Graduation ceremony of the first enrolment of the Community Recovery Academy took place in Kyiv

On 11 April 2025, a forum was held in Kyiv to mark the completion of the first training course of the Community Recovery Academy, a global educational programme for municipal managers from all over Ukraine who are training to rebuild their territories in the post-war period. 

The first enrolment of the Academy has 110 participants from 37 communities representing 14 regions of Ukraine. For six months, the participants have been diligently studying how to properly plan the reconstruction of war-affected areas: four modules, four special courses, offsite workshops and two large forums.   

The project's academic partners are 7 universities, including the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Metinvest Polytechnic, as well as renowned Maryland University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In total, the Community Recovery Academy brought together 16 international and national institutions.

The event itself brought together representatives of communities, partner organisations, international experts and local authorities. The event focused on the performance of the first Academy's stream, achievements of the participants, and their vision of the initiative's further development. 

"The Community Recovery Academy has set an example of how communities, scientists, experts, businesses and donors can unite around the main idea of Ukraine's development. It was unity that helped us survive the full-scale invasion and it is holding Ukraine together now. To unite around opportunities and for the sake of development is the position of true responsible leaders. Not competition, but cooperation. Not to be divided by problems, but to unite around opportunities. I am confident that through strong communities we will build strong Ukraine," — Vadym Boichenko, Mayor of Mariupol and co-founder of the Community Recovery Academy.

"Today we have a very significant event. You have completed 6 months of training. There were certain challenges – combining your current work with training, joining seminars, webinars and having air raids. You felt nervous, didn't sleep at night to polish your presentations. And eventually, despite all that, you managed to find the uniqueness of your communities in your projects. And this uniqueness led you to your vision," — Oleksandr Slobozhan, Executive Director of the Association of Ukrainian Cities.  

A key highlight of the event was the panel discussion ''Community Recovery Academy: What's Next?" moderated by Natalia Yemchenko, Communications Director at SCM Group and Member of the Supervisory Board of the NGO "Mariupol.Reborn". The participants discussed further development of the programme, its importance for recovery processes, as well as the role of cross-sectoral partnership in building new local management capacity.

"For us, as a big business, it is important that this was not an academic programme, but a very hands-on, ecosystem-based story. The project has shown that dynamics to unite communities is already in place, and that it is a community of like-minded people. It is the most resourceful, most down-to-earth, most energetic institution. When talking about our path to Europe, reintegration of veterans, development projects, none of this is possible without a community. This is actually the basis for all major processes in Ukraine. We wish the Academy to retain potential for creating the future, to scale up, to gain new meanings and become a capable, self-sufficient project," — Natalia Yemchenko, Member of the Supervisory Board of the NGO "Mariupol.Reborn" and Communications Director at SCM.

The panellists included representatives of the Association of Ukrainian Cities, the Kyiv-Mohyla School of Professional and Continuing Education and Metinvest Polytechnic University. Partners from ALDA, the University of Maryland, EUROCITIES and the Committee of the Regions of the Council of Europe joined the discussion online. 

"The Recovery Academy is about learning in teams. There were three people from each municipality, wow! Because the graduates are back in their communities with knowledge and faith in the future, they have a better chance of realising their plans and dreams, as they are not alone in it. What else is important? These are the teams of municipalities that understand how teams should rebuild, recover and develop. These communities share knowledge, their uniqueness, they strengthen each other because they are together. Not just communities have united with communities, but municipalities, businesses, educational institutions and donors have come together. It is joint plans and actions that will make communities and Ukraine strong," — Oksana Prodan, Advisor to the Head of the Association of Ukrainian Cities.

"As a result, we have leaders. Leaders are those who lead others to places where those others would otherwise never have reached... It's not just about leaders, not just about responsible leadership, it's about transformational leadership. That means that creators are those who change the paradigm that cannot leave Ukraine for a long time. And the war has shown that volunteers, businesses, and communities have taken on a very high responsibility for the future of the state," — Tetiana Nagornyak, Doctor of Political Science, Professor, Dean of the Faculty of the Kyiv-Mohyla School of Professional and Continuing Education. 

"Today is not just a graduation day. This is the starting point for all the knowledge and practical skills acquired to work for recovery of communities and the country. The Community Recovery Academy is a great challenge. For us at Metinvest Polytechnic, it was not just about theory, but about transferring real tools: management skills, business experience, project work practices. All of these are to help communities move forward with their development and recovery strategies," — Vadym Pukhalskyi, Head of Development Department at Metinvest Polytechnic.

As part of the event, the next stage of the Academy was also presented — an updated programme for the second stream. It includes 5 basic modules, 5 specialised courses and a new direction — "Demand for Justice". 30 communities from all over Ukraine are invited to participate, and a total of 220 municipal managers will be trained.

The next block of the event was opened by a video introduction that literally immersed the audience in the inner life of the Community Recovery Academy: getting to know each other, working together, heated discussions, success and doubt that arose in the process. The screen showed the moments that became key for each team: workshops during which communities were searching for their identity, and the final defence of their work, which completed the training path. The central outcome was the Community Profiles — not just analytical documents, but live action plans that combine a vision of recovery, specific steps and strategic goals. For many, they became the first programme guidelines on the path of community transformation.

After that, those who have travelled this path personally took the floor, namely representatives of the communities of Rubizhne, Kakhovka, Starobilsk and Kyinka. Their speeches were quite different, but undoubtedly unified in content: they were the voice of local self-government, which seeks answers without waiting for instructions. They mentioned the challenges they face on a daily basis, the joint work of teams and the new vector that the Academy has given them. And above all, they talked about their belief that recovery begins not with an order from above, but with a decision to act from within. 

"Faith, thinking, planning and communication are the key components that the Academy has taught us. We are already using this knowledge to change the policy documents in the community. We now have close ties with other communities. We have opened a hospital in Kharkiv and are building houses for internally displaced people in Zakarpattia. And this is just the beginning!" — Andriy Yurchenko, Head of Rubizhne City Military Administration, Luhansk Region.

"A miracle happened to us! We had no idea how amazing this story would be. Already at the second lecture, I realised how much I admired the teachers and experts. And I hope they also realised how much they managed to ignite us and charge us to analyse the situation within the community, to understand how everything works in the context of war in different types of territories in different regions and how we can start strategizing public policies from the local level. Because it is with us that Ukraine begins," — Yana Litvinova, Head of Starobilsk City Military Administration, Luhansk Region.

A special part of the event was the ceremony of presenting gratitude to the partners, without whom the project would not have been possible, and to the participants who have gone through a difficult but extremely important journey together with the Academy. The stage was taken by those who created the programme, supported it with resources, expertise and faith, along with representatives of the communities who became its heart and content. Symbolic certificates, words of gratitude, sincere hugs and short but very personal remarks from the stage created a special atmosphere.

The forum on the occasion of the completion of the first enrolment of the Community Recovery Academy was not only the result of the journey, but also a launching pad for new opportunities. The admission to the second enrolment will start soon, and even more communities will be able to join the training, gain practical skills and form a clear vision for the recovery of their towns and villages. 

The Community Recovery Academy, founded by the Association of Ukrainian Cities and the NGO "Mariupol.Reborn", aims to train municipal managers for the recovery period. The project is implemented with the support of the UK Government under the UK International Development programme and the International Republican Institute (IRI Ukraine) in partnership with Metinvest and SCM. The academic partners of the project are Metinvest Polytechnic and the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.