Beyond Humanitarian Relief: The (Changing) Role of Human Service Organisations during the War in Ukraine.

Welcome to the project page for the 'Beyond Humanitarian Relief: The (Changing) Role of Human Service Organisations during the War in Ukraine' project. 

The project aims to help us understand how nonprofit organisations or social enterprises, specifically those that support people (for example, by providing welfare services), have/had to change what they are doing during the ongoing war in Ukraine. Russian military aggression in Ukraine since 2014, with its escalation into a full-scale invasion in 2022, has created an ever-changing and challenging environment for such nonprofit organisations. Nonetheless, Ukrainian nonprofit organisations have been a key contributor to Ukraine's societal resilience in the face of of this ongoing Russian military aggression. In this project, we have examined the experience of Ukrainian nonprofit organisations since the illegal full-scale invasion in order to learn how these vital organisations contribute to forming the backbone of societal resilience and how they can be supported going forward. The project has focused on nonprofit organisations, which are also referred to as Human Service Organisations (HSOs), because they play a vital part in supporting people, often when the state is unwilling or unable to do so. This makes HSOs key to societal resilience. However, during times of war, HSOs might not be able to pursue their aims and activities as they have done in the past. Of particular difficulty for HSO is how they assert their belonging and acceptance within their communities and society more widely. In addition to understanding HSO, we hope this project will also enable a more nuanced understanding of how such organisations can be supported during a time of war or military conflict. 

This web page provides an overview of this project. If you'd like to learn more about the research activities, look here. The study's insights are available here. If you want to comment, provide feedback, or ask a question, please get in touch. This web presence is regularly updated - so check back regularly.

This project has been made possible through a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship.