Soap making, felting, beading, weaving, perfume making. In total, there are more than 15 types of supportive classes for the veteran community of Vinnytsia: both children and adults. All this is with the assistance of the UVF.
This is a project of VinOK. Its ideological initiators are convinced that creativity, art therapy, healthy communication, and social activities are effective support tools that are easily perceived by people who still have a barrier to using the services of a psychologist directly.
The project is being implemented by the Vinnytsia Center of Educational Technologies with the support of the Ukrainian Veterans Foundation of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs.
As part of the ” Varto+GO” competition program, this NGO received funding to create supportive classes for military personnel and veterans.
As part of the project, activists from Vinnytsia provide opportunities and encourage representatives of the veteran community to attend creative and supportive classes and art therapy practices.
The NGO emphasizes: 38 % of families of defenders need psychological help. However, their project is not a direct psychological aid, but rather “provokes social cohesion and the habit of spending time taking care of oneself.”
“The project can be the first step towards psychotherapeutic and meditative practices for strong people who are not used to spending time on themselves. We also use art therapy methods. In this way, we offer a little distraction from anxiety and heavy thoughts, and fill up with resources. We not only offer a ready-made list of more than 15 types of activities, but also listen to the requests of veterans and their families, try to organize the types of activities that are really interesting to our visitors,” says the NGO that won our program.
We are talking about the following 16 (sixteen!) activities:
- Ceramic workshop;
- Knitting
- Felting
- Hiking in the nature;
- Beadwork;
- Artistic travels;
- Weaving;
- Drawing;
- Photo school;
- Soap making;
- Conversation club in Ukrainian;
- Perfume creation;
- Rock climbing;
- Art therapy;
- Board games;
- Embroidery
Remarkably, the artists currently involved in the project were chosen empirically over several years of cooperation: the attendees of the classes were able to “vote with their feet,” meaning they could attend only those classes that they were interested in; where the artist was charismatic enough to create an atmosphere that attracted the audience.
“Since the beginning of 2023, we have been keenly aware that we want and need to expand the circle of our visitors to the veteran community. After all, who else can we work for now if not those who are defending the country, who have given and are giving their time and energy, and often their health and even lives to protect us. So we started actively looking for opportunities to do so. We received support from the Ukrainian Veterans Foundation. This is just incredible! This is exactly what we wanted: to be able to work for children and adults of the veteran community. To thank them with what we can: attention and care! Our project is a way to promote the development of effective gratitude to our defenders and their families,” says project manager Kateryna Botvinnik.
The project will run from July 2023 to June 2024.
