{"id":8335,"date":"2026-10-22T09:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T07:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novact.org\/?p=8335"},"modified":"2026-10-22T09:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T07:41:09","slug":"report-ukraine-civil-society-voluntary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novact.org\/en\/report-ukraine-civil-society-voluntary\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine: a resilient civil society, but at risk of burnout"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/6&#8243;][vc_column_text][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;2\/3&#8243;][vc_column_text]<strong>A report by the NOVACT Institute for Nonviolence analyzes 200 community initiatives that emerged following the Russian invasion, warning that the volunteers sustaining them are exhausted and lack sufficient protection.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>More than four years after the full-scale Russian invasion, three out of every four citizen initiatives that arose in response to the war in Ukraine remain active. This is according to the report <a href=\"https:\/\/novact.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/UKR_ENG_V5_compressed.pdf\"><em>Democratic Resilience in Ukraine: From Emergency to Transformation<\/em><\/a>, by researcher Felip Daza. The NOVACT Institute for Nonviolence is presenting the report today at the Parliament of Catalonia, joined by Sasha Romantsova, director of the Center for Civil Liberties, an organization that was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. The study tracked 200 initiatives between February 2022 and June 2026 and incorporates 105 interviews with representatives from civil society, institutions, and local organizations.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span class=\"HwtZe\" lang=\"en\"><span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">A network that did not emerge from nowhere<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The citizen mobilization of 2022 relied on a civic fabric built up over decades: one rooted in solidarity, trust, and a capacity for self-organization. Four years later, 77.5% of these initiatives remain active or have evolved into new organizations. Formalization has been key: 88.4% of those that began with a formal structure have continued, whereas 42.3% of the informal ones have ceased operations. Nevertheless, the report notes that informal networks were essential during the initial months, and that most closures occurred because the underlying need disappeared or because public institutions took over those functions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Greater persistence where war hits hardest<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Contrary to what one might expect, initiatives in regions that have experienced occupation or ground combat have shown greater persistence than those in the center and west of the country (80.8% compared to 70.1%). While the rear areas have focused on hosting displaced persons, civil society in combat zones has taken charge of evacuations, emergency coordination, and urgent repairs, often in cooperation with local governments.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Volunteering in Ukraine: high trust and little protection<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, 81% of the Ukrainian population trusts the volunteer sector, ranking second only to the Armed Forces. This high level of public trust stands in stark contrast to the conditions under which volunteers work. Burnout is one of the most frequently cited challenges in interviews, particularly within the realm of unpaid care work, which is carried out predominantly by women. The report calls for risk-based compensation mechanisms, social protection, and insurance coverage for those working on the front lines.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Local media, a weak point against Russian propaganda<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Only 11% of the 1,434 local media outlets analyzed by the Media Development Foundation meet the criteria for editorial independence. The withdrawal of USAID funding, which had reached nearly 80% of Ukrainian media outlets, at the beginning of 2025 has exacerbated the crisis. The report warns that many communities in frontline areas have been left without reliable local news, opening the door to Russian propaganda.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What does the report propose?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Democratic resilience cannot be improvised when a crisis erupts. The report proposes funding permanent civic infrastructure, fostering joint training for institutions and civil society, protecting volunteers in high-risk areas, and integrating emerging community leaders into decision-making spaces. It also warns that self-organization does not automatically translate into political influence: Ukrainian participation laws from 2024 mandate consultation, but do not specify with whom.<\/p>\n<p>The report and the database of the 200 initiatives are openly available for consultation at the Observatory for Resilience and Democratic Resistance (ODR2), <a href=\"http:\/\/www.odr2.org\">www.odr2.org<\/a>, a platform promoted by NOVACT and the Ukrainian organization Factor Bureau in Catalonia and Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>The Observatory contains over 450 documented actions, classified into two categories: nonviolent civil resistance (CRS) and social resilience (SRL).[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/6&#8243;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/6&#8243;][vc_column_text][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;2\/3&#8243;][vc_column_text]A report by the NOVACT Institute for Nonviolence analyzes 200 community initiatives that emerged following the Russian invasion, warning that the volunteers sustaining them are exhausted and lack sufficient protection. More than four years after the full-scale Russian invasion, three out of every four citizen initiatives that arose in response to the war [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ukraine: a resilient civil society, but at risk of burnout - Novact<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"NOVACT report: 3 out of 4 citizen initiatives that emerged with the war in Ukraine remain active, but volunteers are exhausted.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/novact.org\/en\/report-ukraine-civil-society-voluntary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ukraine: a resilient civil society, but at risk of burnout - 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