Eastern Europe
Ukraine
Read about our current program in Ukraine here
Partner since:
2010
Total number of Open Fun Football Schools (OFFS):
469 OFFS (2384 one-day festivals)
Total number of children:
75.032 children at OFFS (269.872 at one-day festivals)
The ongoing war in Ukraine has cast a long shadow over its youth and children, disrupting their lives and altering their futures. For many young people, the conflict has shattered any sense of normalcy and limited their opportunities for growth and engagement. This disruption has caused numerous challenges that threaten their development, well-being, and ability to contribute meaningfully to the recovery of their communities. For instance, many young people struggle to deal with the fear, uncertainty, loss and disruption they have experienced since the beginning of the war, which has resulted in widespread mental health issues including stress, anxiety and depression. Displaced individuals, especially children and youth, in particular face significant disruptions in their education and social networks, which further aggravates their mental health challenges and impacts their ability to maintain a sense of stability and belonging.
Nonetheless, many young Ukrainians are eager to take an active role their country’s recovery and support their fellow citizens during the ongoing war. However, they often face barriers that prevent them from participating including being viewed as passive victims due to their age, lacking relevant experience, or simply not having the right platforms to channel their energy and ideas. The existence of such barriers is starkly evident in a 2024 UNDP report showing that while 72% of youths express a willingness to participate in recovery efforts only 1% are actively involved. This discrepancy underscores a critical issue, namely the lack of structured opportunities and platforms for youth to contribute meaningfully to recovery initiatives.
At Cross Cultures, we are working alongside local partners to bridge this gap by empowering young people to become key contributors in rebuilding their communities. Through our Youth Leadership Education program, we mobilize and train young men and women to step into leadership roles, equipping them with the skills and tools they need to organize initiatives that foster social cohesion and resilience. The youth leaders take charge of facilitating Open Fun Football activities and other community engagement projects, promoting collective well-being and helping peers navigate the hardships of war. In addition, we are building dedicated platforms for youth-led civic engagement in 18 regions across Ukraine. To this end we utilize volunteer-driven Youth Hubs, originally established by our partners as safes spaces for youths and children to socialize and receive psycho-social support. However, we are now working to make the hubs more youth-led i.e. not just ran for youths but also by youths. By integrating the trained youth leaders into the hubs and existing network of volunteers, we enable them to take ownership of the recovery process and lead concrete actions that contribute to the rebuilding of their communities.
New Democracy Fund:
Youth Volunteerism and Resilience in Ukraine (2024)
The project is based on the notion that war-affected Ukrainian youths are not just powerless victims of their circumstances, but in fact have significant potential to become agents of change if provided with the rights tools and outlet. It is a further development of Cross Cultures EU-funded program, which resulted in the formation of a large-scale, cross-sector volunteer network working to improve child protection in Ukraine – and since the Russian invasion – on delivering emergency aid and psychosocial support. Specifically, the project strengthens this volunteer network by mobilizing and incorporating a youth-component, involving young women and men gaining capacity to develop and organize psychosocial activities benefitting war-affected children and other youths, while also enhancing their own resilience. Finally, the project constitutes one of two pillars in a ‘bridge’ program that involves connecting young Ukrainian refugees in Denmark with their peers in Ukraine.
Cross Cultures has been active in Ukraine since 2010, when the Open Fun Football Schools initiative was introduced to Crimea. In partnership with the Ukraine Association of Football (UAF), Cross Cultures has reached over 368,688 individuals as of 2024, here among children, youth, and internally displaced persons (IDPs), fostering social cohesion and positive relationships in conflict-affected communities. Since the Russian invasion, Cross Cultures has worked on supporting children, youth and families with humanitarian aid and psychosocial support, including through the Open Fun Football Schools.
Among Cross Cultures’ key achievements in Ukraine is the creation of the so-called Cross-Sector-Prevention (CSP) networks developed between 2017-2021 in a large-scale EU-funded program. The program – which has been recognized as one of the EU’s most successful social initiatives in Ukraine – aimed to strengthen cross-sector cooperation within the areas of child-protection, reconciliation, juvenile crime-prevention and social integration of IDPs. At the time, the CSP networks encompassed 167 local teams involving sports clubs, schools, social services, community police, authorities, and local civil society organizations across nine eastern regions. Today, the CSP networks involve more than 3000 volunteers from a wide variety of sectors in 18 regions of Ukraine, working tirelessly to deliver humanitarian aid, psychosocial support, child protection and other essential services to war-affected Ukrainians. The CSP networks have furthermore established the 18 Youth Hubs mentioned above.
Moldova
Partner since:
2006
Total number of Open Fun Football Schools (OFFS):
203 OFFS (+887 one-day festivals)
Total number of children:
38.600 children at OFFS (+70.004 at one-day festivals)
Cross Cultures’ Open Fun Football Schools (OFFS) initiative was introduced in Moldova in 2006, with the objective of promoting peaceful coexistence and strengthening social cohesion in the aftermath of the 1992 military conflict in Transnistria.
The initiative has been succesful in using the social qualities of grassroots football to unite people from all regions of the country irrespective of religious, political, racial, sexual and national background. Another key focus in Moldova is to increase girls’ inclusion in football and promote gender equality and female empowerment. We do this by providing women and girls with access to an otherwise male-dominated domain and presenting them with alternative opportunities and role models. In this way, girls and women’s participation in football becomes a valuable tool in combating gender stereotypes while at the same time promoting physical and mental wellbeing as well as active civic participation.
In 2021 Cross Culture had a 51% female participation rate across all activities. In 2017, Cross Cultures introduced the School + Sport + Police (SSP) initiative as a complementary component to the existing Open Fun Football Schools programme. The SSP initiative focuses on preventing children and youth from becoming victims or offenders of crime and is built on the notion that crime prevention is not a matter for the police alone, but should involve all key stakeholders involved in children’s daily lives. The programme has been successful in establishing an effective SSP cross-sector network and educating volunteer coaches in child protection and facilitation of juvenile crime prevention activities.
Since the onset of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, the Moldovan SSP network has furthermore organised sports- and other social activities dedicated to integrating Ukrainian refugee children into their host communities.
Last updated 29th July 2024