On August 20-21, 2025, a workshop “Community Problems Related to Population Migration. How to Return People After the War?” was held for the Working Group on Public Safety and Recovery (WGPSR) of the Kherson region.
Representatives of village councils, public and charitable foundations, and educational institutions worked in groups for two days on problems related to residents' forced departure and the possibility of their return to their native communities after the end of the war. The discussion was based on the results of a study of migration attitudes of the Kherson Region residents abroad and the testimonies of internally displaced persons.
Participants analyzed key factors influencing people's decisions - security, housing, work, children's education, access to medicine, and family reunification. Based on this, they began to form local action plans that should help communities prepare for their residents' return and create conditions for their life at home.
It was specifically emphasized that communities should not create “special conditions” only for those returning from abroad, but ensure a quality of life for all community residents who are already here. After all, if the community is safe, comfortable, and has development opportunities, then return will become a natural choice, and new residents will also come to the region.
Such facilitated discussions became a space for joint work, where different voices were heard and ideas were collected for practical steps to restore and strengthen the communities of the Kherson region. All the workshop's results will be presented as specific initiatives that can be implemented at the local level and will also be discussed at the Working Group on Public Safety and Recovery (WGPSR).
The workshop took place within the framework of the initiative "Kherson region: public safety and recovery in conditions of change", implemented by the Union Foundation with the assistance of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP Ukraine) in Ukraine, with the financial support of the Government of Denmark.
As a reminder, the Working Group on Public Safety and Recovery (WGPSR) was created in 2023 and has been successfully operating in the Stanislav, Bilozerka, Chornobayivka, Novovorontsovka, Vysokopillia, and Kochubeyivka communities of the Kherson region.
