The team of Ukrainian Engineering Pedagogics Academy students “PozytyV” within its project “Hut of peace” is finishing its meetings on social adaptive support within the UPSHIFT program, which is implemented in the Kharkiv region by the “DUIT” NGO with the support of UNICEF and the Japanese government. The project of the “PozytyV” team began with the bootcamp, where the aim, direction, audience and aim achieving methods were defined. Bootcamp is the beginning of any project activity, which allows not only to write down the project, but also to get positive emotions. Thanks to the bootcamp, the team of UEPA students highlighted many useful activities that came in handy during the classes.
Such activities were carried out within the project:
- classes with students and pupils;
- informal conversations between participants with musical accompaniment and coffee brakes;
- questionnaire of group members about personal impressions.
At the beginning of the class, energizing exercises were held to enable activity of each, and at the end – a general reflection. Groups of participants carried out following activities:
- drew a personality mantra;
- sent a letter with wishes for other participants;
- painted gingerbread biscuits;
- made a little foamiran dragon;
- played the conversational game “Sell if you can”;
- worked with metaphorical associative maps;
- made a personal “Desire map”;
- developed a new design of things in order to paint them later.
The “Hut of peace” project was aimed at reducing the level of anxiety and socially adaptive support of young people during communication.
As a conclusion, we can emphasize the fact that after each class, the members of the “Pozytyv” team still receive feedback and thanks from the participants, as well as requests regarding the holding of the next meetings.
The “Hut of peace” project showed that among the youth of Kharkiv there is a constant need of such events, young people need live communication, which has decreased due to COVID and the full-scale invasion.
The team members would like to thank the organizers of UPSHIFT for the program implementation and support of socially significant youth initiatives, as well as to thank the management of the Practical Psychology Department of the Ukrainian Engineering Pedagogics Academy, Vice-Rector Maryna Petrivna Vasylieva, our inspirer Liubov Mykhailivna Pikalova and the director of Kharkiv Secondary School of the I-III degree №53 Yana Viktorivna Bilash.
Special gratitude from the “Hut of peace” project members to the mentor of the team from the UPSHIFT program Vitalii Oleksandrovych Ryshkin and the curator of the “PozytyV” team from UEPA Roman Oleksandrovych Nesterenko, for their support and help to the team during the project implementation.
