Name of the organization/initiative and year of foundation

“Dignity Space” Ukrainian Centre for Nonviolent Communication and Reconciliation (short name — “Dignity Space”) emerged from a volunteer initiative in 2015 following the Maidan events in Ukraine with the participation of Ukrainian crisis and peacebuilding experts to help de-escalate social tensions, restore damaged and broken social connections, and prevent outbreaks of violence between antagonistic groups in society. The main office of the organization is located in Kyiv.

Mission

The mission of the Center is to raise awareness and abilities of the citizens at various social levels of the country to resolve conflicts and disputes peacefully through a dialogue based on respect for human dignity and mutual understanding.

Actions and projects in the context of armed conflict

In 2020, the Center implements two projects. The first project – “Culture of dialogue and constructive engagement in Ukraine” operates as a training platform for peacebuilders – the “School of Peace Engineers”. The second project – “Peace Engineers Direct Action” allows trained experts to work as facilitators of dialogue processes, mediators, and negotiators between various antagonistic groups in different regions of Ukraine at the community level in order to resolve conflicts peacefully, promote mutual understanding and development of further cooperation.

As of September 2020, 45 people took a year-long course (training and internship program) at the School of Peace Engineers, 27 of whom received the status of Peace Engineers and a certificate from the project recommending to take part in the work with destructive conflicts. Another 30 participants are currently in the process of training. As a part of the projects implemented by the Center, over the past two years, the project organized more than 120 training sessions – workshops – on the Peace Engineers methods based on the principles of Nonviolent Communication on the request of various non-profit organizations and communities from different regions of Ukraine. Within the “Peace Engineers Direct Action” project, more than 80 dialogue processes were facilitated to support local communities and non-profit organizations from different regions of Ukraine in the transformation of destructive conflicts using the Peace Engineering toolkit.