24 men and 203 women (including 162 local self-government workers) joined the educational activities of trainers of the Council of Europe Programme “Trauma-informed approach in the context of access to human rights and essential services for internally displaced persons and persons, returning to Ukraine " for local self-government bodies. The events were conducted by trainers in the period from November 2025 to January 2026 in communities of Rivne, Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Mykolaiv, Kyiv, Zaporizhia, Zakarpattia, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

The program, launched in 2024, takes into account the previous experience of Council of Europe projects. In particular, the handbook "Traumatic Events: Psychological Support and Self-Help" and the experience of the educational course on "Trauma-Informed Youth Work" were applied.

The participants of the events practiced psychological first aid techniques, implemented the principles of safety, predictability, respect for boundaries and prevention of retraumatization, used tools of self-regulation, prevention of burnout and fatigue from compassion.

Representatives of village, township and city councils, communal institutions that work with displaced people daily joined the events.

For example, the trainer of the Program, Svitlana Herko, organised an event for social workers of the Horodenka City Council. The focus was on burnout and compassion fatigue. Svitlana summarised: "Taking care of yourself is part of quality help to others."

Director of the Center for Social Services of the Bagachev City Council, Svitlana Lukashenko, after the training for trainers of the Council of Europe, held a session on psychological first aid for colleagues.

Liudmyla Protsenko, Regional Coordinator of Public Relations of the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights in Cherkasy Oblast, applied the skills acquired at the Council of Europe training during an event for representatives of the Bilolutsk Village Military Administration. At the meeting, they worked with emotional recovery and psychological stability of employees.

Training of trainers is organised by the Council of Europe Project “Facilitating Access to Human Rights and Essential Services for Internally Displaced Persons and Returnees at the community level,” implemented within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” for 2023-2026.