Peer Hub for practitioners who support children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine

When we learn from each other’s experiences, we do better than working alone.

Who is this for?

This programme is for everyone who is supporting children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine to:

Share challenges, solutions, tools.
Learn by sharing experience.
Build trusted relationships.
Strengthen local support for children.

Why join?

Thousands of professionals have already connected to:

1. Learn Psychological First Aid (PFA) for children.

2. Get access to learning and leadership opportunities.

3. Develop your professional network.

How does it work?

1. Register once for complete access

A single registration unlocks every resource and activity we offer.
We will immediately send a secure access link to your email.
There are no complicated steps—you get access to everything right away.

Everything is made for busy professionals working in difficult situations.

2. Choose what helps you now

You are in control of your professional development.

Start immediately with self-guided materials that you can use anytime, even offline.
Or, when your schedule allows, join one of the colleague-supported activities to solve problems with your peers.

You choose the level of engagement that fits your needs and your schedule.

3. Start, stop, and restart anytime

Your work may not be predictable. So your learning should be flexible.

You can use the self-guided resources when you need a quick solution, join a peer activity to tackle a specific challenge, and then return to the resources later.

Your access does not expire, so you can engage at the pace that works for you.

Certify your experience: earn professional recognition for your support to children

Our certification is a modern, credible credential designed to recognize the value of your direct professional experience.

A focus on knowledge for action. Instead of an exam, certification recognizes what you actually do in your chosen activity and how you help others.
Aligned with European standards. Certification meets the high standards of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), which recognizes advanced competencies like critical thinking and problem-solving. This ensures you can submit certification to professional bodies for continuing professional development (CPD) credit.
A transparent and honest approach. Certification is based on your professional activities and reflections.

Why you need human connections, not only tools and techniques

You need practical tools and techniques to support children effectively. But you also need:

to know which these work best in your specific situation,
how to adapt them when the situation changes, and
where to find new approaches when what you usually do stops working.

What you access immediately

Start learning on your own

1. PFA Basics

Learn the first ideas of how to support children in crisis in just one hour. This training shares important knowledge about bringing calm and safety to a child and includes real experiences from other helpers. You can study on any device, even with no internet, and get a certificate to show what you have learned.

2. PFA Insights

Access the PFA Insights library to get solutions and ideas from more than 800 other professionals. Find new ways to help with difficult situations and download any resource to use when you need it. This collection is your guide when you need answers quickly.

Solve problems together that you cannot solve alone

3. PFA Connect

When you face a challenge, you do not need to solve it alone. Share your difficult situations with our network and get practical ideas from colleagues across the network. Connect when your schedule allows to find solutions together.

4. PFA Microlearning

Complete up to 12 PFA Microlearning modules to focus. Each module is focused on one specific topic and can be completed in an hour. You will learn about how practitioners are supporting children, and then think through what you can do. Fellow practitioners will give you feedback. And you will need to help them to improve their work.

5. PFA Peer Learning Exercise

Join the Peer Learning Exercise for a deep, 16-day journey with a group of colleagues. You will write a case study, about your own experience helping a child. Then, you will help others by reading their stories and giving them helpful advice. You will then receive their feedback to make your own work stronger.

Turn experience into action

6. PFA Accelerator

Join the four-week PFA Accelerator to implement practical actions to strengthen your support for children. Start by setting a practical goal to improve the health and well-being of children. Each week, you will choose one real challenge you face, plan a small step to solve it, and then do it in your work. You will then share your results with peers to get support and learn together what truly works.

Leadership and partnership opportunities

For individuals

Help lead the network: become a European PFA Focal Point

Programme participants can apply to join a network of voluntary leaders across Ukraine and Europe committed to:

Provide guidance and resources to colleagues in their geographic region.
Help adapt psychological first aid (PFA) techniques for specific cultural contexts and local circumstances.
Connect professionals in their area to the Certificate programme’s activities.
Contribute to programme resource development to better meet the needs of professionals.

Focal Points include mental health specialists, social workers, education professionals, and other healthcare workers.

For organizations

Organizations are invited to become programme partners, joining organizations already connected to:

Get first access to resources, tools, activities, and events for your staff and volunteers.
Share your organization’s work with professional audiences around the world to improve programme resources.
Connect with a network of partner organizations supporting over 1 million children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.

How can peer learning help me?

Get practical help with your challenges.

Defy distance to learn with colleagues like you

Peer learning means professionals with similar challenges learn from each other’s experience. You learn from people who face problems similar to those you face every day.

It works like this:

You share a challenge you are facing with colleagues.
They share what they tried in similar situations.
You learn from their approaches, changing them to fit your circumstances.
When it works, you share what you learned with others who face similar challenges.

How does this improve children’s health and well-being?

You get ideas from people who understand your particular challenges. Learning from others expands your horizon.
Build relationships with colleagues across Ukraine and Europe that continue helping you long after any training ends.
Sharing your experience. Give help to others, which often helps you understand your own work better.

Learning from each other helps everyone

You can improve your work by making connections.

What you find hard, a colleague may do easily.
What you do well, others may need help with.
When you help someone think through their challenge, you often find new approaches for your own work.
Giving and receiving support creates capabilities that help everyone do better work.

What is Psychological First Aid (PFA)?

Psychological First Aid (PFA) provides emotional and practical support to individuals, families, or communities who are having difficulty coping.

It is about establishing a connection with people in a compassionate non-judgmental manner to bring calm and comfort.

It also helps to reduce stigma associated with mental health crises and can reduce negative health outcomes through general public and community building strategies on self-care and promoting conversations about wellness.

How does PFA support children?

PFA for children may entail:

comforting children and caregivers in distress and helping them feel safe and calm;
assessing needs and concerns;
protecting children from harm;
providing emotional support;
helping to address immediate basic needs (e.g. food, water, a blanket or shelter);
listening to children and caregivers without pressuring them to talk; and
helping children and caregivers access information, services and social support.

Source: MHPSS International Movement Hub

Are you new to Psychological First Aid (PFA) for children?

You will be encouraged to complete a 20-minute rapid learning module before you start sharing your experience with supporting children – and to explore how PFA resources can help.
You will quickly gain the foundational skills to start incorporating PFA into your work with children.
Connecting with experienced practitioners will provide ongoing guidance as you apply and adapt PFA to your context.

Are you an experienced practitioner?

By reflecting on your experiences and engaging with others, you will gain fresh perspectives to enhance your practice.
Your insights will by valued by less experienced peers and strengthen the overall crisis response for children.

Are you a mental health professional?

Your expertise can enrich our peer learning community.
While this program is not a substitute for professional training, it offers a space to gain insight into diverse perspectives, share knowledge to empower others, and collaborate on bridging PFA with specialized care.

Our commitments

In order to participate, we will ask you to honor the following commitments.

1. Child safeguarding

You will be asked to confirm your agreement to child safeguarding principles in line with the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), the principles and values of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and the European Union (EU).

2. Confidentiality and safety

We trust each other in order to share and learn together.

Some participants may have legitimate concerns for their confidentiality or safety.

We will ask you to commit to respecting confidentiality. This means that you will not name individuals, organizations, or countries when sharing information.

3. Professional duties and obligations

You will also be required to fully respect and abide by any regulations, restrictions, and other requirements of your employer or government.

Code of Conduct

Participants in the Foundation’s programmes are required to adhere to a strict Code of Conduct.

Violation of the Code of Conduct may result in removal from the programme, loss of certification (including previous certifications), and notification of your employer.

We consider integrity to be the foundation of successful collaboration. We therefore consider honesty – in the representation of our work and in our interactions – to be the foundation of our community.

Members of our community of Scholars are required to commit to producing work that meets the highest ethical, scientific, and intellectual standards, including accurate attribution of sources, appropriate collection and use of data, and transparent acknowledgement of the contributions of others to their ideas, discoveries, interpretations, and conclusions.

Cheating on work or projects, plagiarizing or presenting someone else’s ideas or language as one’s own, falsifying data, or any other instances of dishonesty violate the norms of our community.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this programme free?

What kind of certification do I get?

There are so many options. Where do I start?

How much time does this take? I am already overwhelmed.

What if I miss a session because of an emergency?

Will this actually help with my daily challenges?

Meet our partners

LOOP

Loket Ontheemden Oekraïne PSH (LOOP) is a Dutch national support hub, operationally led by ARQ National Psychotrauma Centre and funded by the Ministry of Asylum and Migration, that helps professionals across 342 municipalities and roughly 1,500 shelter locations provide mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to about 125,000 displaced persons from Ukraine.

Рокада

Благодійна організація, яка підтримує ВПО, біженців і постраждале від війни населення у 17 регіонах України.

Мрій Жити

Благодійний фонд, що допомагає дітям з інвалідністю у Києві та Київській області.

SVOJA

Асоціація, заснована жінками-біженками з України в Хорватії, надає підтримку з працевлаштування, інтеграції та психологічного здоров’я.

Teachers for Peace

Неприбуткова організація, що надає безкоштовну освіту онлайн та емоційну підтримку жінкам і дітям, які були вимушено переміщені.

Південноукраїнський національний педагогічний університет імені К. Д. Ушинського

Провідний державний університет на півдні України (Одеса), який розвиває освіту та наукові дослідження в галузі педагогіки, психології, історії, філософії та фундаментальних наук.

Лідер Дніпра

Громадська організація, що допомагає малозабезпеченим сім’ям, сиротам, матерям-одиначкам та ВПО.

Молодіжний центр Кіровоградської області

Громадська організація, яка з 2019 року сприяє розвитку молоді та її залученню до громадського життя.

Все буде добре Україна

Благодійний фонд, що допомагає громадам Донеччини, Дніпровщини, Харківщини відновитися після війни.

Positive Education Institute

Некомерційна організація, що просуває інклюзивну та сучасну освіту в Європі та за її межами.

Україна Південь Воля

Благодійний фонд, який допомагає біженцям, незаможним верствам населення та Збройним Силам України.

Центр Євроініціатив

Громадська організація «Центр Євроініціатив» сприяє розвитку неформальної освіти для дітей, молоді та молодіжних працівників.

Молодіжна Платформа

Молодіжна Платформа — українська громадська організація, яка вже понад 12 років розвиває молодіжну політику та молодіжну роботу. Організація спеціалізується на створенні молодіжних центрів і рад, а також впровадженні інноваційних інструментів для розвитку громад.

PUKS – Асоціація кризової підтримки

PUKS – Асоціація кризової підтримки, заснована у 2016 році, — це неприбуткова організація, яка сприяє особистісному розвитку та стійкості. Вони надають підтримку людям, які переживають втрату, а також тим, хто потребує мотивації для допомоги іншим.

Всеукраїнський громадський Центр “Волонтер”

Організація впроваджує інноваційні підходи у просвітницькій, профілактичній, соціально-педагогічній та іншій діяльності з метою підвищення якості життя дітей, сімей і громад в Україні.

Центр психологічної допомоги “Конфіденс”

Центр психологічної допомоги «Конфіденс» з 2018 року надає підтримку батькам та сім’ям, зокрема тим, хто виховує дітей з особливими освітніми потребами. Його місія — створити безпечне та підтримуюче середовище через співпрацю батьків і фахівців.

Центр розвитку громадських ініціатив “Мрія”

Центр розвитку громадських ініціатив «Мрія» заснований у 2022 році командою, яка прагне розвитку громади та України загалом. Його діяльність охоплює культуру, неформальну освіту, туризм, молодіжну роботу та соціально-психологічну підтримку — усе це з орієнтацією на результат.

About this programme

The initial development and implementation of this programme (2023-2025) was funded by the European Union through a project partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). All ongoing activities, content, and their delivery from 1 September 2025 are the sole responsibility of The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF).

About The Geneva Learning Foundation

The Geneva Learning Foundation is a Swiss non-profit with the mission to research and develop new ways to learn and lead in the face of critical threats to our societies.

About the IFRC

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian network. Our secretariat supports local Red Cross and Red Crescent action in more than 191 countries, bringing together more than 16 million volunteers for the good of humanity.

Funded by the European Union

Development and implementation was funded by the European Union’s EU4Health programme from December 2023 until August 2025.