“Bridges Without Borders”: the Ukrainian diaspora and civil society united at a conference on Ukraine’s integration and recovery

On 28 August, Synergy Club and Ukraine-Schweiz Bern held their first international online conference, "BRIDGES BEYOND BORDERS: Synergies Between Ukrainian Civil Society and the Diaspora for Recovery and European Integration," which brought together more than 200 participants from Ukraine and European countries to discuss the synergy between Ukrainian civil society and the diaspora.

The event took place with the participation of experts and representatives of Ukrainian organisations in Ukraine and Europe. The conference aimed to mobilise cooperation and to show the potential for partnership between Ukrainian civic organisations in Ukraine and abroad in order to accelerate Ukraine's recovery, strengthen social cohesion and shape a positive image of Ukrainians and of Ukraine in Europe.

The central theme of the conference was overcoming the divide between "those who stayed" and "those who left." Svitlana Manzer, coordinator of USB's educational and social programmes, stressed: "Ukrainians today are a worldwide community. This is an enormous resource for rebuilding Ukraine." Olena Krylova, head of the USB association, confirmed: "Ukrainians in Europe are a strategic resource for Ukraine."

Olena presented USB's three-stage model of integration, which covers the full cycle of bringing Ukrainians into a new society, from providing essential, useful information to a range of training, education and job opportunities for displaced people and support in carrying out their projects abroad. This model has already shown considerable success in integrating Ukrainians in Switzerland and can be applied both in other European countries and, for example, to the further integration of veterans within Ukraine itself.

Svitlana Prokopchuk, USB's media coordinator and a professional journalist, shared her experience of building a positive image in the information sphere: "Ukraine has not even entered this information war yet." To that end, Svitlana founded the column Zwischen zwei Welten in the "Journal Bern," takes part in the radio project "Ukrainian Wave" on Radio RaBe and actively cooperates with the Swiss media.

Svitlana Olieinikova, founder of Synergy Club, presented a range of free tools for building the capacity of Ukrainian organisations: the Fundraiser platform, for learning grant writing in a game format; a constructor of policies and procedures for NGOs, developed together with international grant makers; and the tabletop training game Funds Hunter™, for generating project ideas and improving skills in working with grants and raising funds. Svitlana noted: "Our students have raised more than 19.5 million euros." To continue the collaboration, there is the option of joining Synergy Club and gaining access to a variety of events, lectures, masterminds, regular English lessons from American partners and opportunities for joint grant projects.

The conference demonstrated that joining the efforts of Ukrainian civil society in Ukraine with those of the diaspora is a key factor in the country's successful recovery and its European integration. As a result of the conference, there are plans to create a communiqué with shared messages and to develop monthly conferences with representatives of different European countries.