Art-therapeutic sessions in Chornomorsk community: "Soul Workshop" by CHODVIZH.
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👋 Hello! My name is Maria, I'm a communicator and co-founder of Chornomorsk Youth Space CHODVIZH — a volunteer initiative that has been supporting youth and IDPs in Chornomorsk through culture, creativity and interaction since 2022.
My team and I decided to create "Soul Workshop" — a space where IDP children and veteran families can draw, create, talk and simply be together. This will be not just a place for art meetings, but a space for recovery, trust and psycho-emotional relief.
🌱 Why is this important?
Our community currently has over 7,000 IDPs. Every tenth person is displaced. Add to this military families, veterans, teenagers who have experienced trauma. And at the same time — the absence of an art therapy space where one could not just "get distracted", but learn to feel, understand oneself and find resources.
What do we plan to do?
- Renovate and equip a space based on NGO "Ukraine.South.Freedom" (electrical, air conditioning, modular furniture).
- Purchase creative materials, decor and mobile elements for outreach events.
- Conduct regular art therapy trainings and meetings for children and families.
- Create a mobile art workshop that can travel to other communities.
- And also — from the best works we'll create "Museum of Art Against War" — about the power of inner light in dark times.
Social impact:
✨ Improving mental health of children, teenagers and adults
✨ IDP integration into community through joint creativity
✨ Increasing cultural activity of youth
✨ Socialization of veterans and support for their families
✨ Emergence of unique cultural space — even during wartime
👌What we're proud of?
The story of CHODVIZH creation got into the Collection of Stories "CIVIL SOCIETY, BUSINESS AND GOVERNMENT — BEST COOPERATION PRACTICES", winning this place in the story competition in 2023. And also there's a video presentation of our project on CEDEM page.
💙A bit about our projects:
"TOLOKA — 2023" - large-scale event for 70 people, aimed at introducing youth and IDPs of the city to various services, organizations and opportunities of their community.
Classic Games Day in Chornomorsk — we implemented the project Korabelna Playful Street from Change X together with Chornomorsk City Council and partner organizations. Over 300 participants in 1 day!
Art therapy trainings by Maria Okhvat in Youth Centers and Spaces of Odesa region — monthly from 1 to 5 art therapy trainings since 2022!
Training course "Small Things in Relationships" by Maria Okhvat, which took place in 2023 and covered over 50 participants.
And our space actively participates in supporting local cultural festivals:
Non-commercial Ukrainian culture festival in Odesa region - Vydelkafest 2024 in Chornomorsk, which covered 3000 participants!
Cosplay fantasy festival, which took place in 2021, 2023 and 2024 in Chornomorsk — we provided information support and worked with community youth.
Thank you for your support, be it donation, repost, sharing on social media!
