Art therapy work of master’s students of the Department of Psychology with children of a front-line city in the project «Art Helps» from the Children’s Friends Foundation

From October to December 2024, the art therapy project «Art Helps» from the Children’s Friends Foundation (pryyateliditey) was carried out in the city of Zaporizhzhia with the sponsorship of the UCARE, Inc. Charity Organization (groups/UCAREInc) and with the organizational and methodological support of the Department of Psychology of the Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic National University. The project provided for group art therapy classes for children from forcibly displaced families and was implemented by teams of trained psychologists and grantees of the Children’s Friends Foundation in Bila Tserkva, Poltava and Shostka. The psychologists of the Art Helps project in Zaporizhzhia were Kateryna Filonenko and Sofiia Cherednychenko, 2nd year master’s students in the Psychology specialty at the Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic National University (group SN-113m).

The project program was implemented on the basis of the Municipal Institution Zaporizhzhia Specialized Boarding School of II-III Degrees «Sichovy Collegium». The participants were teenagers aged 15–16 from Zaporizhzhia.

Group classes were conducted by psychologists once a week and were aimed at creating a friendly atmosphere in the group, developing self-presentation and communication skills, reducing anxiety, stress and aggression, and exploring their own feelings. As a result of the classes, the teenagers established more friendly and comfortable relationships, developed listening skills and empathy, and began to express their emotions more openly and talk about them without fear of judgment.

We were happy to join the implementation of such a socially useful project aimed at supporting children from a frontline city who need psychological assistance as a result of military operations in Ukraine. The Zaporizhzhia team expresses its gratitude to the president of the Children’s Friends Foundation, Maryna Krysa, and the project coordinator of the Children’s Friends Foundation, Dmytro Samarsky, sponsors from the UCARE, Inc. charity organization, director of the Municipal Institution «Zaporizhzhia Specialized Boarding School of II–III Degrees »Sichovy Collegium” Valentina Yershova, and the teaching staff of the college for fruitful cooperation.