This Training Is Necessary for Veterans to Painlessly Recall and Share Their Experience

"This will give them an understanding of storytelling techniques, recording techniques, editing. This is important because they are the owners of their stories, and we activate their voice to tell their story," says trainer and creator of the Storytelling method, Olga Onyshko (Washington, USA).

The organizers of the training believe that such storytelling can have a healing effect on veterans and prevent burnout and monotony.

"When a person has the opportunity and knows how to voice their story in such a narrative and the truth they see from their perspective - then in this case, the 'healing' of the person even takes place," asserts Olga Onyshko.

About Trainers, Experts:

Olga Onyshko - a psychologist and expert in cinematography and storytelling (Washington, USA), founder of OliaFilm studio, experienced multicultural multimedia producer, camerawoman, and editor with experience in television journalism (including "Voice of America in Washington"). Co-author of media literacy information campaigns, including for "Stop Fake," filmmaker of well-known documentaries ("Three Stories of Galicia," "Women of Maidan," etc.). She also teaches cinematography, photography, and the basics of art and culture at the Montgomery County Public School System and the NGO "Docs in Progress."

Marta Pyvovarenko, psychologist, representative of a Ukrainian dynasty of psychologists with vast experience in psychotherapeutic, training, and supervisory activities, lead researcher in Ukraine of the multi-year international project "Recovery - Donbas" in collaboration with Wesleyan University (Connecticut, USA) and the UNDP Peacebuilding and Recovery Programme, a project recognized by WHO as one of the 12 best peacebuilding projects in the world in 2021. Invited expert of the Swiss-Ukrainian project "Development of a comprehensive rehabilitation system for veterans" funded by international technical assistance through the Women Veterans Movement since 2021. In 2020, she represented the veteran issue in the US Congress, advocated for the needs of rehabilitation, and the importance of maintaining military aid to Ukraine when aid to Ukraine was threatened due to Trump's impeachment. Since 2014, she has been actively cooperating with the leading scientific center on trauma recovery issues - the National PTSD Center in the USA, and since 2020, with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense of the USA. In this collaboration, she facilitated intergovernmental cooperation between the US and Ukrainian defense sectors to implement programs for transitioning from military careers to civilian life (The Veterans Journey Map).

Ihor Zhivytskyi, expert in videography, cinematographer, and film editing director. Experience since 2004.

Moderator:

Vitaliy Kharechko, Chairman of the Board of the NGO "Community Self-Help," marketing master's degree holder, consultant, and community self-organization and business planning trainer in projects of the UNDP Peacebuilding and Recovery Programme, the US Embassy in Ukraine. Expert in implementing the Harvard CANVAS business model for comprehensive and strategic assessment of both organization viability and project innovativeness.

With these skills, veterans can also use them during employment.

"It can be a video interview or a video resume. We care about veterans and provide tools for when a veteran returns, how they can adapt, get employed," says Vitaliy Kharechko, Chairman of the Board of the NGO "Community Self-Help."

What's in the Training Program:

3-day offline training. Veterans living in Lviv region are invited and gathered for such training on June 14-16 in Lviv.

"The first day is the theoretical part about how to create a story, what it consists of, what to emphasize. How to focus, how to extract the story that is 'stuck' somewhere. Introduction to how sound, video camera, lighting work, how to write a script, and how to shoot this story according to that script, And how to tell your story so that it's heard," says Vitaliy Kharechko.

In the following days, participants will practice and shoot materials to consolidate their skills. During the training, veterans will be taught basic filmmaking skills: how to work with light, camera, editing.

Who Can Participate and How:

Organizers note that the main number of participants has already been recruited, but a few spots remain available.

To participate in the training, you need to fill out a Google form via the link. But filling out the form does not guarantee participation in the training.

Participation Requirements:

You must be a veteran.

You are willing to share your story and give consent for the publication and distribution of photos and videos taken during the training.

A smartphone or camera is required for participation in the training.

For inquiries, please contact via email: kharechko@communityselfhelp.org or call Vitaliy at 0673720032.

The final registration deadline is June 12, 2023 (00:00).

About the Storytelling Method:

Olga Onyshko: "Such psychological rehabilitation has existed for as long as humanity has. From the time when people sat around the campfire and shared their stories, to kobzars who gathered people around them and told stories - by telling, they freed themselves from these stories. Every nation had something similar, only the storytelling culture was different, but this 'liberating' effect from telling a story was always present and existed.

And this part, it seemed, was integral to our lives. But in the last few decades, the world has changed: the pace of life has changed, and with the digital transformation in the present time, we seem together, but at the same time, we are each alone. And, in my opinion, there is a loss of that sense of community in communication, that 'liberating' effect.

The storytelling method precisely allows you to tell your own story with the effect of 'liberation' from psychological tension, where on the one hand, the one telling the story is a spectator, and on the other hand - is the director of their own story.

In this method, two of my educations came together: psychological and directorial. And our storytelling program was born as a result of the work I did during the creation of documentaries about war. Where I had the opportunity to communicate on the one hand with participants of the Second World War, on the other hand, with participants of the Maidan.

In this 'hero's journey' through their own story, under the watchful eye of psychologists armed with knowledge and experience, we will transform trauma into a narrative. At the same time, teaching the individual to use methods in the best Hollywood traditions, from how to write a script themselves, how to shoot a film, and to share this story."