Trainings under the "Start With the Heart" Programme Held in Lviv for Educators in the Gen.Hope Pilot Project

The training was delivered to two groups of participants: the first on 25–26 August, and the second on 27–28 August. The training brought together 27 schools from five oblasts of Ukraine — Dnipro, Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv — as well as the city of Kyiv. Participants included practical psychologists, social pedagogues, teachers, and deputy school principals — a community of practitioners who work daily with children amid the prolonged stress caused by the war and who require not only theoretical knowledge but also practical tools to support their students.

An important part of the training was devoted to the "Start With the Heart" programme — an evidence-based social-emotional learning methodology for students in grades 1–11, developed by the American organization Pure Edge, Inc. and researched by Stanford University. The programme is adapted for four age groups and comprises 8–12 lessons of 20–40 minutes each, combining breathing exercises, mindful movement, and rest with accessible explanations of how the brain and nervous system function and how the body responds to stress.

In addition to theoretical content on the neuroscience of stress and how children's bodies respond to prolonged strain, participants practiced exercises based on the "Breathe – Move – Rest" model, studied materials of the programme, and worked in small groups to practice delivering lessons, receiving feedback from trainers and peers.

Educators also mastered "Brain Breaks" — short exercises lasting 1–5 minutes that can easily be integrated into any lesson to support children's attention, self-regulation, and psycho-emotional well-being. Each school received sets of adapted manuals and methodological materials.

Next: A Step Toward a Safer Educational Environment

From September through November 2026, training participants will deliver lessons to students in their own schools, while the Gen.Hope team provides methodological and advisory support, collects feedback from teachers, and evaluates the programme's effectiveness before and after the cycle of lessons. The results of the pilot are expected to be discussed with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Institute for Education Development (UIED), including prospects for scaling the approach to other schools.

About the Project

"Gen.Hope: A Trauma-Informed Approach to the Recovery and Preservation of Children's Mental Health" is a pilot project of the Gen.Hope Center of Excellence aimed at transforming the school environment in light of the impact of the traumatic experience of war on children and educators. Its purpose is to integrate psychological support into everyday educational practice and to help schools address these challenges at a systemic level. Gen.Hope translates practical experience of working with children into evidence-based approaches and systemic solutions that can be scaled across Ukrainian schools.

The training in Lviv constituted a continuation of the initial localization  of the programme, which took place in the first half of 2026 with the participation of teachers from 25 schools and was conducted in close cooperation with Stanford University and Pure Edge.

The project is implemented with the support of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC).