Resilience Centers — understanding their purpose, personnel, and services offered

What is a Resilience Center and what services will it provide?

Each territorial community can organize a resilience center — a space where specialists will provide psychosocial support to individuals and families living in the community.

The presence of such centers will also enable the communities to effectively organize work with its residents: save time for people and professionals to search for information, direct them to relevant specialists or bodies and institutions, and show them the shortest way to the desired service

Resilience Centers are designed to enhance local volunteering and help local initiatives to implement volunteer activities.

Funding for the centers is provided by the state, while local authorities provide premises and organize the work of the centers.

The need to establish such centers is because, during a full-scale war, Ukrainians live under stress and negative emotions daily. Community residents (especially in small towns) often do not have access to qualified psychological assistance. They will have access to it in the resilience centers.

How will the centers work and what are the conditions for submitting an application?

The Social Policy Ministry’s objective is to teach people how to cope with stressful situations, cope with themselves and their loved ones, strengthen local volunteering, and thus unite communities.

Within the framework of the project, special attention is paid to the development of parenting skills and childcare, as well as psychological work with soldiers, veterans and their families, support for IDPs and other vulnerable segments of the population.

The project pays special attention to the development of parenting skills and childcare, also focusing on psychological work with military personnel, veterans and their families, as well as support for IDPs (internally displaced persons) and other vulnerable groups.

Each of these spaces is equipped according to the principles of barrier-free, inclusive and safe environment.

Any Ukrainian territorial community can submit its application for participation in the project. The application submission deadlines are updated on the website of the Ministry. The only condition for communities is to prepare and maintain premises for providing the service.

Who will provide services at the resilience centers?

The project’s uniqueness and innovation come from sourcing services from non-governmental providers. Public organizations, charitable foundations, and other social service providers have the chance to get involved in the Ministry’s initiative.

To do so, they need to submit their applications for participation in the competition. The service provider can be either a legal entity or an individual entrepreneur listed in the Register of Providers and Recipients of Social Services, equipped with a team of specialized experts such as psychologists, social managers, and social workers.

Details about the competition proposal format and its preparation requirements are available on the website of the Social Protection Fund for People with Disabilities. Successful participants in the competitive selection will be eligible for specialized training sessions organized by the Social Policy Ministry in collaboration with partners. Each provider’s team will receive methodological materials to ensure the high-quality implementation of services in the resilience centers.