2024-2025: Leadership Program, Un-Conference, Volunteer matching, Team changes
Published on June 27, 2025 by Diana
Over the past year, thanks to your support, we’ve been able to do some of our most meaningful work yet. From building new leadership in Ukraine’s regions, to connecting volunteers from around the world with local changemakers, to hosting our second online un-conference — your contributions helped us reach hundreds of people across the country and far beyond.
Here’s a look at what we’ve accomplished together.
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🇺🇦 SUN Leaders Program: building local leadership from the ground up
This year we wrapped up the second cycle of our SUN Leaders Program — a 6-month journey for 18 young changemakers from the Cherkasy region. Through mentorship, workshops, offline retreats, and public campaigns, they gained confidence, built community, and shaped real change in their towns and cities.
Here’s what your support helped us achieve:
- 18 youth leaders mentored, with over 60 hours of personalized coaching and group learning
- 5 offline events held across 3 cities, with 100% participation rate and glowing feedback
- 75% of participants reported increased knowledge in governance, democracy, and public communication
- 16 out of 18 participants boosted their initiatives or launched new ones in their communities
- 2 new youth councils established — one at the city level, one at the regional level
- 2 mini-grants won by participants to scale their initiatives
- 11 mentees considering a future in local or national government
- 1 mentee traveled to Strasburg for EYE conference to represent Ukraine
- 5 mentees received scholarships for their social projects — fully made possible THANKS TO YOUR DONATIONS to our organization 🙏🙏🙏
- 87,000+ views on social media campaigns co-created with participants
- 10 billboards installed in towns and villages, amplifying youth civic initiatives
Perhaps even more meaningful are the reflections we heard:
"Before the program, I didn’t see myself in politics — now I do."
"This community gave me the courage to speak up at city council."
"It’s not just about skills — it’s about believing you can make a difference."
🌐 About the Program
This program was made possible with the support of European Endowment for Democracy.
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💻 “NOW WHAT?”: a national un-conference on youth and the future
In April-May, we hosted an online un-conference, asking a big question: “Ukraine’s Youth: NOW WHAT?”
The event brought together:
- 200+ participants from all over Ukraine
- 20+ sessions on themes like identity, recovery, politics, mental health, and activism
- Representatives from over 100 organizations — NGOs, youth spaces, student unions, and more
Instead of a classic webinar format, we ran open, participatory sessions that let people shape the conversation and bring their own questions. We also welcomed voices from LGBTQ+ youth, veterans, displaced people, and teenagers.
🌐 Event link (in Ukrainian)
This event was made possible with the support of European Endowment for Democracy.
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🌍 Volunteer4Ukraine: connecting people across borders
Earlier in 2024, we launched Volunteer4Ukraine — a platform that matches international volunteers with Ukrainian civil society organizations, fully online.
It has been running and resulted in:
- 100 volunteers from 20 countries joined
- 31 Ukrainian organizations signed up
- 880 match emails were sent through our automated system
- 10 organizations are already working actively with international volunteers
- Collaborations range from English conversation clubs to grant writing and communications support
✅ Register on V4U as a volunteer or as an organization
This platform runs thanks to the support of the European Union within its Eastern Partnership Civil Society Fellowship Programme.
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👥 Team changes
This year also brought important changes to our team structure:
- Diana Daiub, our co-founder and long-time director, has stepped down and joined the Board
- Natalia Iskovych has stepped in as our new Director, bringing fresh energy and strategy
- Denys Andrushchenko, who led the SUN Leaders Program with care and vision, has joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces — we are deeply proud of him
- Max Semenchuk, a co-founder, continues to focus on measuring the long-term impact of our work
We’re grateful to the people who supported our work throughout the year, including our accountant Svitlana, project managers Serhii and Olha, comms manager Anastasiia, and project assistants and mentees Artem, Oksana, and Max. Thank you for being part of this journey.
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We hope this update gives you a sense of what your support has helped us achieve — and how much it means to us. If you’d like to keep following our work, we post regular updates on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
Thank you for standing with Ukraine — and for believing in local leaders, global solidarity, and grassroots action. 💙💛
Yours,
Support Ukraine Now team