In September 2022, the Ministry of Veterans reported about almost 500 thousand combatants in Ukraine. In an interview less than a year later, the Minister of Defence announced a figure of about one million combatants. However, the war is ongoing. Even now, we all have veterans among our friends, relatives or acquaintances. The defenders and their families, as well as the families of heroes, live close by in municipalities. They need support, assistance and recovery.
"Today, Ukraine faces a number of challenges when it comes to supporting veterans and their families. There are limited financial resources of municipalities, insufficient coordination, no effective information exchange systems, lack of psychological support and specialists, and inadequate rehabilitation and medical services. Addressing these problems requires a comprehensive approach and systematic work, both at the national and local levels. In order to assist local self-government bodies in this work, U-LEAD experts have developed a series of information sessions aimed at ensuring the proper level of work with veterans and support for their families," said Oksana Shvets, municipal finance and management adviser of the U-LEAD with Europe Regional Office in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast.
During the information session, U-LEAD experts Liudmyla Pona and Liudmyla Berezovska clarified the function and authorities of local self-government bodies in supporting veterans and their families, introduced forms, methods of work and step-by-step algorithms on how to organise work with veterans and their families. They also highlighted the risks and challenges that arise when providing support and assistance.
Liudmyla Pona recalled the list of laws regulating local self-government authorities to support veterans and fund local targeted programmes, and guaranteeing their social protection.
Commenting on the functions of municipalities in implementing veteran policy, the expert emphasised:
"Nowadays, we have numerous different programmes, targeted projects, organisations and institutions supporting veterans (combatants), providing services and assistance. The municipality has to coordinate their activities in order to complement and interact with each other, bring them together with a common goal, and involve the population. There should be conditions, spaces, institutions, people, municipal policy, and preparation of the municipality for returning heroes. And I urge you not to wait for methodological recommendations, but to start working now."
The local self-government bodies should carry out a comprehensive needs assessment, analyse the availability of resources to meet these needs, review local targeted programmes and, if necessary, make amendments in order to arrange work with war veterans and their families.
"We often hear about the basic needs of veterans. But it is necessary to realise what lies behind these basic needs. Employment, for instance, is a basic security need. By providing it, the municipality can move on and grow," said Liudmyla Pona.
According to the experts, the municipality should work to prevent challenges related to poor coordination of various structures, insufficient organisation of psychosocial assistance, leadership issues among veteran NGOs and lack of personnel in the municipality.
The “red lines” in working with veterans include discrediting their status, declarative nature of support, indifference to the performance of activities and process bureaucracy (collecting certificates, requiring additional photocopies, etc.). Therefore, it is important to systematically monitor the situation in the municipality, forecast trends and train personnel to understand how to deal with this sensitive audience.
"It is important to find out the number of people from the municipality who are at war, how many are back, who are in hospitals and need prosthetics, rehabilitation and treatment. We need to understand their needs, talk to the military and their families about them, and assist in preparing their homes for the veteran’s homecoming," added Pona.
The session participants were also introduced to examples of pilot projects aimed at supporting combatants to be implemented in municipalities: institute of a veteran’s assistant; comprehensive social service to build resilience; social worker in multidisciplinary rehabilitation teams; social recovery for military personnel and their families, support for the servicemen and their families in military units; provision of “one-stop shop” administrative services; institute of a veteran case manager; veteran friendly spaces.