Graduation ceremony of the first intake of the Community Recovery Academy took place in Kyiv
On April 11, 2025, Kyiv hosted a forum dedicated to the completion of the first training course of the Community Recovery Academy, a global educational program for municipal managers from all over Ukraine who are preparing to rebuild their territories in the post-war period.
The first class of the Academy included 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-torn territories: four modules, four special courses, offsite workshops, and two large forums.
The project's educational partners are 7 universities, including the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Metinvest Polytechnic, as well as the University of Maryland and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In total, the School of Community Renewal brings together 16 international and national institutions.
The event itself brought together representatives of communities, partner organizations, international experts, and local government officials. The event focused on the results of the first intake of the Academy, the achievements of its participants, and the vision of the initiative's further development.
The Community Recovery Academy has become an example of unity among communities, scientists, experts, businesses, and donors around the main idea of Ukraine's development. It was this unity that helped us survive the full-scale invasion and that is holding Ukraine together now. Uniting 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 a strong Ukraine
Today is such a solemn occasion. You have completed 6 months of training. There were certain challenges - combining your current job with studying, attending seminars and webinars when you have anxiety. You were worried, you didn't sleep at night, you were polishing your presentations. And in the end, despite everything, in your projects you came to the uniqueness of your communities. And from this uniqueness, you came to your vision
A key highlight of the event was the panel discussion “Community Recovery Academy: What's Next?” moderated by Natalia Yemchenko, SCM Group Communications Director and member of the Supervisory Board of NGO Mariupol Reborn. Participants discussed the further development of the program, its importance for the recovery process, and 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 program, but a very applied, ecosystem story. The project has shown that there is a dynamic to unite communities, and it is already a community of like-minded people. This is the most resourceful, most down-to-earth, most energetic institution. When we talk about the movement to Europe, reintegration of veterans, development projects, all of this is impossible without the community. This is essentially the basis for all major processes in Ukraine. We want the Academy to retain the space to create the future, to scale, to be filled with new meanings, and to become a capable, self-sufficient project.
Among the speakers were representatives of the Association of Ukrainian Cities, 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 a team-based learning experience. There were three people from each municipality - wow! Because the graduates returned to their communities with knowledge and faith in the future, they have a better chance of realizing their plans and dreams, because they are not a lone warrior in the field. What else is important? These are the teams of municipalities that understand how teams rebuild, recover and develop. These communities share knowledge, their uniqueness, and strengthen each other because they are together. Not just communities have united with communities, but municipalities, businesses, educational institutions, and donors have united. It is joint plans and actions that will make communities and Ukraine strong.
As a result, we have leaders. Leaders are those who lead others to places where those others would never have reached without leaders... This is not just about leaders, not just about responsible leadership, it is about transformational leadership. That is, the 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 level of responsibility for the future of the state.
Today is not just a graduation day. This is the point at which all the knowledge and practical skills acquired begin to work for the restoration of communities and the country. The Community Recovery Academy is a challenge with an asterisk. For us at Metinvest Polytechnic, it was not just about theory, but about the transfer of real tools: management skills, business experience, and project work practices. All this is to enable communities to move forward with their development and recovery strategies.
The event also presented the next stage of the Academy - an updated program of the second stream. It includes 5 core modules, 5 specialized courses, and a new direction - “Demand for Justice”. Thirty 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 with a video introduction that literally immersed the audience in the inner life of the School of Community Recovery: acquaintances, joint work, heated discussions, successes and doubts that were born in the process. The screen shows the moments that became key for each team: workshops during which communities searched for their identity, and the final defense of their work, which completed the training path. The central outcome was Community Profiles - not just analytical documents, but living action plans that combine a vision of recovery, concrete steps, and strategic goals. For many, they became the first programmatic guidelines on the path of community transformation.
Next, those who have gone this way personally - representatives of the communities of Rubizhne, Kakhovka, Starobilsk, and Kyinka - took the floor. Their speeches were so different, but undoubtedly unified in content: it is the voice of local self-government that seeks answers without waiting for instructions. They talked about the challenges they face every day, about the joint work of teams and about the new vector that the School has given them. And most importantly, about the belief that recovery does not begin with an order from above, but with a decision to act from within.
Faith, thinking, planning, and communication are important components that the School has taught. We are already using this knowledge to change program 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 persons in Zakarpattia. And this is just the beginning!
A miracle happened to us! We did not even realize the miracle of this story. At the second lecture, I realized that I admired the teachers and experts. And I hope they also realized how much they managed to ignite and charge us to analyze the situation within the community, to realize how everything works in the conditions of war in different types of territories in different regions and how we can start strategizing public policies at the local level. Because it is with us that Ukraine begins
A special part of the event was the solemn presentation of 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 with the Academy. Those who created this program, supported it with resources, expertise, and faith, and representatives of the communities that became its heart and content took the stage. 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 intake of the Community Recovery Academy was not only a summary of the path taken, but also a launching pad for new opportunities. The second round of enrollment will begin soon, so even more communities will be able to join the training, gain practical skills and form a clear vision for the restoration of their towns and villages.
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 being implemented with the support of the UK Government under the UK International Development program and the International Republican Institute (IRI Ukraine) in partnership with Metinvest and SCM. The educational partners of the project are Metinvest Polytechnic and the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
