(Local Pilot Ukrainian Workshop)
A field story from the Empowering Creative Minds project, implemented by UNAEDI —Ukrainian Adult Education and Innovation Development Network.
In March 2026, the town of Sheptytskyi (Lviv region, Ukraine) hosted a two-day workshop titled “The Power of Shadow”, part of the international Empowering Creative Minds project. Twenty-nine participants took part — educators, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and representatives of creative professions. The outcome was not only an improvement in individual emotional well-being, but also the formation of new connections between people with very different lived experiences.
Why communities need more than access to support
Ukrainian communities today need more than simple access to psychosocial support. They need tools that allow people to interact safely and gradually restore the social fabric that war and displacement have torn. This is why combining international methodologies with locally meaningful practices — charcoal drawing and micro-embroidery — created conditions for a gentle, pressure-free entry into the group, without demanding immediate deep self-disclosure.
Day one: charcoal drawing and individual self-regulation
The first day focused on individual self-regulation through charcoal drawing — a tool integrated into the project’s core methodology. It allowed participants to work through their own experiences in a safe environment, while group exercises quietly built a baseline of trust. People carrying very different traumatic histories were able to engage at their own pace, which became the foundation for everything that followed.
Day two: micro-embroidery and collective experience
On the second day, the focus shifted from the individual to the collective. Micro-embroidery — a culturally meaningful Ukrainian practice — became a tool of connection. By creating symbols and working side by side, participants built a sense of belonging. The Cadavre Exquis technique strengthened group dynamics, allowing people to interact through creativity without having to verbalise their trauma.
What the workshop achieved
Results went beyond a reduction in tension and an improvement in mood. Participants reached a qualitatively new level of contact with one another. Crucially, they left not only with the experience of safe communication, but also with concrete tools they can apply in their own community work.
A replicable model for community resilience
The workshop shows that effective community work requires a combination of a structured approach and culturally familiar tools. Such a model is replicable across very different contexts, because it creates space for two equally critical components of community resilience: individual empowerment and the restoration of social bonds.
About the implementer
Implementer: UNAEDI — the Ukrainian Adult Education and Innovation Development Network.
UNAEDI brings together Ukrainian practitioners working at the intersection of adult education, psychosocial support and social innovation. Within the Empowering Creative Minds project, UNAEDI adapts international methodologies to Ukrainian realities and supports educators, IDPs and creative professionals in building resilience through arts-based practice.
