Pathway to Practitioner: Up-skilling Ukrainian humanitarians in person-centered and trauma-informed approaches to supporting trauma-affected people

Donor: Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC ) the United Kingdom

Coordinating partners: CAFOD, Christian Help

Implementing partners: Depaul Ukraine, NGO Resource Center (NGORC)

Project implementation dates: April 1, 2024 – April 1, 2025.

Total budget: £120,000

Project geography : Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odessa, Kyiv, Ternopil

Project target group: Employees of Ukrainian regional NGOs who work directly with the affected population while providing humanitarian assistance. Namely: social workers, case managers, psychologists, etc.

Project goal: To strengthen the capacity and psychological resilience of Ukrainian NGOs staff through a series of trainings that improve the knowledge and skills of professionals in applying the person-centered and trauma-informed approaches to support vulnerable and war-affected people.

Trainings’ content: The following topics were covered during the trainings:

Topic 1: Introduction to person-centered support, the main objectives of which were:

To form a clear understanding of person-centered support and a person-centered professional;
To teach making the needs assessments, supporting the beneficiaries and monitoring activities;
Using practical examples, analyze the algorithm for responding to complex cases in case management and form own experience of working with the projects’ clients;
To master the tools for responding to the cases of services/assistance refusals, referrals and person-centered support.

Topic 2: Introduction to Trauma-Informed Practice. Main objectives:

To introduce the concept of trauma and its impact on individuals;
To teach the principles of psychological first aid and minimizing psychological harm;
To develop key skills and abilities in providing trauma-focused care to children, teenagers and adults as well as self-recovery;
To provide knowledge on how to create a safe and supportive environment for working with traumatized people.

Topic 3: Secondary trauma and staff/volunteer resilience . Main objectives:

To introduce how the nervous system works under the constant stress and what can be done to give it an opportunity to “take a rest” from that;
To master the basic support methods as well as simple and practical tools for building stress resistance and well-being;

Topic 4: Maintaining professional boundaries. Main objectives:

To update knowledge about such concepts as personal and professional boundaries, their importance in the context of work and personal life;
To teach recognizing when boundaries become unclear, blurred or violated and how to respond to that;
To develop a simple step-by-step plan for restoring the work-life balance.

Two topics were developed exclusively for the local NGO leaders:

Topic 5: Innovations focused on the values of the person-centered approaches from the perspective of NGO management. Main objectives:

To develop skills in applying the person- centered approach to the development and implementation of innovations;
To master methods of increasing team motivation and human potential development;
To learn how to create an environment that supports initiatives, creativity and trust in a team;
To gain practical skills in implementing innovative strategies in their organizations.

Topic 6: The manager’s perspective: prevention of professional burnout. Main objectives:

To teach the managers effective methods of burnout prevention in their own work and the work of their teams;
To introduce the causes and manifestations of burnout;
To master stabilizing techniques and learn how to create a favorable work environment that increases productivity and motivation.

Project results: 52 trainings were conducted during the project implementation. 1,336 professionals from the Ukrainian NGOs and international organizations were trained.

Contact: Maryna Varban, Project manager, Varban@aph.org.ua