listening, and inner resilience.
- We offered 1:1 and group sessions of support, as well as Supervision Calls for the support team, to access a wider ecosystem of care.
May–September 2022
Ukrainian participation in the Trauma-informed Leadership Course II
- We provided spaces for 110 Ukrainians, leading efforts in the fields of psychology, NGOs, education, human rights, and refugees, in our Trauma-Informed Leadership Course II 2022. Around 90% of them are currently in Ukraine, facing daily challenges. How can they bring trauma-informed leadership and practices to this harrowing experience?
- See more here
August 2022
Advanced Psychological Training
- In collaboration with ARQ
- We offered a course on Advanced Psychotrauma to 35 Ukrainian psychologists and therapists. With the understanding that ongoing war creates a special context, this course is designed to help specialists to address consequences of psychotrauma in Ukrainian communities. Three major topics were covered: the effect of war on mental health, sexual violence, and traumatic loss and mourning.
The project is aiming to respond directly to current needs of young Ukrainians in an ever-changing situation. If you are a Ukrainian of 18–30 years old, please help us make our offerings relevant for you by filling the Needs Assessment. It will take ~3 minutes.