We strive to provide access to knowledge that helps create sustainable change in society through understanding and constructive dialogue.
Methodology for Dialogue Sessions on the Memory of Civilian Victims of War
The guide contains a methodology for preparing and conducting dialogue sessions dedicated to honoring the memory of civilian victims of war.
Main sections
1. Why dialogue sessions are needed now — the role of memory, the relevance of working with trauma, and community support.
2. Principles of dialogical memorialization — safe space, voluntariness, inclusivity, trauma sensitivity, and a procedural approach.
3. Objectives of dialogue sessions — forming a shared memory narrative, documenting stories, and developing recommendations for communities.
4. Preparation for conducting — context analysis, stakeholder mapping, team formation, and organizing a safe space.
5. Basic model of a dialogue session — step-by-step structure, exercises, team roles, and opening and closing rituals.
Useful for facilitators, mediators, psychologists, local government representatives, civil society organizations, and all those working on memory, dialogue, and community recovery.
Memorialization Practices for Civilian Victims: Dialogical Approaches
The guide contains methodological and practical recommendations for applying a dialogical approach in the processes of memorializing civilian victims of war. It combines international experience from eight countries with practices tested in Ukrainian communities and offers tools for organizing safe, inclusive, and trauma-informed dialogue.
Main sections
1. Conceptual foundations of dialogical memorialization — principles, key concepts, and the role of dialogue in remembrance processes.
2. International experience — memorialization practices and dialogue models from eight countries that experienced mass human rights violations.
3. Ukrainian experience — examples of implementing dialogical approaches in Ukrainian communities.
4. Practical tools — psychological support, trauma-informed approaches, and facilitator training methodologies.
5. Working templates — checklists, dialogue session scripts, and a pilot project implementation plan.
Useful for facilitators, psychologists, local government representatives, civil society organizations, researchers, and everyone working in memorialization, peacebuilding, and transitional justice.
Practical guide for facilitators of community safety dialogues
The guide presents tools, step-by-step instructions, templates, and recommendations for effectively organizing the analysis, development, and monitoring of safety initiatives. It includes the following sections:
1. From theory to practice
2. The role of dialogue in building security
3. Security model
4. Key recommendations for facilitators of community safety dialogues
The guide will help engage the community in discussing important issues, build trust between residents and authorities, and create mechanisms for long-term change.
A model for engaging the public to improve communities: how David can defeat Goliath
The guide contains practical tools for establishing dialogue between the community and local self-government bodies in the context of the full-scale invasion.
Main sections
1. Community challenges in wartime — demographic change, concentration of power, psychological and emotional states.
2. Myths about dialogue — an analysis of biases held by authorities, activists, and residents.
3. How to start a dialogue — practical advice for local authorities, activists, and residents.
4. From one-off to systemic — how to institutionalize a dialogue approach in the community.
5. Dialogue when it’s difficult — working with emotional states in sensitive situations.
6. Steps to application — a step-by-step guide to organizing a dialogue meeting.
Useful for representatives of local authorities, activists and facilitators seeking to establish constructive interaction in their community.
Security in the community. Identifying and countering key security risks provoked by the full-scale invasion.
The manual provides a conceptual and methodological basis for identifying and countering key security risks in communities in the context of the full-scale invasion.
Main sections:
1. Defining community security — a systemic approach covering physical, economic, information, digital security and social cohesion.
2. Security model — four cyclical phases: risk analysis, preparedness, response and recovery.
3. Stakeholders — roles of local authorities, the police, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, social services, businesses, non-governmental organizations and international partners.
4. Capacity building — decentralized security, involvement of veterans, horizontal cooperation between communities.
5. Resource mobilization — funding sources: government subsidies, international grants, public-private partnerships and crowdfunding.
Useful for representatives of local authorities, civil society organizations, security specialists and everyone responsible for building a safe environment in their community.
Good practices of a model for engaging the public in improving communities. When “Davids” overcome “Goliaths.”
The document contains practical examples of addressing local problems through dialogue, exchange of experience and cooperation. The guide includes adapted tools and a methodology for engaging citizens to improve communities during the war. It is based on dialogue sessions and partnerships between authorities and the public as the main instruments of change.
Presented are 12 successful stories from various regions of Ukraine, including: revival of club activities, inter-municipal environmental cooperation, creation of public spaces, development of a social passport, resolution of conflicts in condominium associations (OSBB), memorialization of heroes and development of veterans’ policy.
It will be useful for representatives of local self-government bodies, non-governmental organizations and activists seeking practical models for developing and restoring their communities.
Transformation of security programs of Ukraine’s territorial communities under the full-scale invasion: challenges and prospects
The report contains an analysis of the transformation of security programs of Ukraine’s territorial communities under the full-scale invasion.
Main sections
1. Legal and regulatory framework — changes in the powers of local self-government bodies, the role of military administrations of settlements.
2. Review of security strategies — existing models and practices for developing programs after 2022.
3. Analysis of donor initiatives — experiences of USAID “GOVERLA”, UNDP and other organizations in implementing security programs.
4. Regional specifics — challenges and approaches for western, central, eastern and southern regions.
5. Stakeholders — changes in the composition of participants before and after the full-scale invasion.
6. Challenges and recommendations — financial, personnel and coordination constraints and ways to overcome them.
Useful for local government representatives, civil society organizations, donors, and researchers working on community-level security issues.
Implementation Guide for the “Peaceful School” Model
The manual provides practical tools for implementing the “Peaceful School” model — a systemic approach to developing humanistic relationships in general secondary education institutions.
Main sections:
1. The “Peaceful School” model — core concept, guiding principles, key competencies, stakeholders involved, and main practices.
2. The process of developing the model in general secondary education institutions — implementation steps, team selection and training, support, monitoring and evaluation, organizational structure.
3. How to sustain the model’s viability — management, supporting documents, supervision, self-reflection, competency development, risk management.
4. Model practices — I-statements, restorative questions, restorative conversation, mediation, circle, training activities, psychosocial support in crisis situations.
5. Implementation experience — online training for mediators, practice of the school reconciliation service, practical examples.
Useful for teachers, principals, and school psychologists implementing or planning to implement a restorative approach in schools.
Dialogue for Reconstruction
The guide presents dialogue as a practical tool for meaningful community engagement in reconstruction and recovery processes during a full-scale invasion.
Main sections
1. Need for reconstruction and recovery — challenges facing communities: demographic change, damaged infrastructure, psychological strain.
2. What is dialogue — definition, principles, and how it differs from other forms of community engagement.
3. When to hold a dialogue — criteria and circumstances for choosing this tool.
4. Organization and preparation — participant roles, situation analysis, inviting parties, formulating the topic.
5. Conducting the dialogue — key meeting stages from introductions to developing solutions.
6. After the dialogue — monitoring, evaluation and implementation of results.
Useful for representatives of local authorities, civil society organizations, donors and facilitators involved in programs to rebuild Ukrainian communities.
Best practices in community responses to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine
The guide describes Ukrainian communities’ experience in overcoming the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and offers a methodology for independently developing the public health sector at the local level.
Main sections
1. Public health basics — what constitutes a healthy community and the role of citizens in health protection.
2. Countering COVID-19 in communities — priority engagement areas and risk communication.
3. Self-facilitation methodology — step-by-step algorithm: forming an initiative group, analyzing risks and potential, initiative design, monitoring.
4. Experience of pilot communities — the stories of Troitska and Siverska communities: challenges, solutions and achieved results.
5. Pandemic lessons — examples from the Poltava, Mykolaiv, Lysetska and Ternopil communities.
Will be useful for representatives of local self-government bodies, community activists and facilitators who seek to unite community efforts to solve common public health problems.
Guide to best practices for diversity sensitivity in the ‘Peace School’.
A practical manual for teachers and school teams seeking to create an inclusive environment in an educational institution.
What’s inside
1. Theoretical basis — the cultural iceberg, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Bennett’s model of intercultural sensitivity, the concepts of exclusion, segregation, integration and inclusion.
2. Checklists and plans — tools for analyzing the level of sensitivity in the classroom and school and for planning concrete steps.
3. Exercises and activities — ready-to-use practices for students and educators of various ages.
4. Best practices — real experiences of the schools participating in the ‘Peace School’ project.
It will be useful for class teachers, activity coordinators, psychologists and school teams who want to understand what diversity sensitivity is and implement it in everyday school practice.