WUNU's participation in the international COIL project
A meeting was held at West Ukrainian National University between Dr. Svitlana Kominko, Professor of Psychology at VSIT (Vancouver, Canada), Executive Director and Co-founder of the Canadian non-profit organisation Maple Hope Foundation, and the university administration.
During the meeting, Svitlana Kominko presented the Maple Hope Foundation's mental health initiatives, particularly those for women, children and adolescents, which the Foundation has been implementing in Canada since 2014. She also shared the results of programmes that have been running in Ukraine since 2024, including the psychological and recreational programme ‘Heal a Mother’s Heart’ for wives and mothers of Ukrainian defenders, and the educational programme ‘Support in Grief: Modern Techniques for Help and Support’ for psychologists and specialists working with loss.
During the meeting, the parties discussed the possibility of WUNU joining a consortium of Ukrainian universities that will participate in grant programmes for training war trauma counsellors, as well as Erasmus+ projects and psychoeducational initiatives aimed at supporting people experiencing loss. They also agreed to implement pilot projects with further scaling of successful practices.
The participants paid special attention to the development of international educational cooperation. In particular, it was proposed to involve the university in the COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) project with the aim of creating a course on international management with the participation of specialists from Canada, Switzerland and Ukraine.
COIL is an innovative model of joint international online learning, within which teachers and students from different countries work together on educational modules. The format involves online interaction, joint teaching and task completion, which promotes the development of intercultural communication, global thinking and the formation of modern professional competencies in students.
During the meeting, WUNU Rector Oksana Desyatnyuk, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and Research Uliana Koruts, and Director of the B. Havrylyshyn Institute of International Relations Lyudmyla Havrylyuk-Yensen discussed the importance of fostering a culture of caring for people experiencing loss, particularly in workplaces. A safe space, support from colleagues, and the creation of a favourable socio-psychological climate contribute to healing, increased productivity, and team cohesion.