One of the greatest, and often overlooked, casualties of war is the loss of childhood. The Life is Good Playmakers and RIDNI, a Ukrainian charitable fund that combats orphanhood and develops a family type of upbringing for children, have joined forces to scale up Guardians of Childhood, a psychosocial recovery initiative designed to train adult caregivers to protect children’s social-emotional wellbeing. 

"Guardians of Childhood is a very intentional name,” said Steve Gross, Chief Playmaker for the Life is Good Playmakers. “Toxic stress in young children can lead to chronic illness, disease, disability, and shortened life expectancies – but intervention by caring adults can shield children from some of the harmful effects, and drastically improve outcomes.” 

Actions to protect children, in times of war or during or after other traumatic events, often focus on physical safety. For children to truly thrive – physically, mentally, and emotionally – and grow into healthy adolescents and adults they need to actively engage in play, practice curiosity, and find supportive adult caregivers during childhood. A wealth of research, including the CDC-Kaiser Permanente adverse childhood experiences (ACE) study, shows a strong connection between early childhood experiences and later-life health and well-being.

“Playmaker work is rooted in creating corrective experiences through intentional play,” said Gross. “We focus on cultivating joy, healthy relationships, safety, self-worth, and wonder – the tools children most need to be resilient, to form bonds, and to combat significant stresses and traumas that negatively impact their health, growth, and development.”

RIDNI and Playmaker leadership have been collaborating virtually for several months. The teams will connect for their first in-person retreat in Poland in late August where 40 child and family services professionals from the City of Lviv, Ukraine, will come together to learn Playmaker practices and to find some respite for themselves. The training will also serve as a planning session for the RIDNI and Playmaker teams to continue to formulate the long-term vision for Guardians of Childhood. 

“We are very excited to cooperate with Playmaker team,” said Mariana Romaniak, CEO at RIDNI Charitable Foundation. “Our teams have a shared mission to guard childhood of Ukrainian children and to teach those who work with children on everyday basis the most effective practices.” 

Life is Good Playmakers focus on the education and development of early childhood education professionals in the United States and Haiti. The Guardians of Childhood initiative, in full partnership with RIDNI, expands the team’s work to Ukraine and surrounding countries during this time of significant need. The teams plan to continue engaging together in this work. 

An aim for this project, said Liubov Matveichenko, General Advisor at RIDNI Charitable Foundation, is for all attendees to have a shared framework and language for how to work with the children they are serving and for participants, themselves, to feel fueled by the experience. 

“One training is not going to change things, it will help, but this partnership must be long term,” said Matveichenko. “This is how we help people.” 

The United Nations estimates that over 5 million Ukrainian children, both those who are still in Ukraine and those residing in refugee-hosting countries, are in need of various forms of humanitarian assistance, including psychosocial care. The same data shows that two out of every three Ukrainian children have been displaced from their home for some length of time since Russia invaded. Lviv is the largest city in Western Ukraine and the sixth-largest city in the country. According to a June 2022 New York Times article, more than 75,000 children displaced from cities across Ukraine have arrived in Lviv since the start of the war.

Guardians of Childhood, in addition to training caregivers to directly impact children, also aims to improve understanding, broadly, about how children process trauma and advance information about what children need in the wake of disaster, trauma, and negative life-changing events. 

“There’s not enough consistent information out there about what to do with kids after a disaster, man-made or otherwise,” said Gross. “We can change that through this partnership, and we can serve as an inspiration, and as motivation, for how to approach the needs of children who are dealing with overwhelmingly difficult challenges.”

“Furthermore,’ added Matveichenko. “The trauma related experience continues, what constitutes a challenge for our work. But as we don’t know for how much longer Russian war on Ukraine will continue, we have to take action now. Childhood doesn’t stop with a war.”

Playmaker Project work in Ukraine has received meaningful support from Life is Good customers through purchases of a “United We Stand With Ukraine.” Life is Good donates 10% of all net profits to support the Playmaker Project and is donating 100% of proceeds from Ukraine tee sales to this work. Life is Good Playmakers impact the lives of one million children every year.

Interviews, photos and videos available. Limited access to in-person trainings may also be available by advance arrangement. 

About Life is Good Playmakers

Life is Good Playmakers seek to create a world where Life is Good for all children by growing a network of caring adults trained in our unique blend of joy-filled, trauma-informed, optimism-fueled practices. Powered by the generous financial support of Life is Good, a company with a mission to Spread the Power of Optimism, we exist to eliminate the barriers that steal joy, happiness, and goodness at the most formative stages of a child’s life. We Spread the Power of Optimism to Help Kids Heal.

About RIDNI

RIDNI is a Charity Fund whose mission is to combat the problem of orphanhood in Ukraine and develop family type of upbringing for children. Our team has a long-cherished dream—we would like all the children to grow up in the family circle and have a happy childhood. To do so, we provide children and adults with psychological counseling, social support, and educational assistance. We give consultative support to adoptive parents, as well as for foster parents from family-type children’s homes. Our highest value is safety and wellbeing of every child.

Media Contact: Anne Wilson, Communications Director, Life is Good Playmakers, anne@playmakerproject.org