Name of the organization/initiative and year of foundation

Ukrainian Peacebuilding School (UPS) was founded in September 2014.

Mission

The initiative’s mission is the prevention and transformation of violent conflicts in Ukraine.

Actions and projects in the context of armed conflict

Since 2014, UPS has been establishing and institutionalizing the profession of a social mediator – an expert in the preparation and organization of inclusive multi-stakeholder social dialogues in communities where there are actual or potential violent conflicts.

From 2015 to 2020, UPS has held five Schools for Social Mediators for representatives of non-governmental organizations, volunteer initiatives, education institutions, and local governments from eight regions of Ukraine (a total of 220 people, including residents of the controlled territories of Donetsk and Lugansk regions, as well as residents of the temporarily occupied territories).

In September – October 2020, the first online school of tutors was held for IDP students and students from the occupied territories. Twenty-four alumni represent the professional community of teachers and IDP representatives working for the resolution of conflicts between IDPs and the host communities.

In 2016, UPS developed six framework strategies for transformation and prevention of conflicts in Ukraine by the joint efforts of local activists and local authorities:

• Strategy for building common visions of local self-government models for specific communities;
• Framework strategy for information and communication security of Ukraine;
• Framework strategy for peacebuilding education in Ukraine;
• Strategy for overcoming a divided and traumatic past;
• Strategy for the integration of national minorities into a multicultural society;
• Strategic proposals for integrating war victims into local communities.

Since 2017, UPS has developed and implemented a new method for organizing dialogues and express-diagnostics of conflicts – social modeling games.

Since 2018, UPS has been monitoring security in certain locations according to its methodology based on its own innovations as well as adaptation of European and world methodologies of conflict analysis, project evaluation (Do no harm), project management, public dialogue, and joint decision-making. Jointly with the Supreme Audit Office of Poland, UPS developed and convened integration dialogues for civil servants, law enforcement officials, and public figures.