Introduction
The League of the Strong is a Ukrainian civil-society umbrella association that unites organizations working to protect the rights, dignity, independence, and social inclusion of people with disabilities.
Its full institutional name is the Public Union “All-Ukrainian Association of Organizations of Interests of People with Disabilities ‘League of the Strong.’” The organization is based in Kyiv and works with civil-society organizations, disability-rights advocates, local governments, humanitarian agencies, researchers, service providers, international partners, and people with disabilities across Ukraine.
The League’s work combines national advocacy with practical assistance. Its activities include disability-rights monitoring, policy analysis, legal support, humanitarian aid, assistive devices, accessible transportation, community-based services, training, research, public-awareness campaigns, institutional development, and support for inclusive reconstruction.
What Type of Organization Is the League of the Strong?
The League of the Strong is not a private foundation, corporate foundation, enterprise foundation, government agency, or commercially owned company. It is a membership-based public union formed by Ukrainian civil-society organizations.
It has no conventional private ownership structure or commercial shareholders. Major organizational decisions are made through its governance bodies and participating full members. The League has described itself as a democratic public union in which important decisions require the agreement of full-member organizations.
Its work may be described as involving charitable or philanthropic activities because it channels donor funding, delivers humanitarian assistance, provides services, and awards subgrants. However, it is better understood as a disability-rights association and implementing organization rather than a traditional endowed philanthropic foundation.
The League also conducts research, but it is not a general provider of unrestricted basic research funding. Its studies and research grants are generally connected to disability rights, employment, accessibility, humanitarian response, social services, deinstitutionalization, and evidence-based policy reform.
History and Background
Origins of the League
The League of the Strong was formally created as a civil association on 24 December 2021, although its history began in 2019.
In 2019, six leading Ukrainian organizations supporting people with disabilities and their families came together for an advocacy campaign seeking competitive state financing for civil-society organizations representing people with disabilities.
The participating organizations concluded that long-term cooperation could achieve more than a single advocacy victory. They held a strategic planning process, established common values, and developed a shared vision for systemic disability-rights reform in Ukraine.
This collaboration eventually resulted in the formal creation of the League of the Strong as a national association of disability-focused organizations.
Transition from Joint Advocacy to a National Association
The organization was established to address a persistent problem within the disability sector: many local and specialist organizations possessed valuable experience but lacked sufficient national influence, institutional capacity, funding, or access to policymakers.
By forming an umbrella association, participating organizations could:
- Present common policy positions
- Advocate for legislative reform
- Share technical knowledge
- Build stronger internal systems
- Develop joint projects
- Apply for larger international grants
- Represent disability organizations nationally and internationally
- Support smaller community-based organizations
The League’s history therefore reflects a transition from temporary cooperation around one policy issue to a permanent platform for collective action.
Expansion During the Full-Scale War
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 significantly expanded the organization’s responsibilities. People with disabilities faced increased risks associated with inaccessible evacuation, disrupted healthcare, loss of assistive devices, displacement, damaged infrastructure, interrupted social services, institutionalization, and inadequate access to humanitarian aid.
The League began combining its longer-term advocacy mission with emergency and humanitarian assistance. It worked with member organizations and international partners to provide information, legal support, psychological assistance, humanitarian supplies, temporary accommodation, rehabilitation, transportation, and technical or assistive equipment.
Between June 2022 and June 2023, the League reported that it and its partners supported 23,060 people. This included 11,788 people receiving consultation or information, 3,654 receiving humanitarian assistance, 2,189 receiving psychological assistance, and 952 receiving legal support.
Growth of the Membership Network
The League has developed into a network of approximately 100 civil-society and charitable organizations from different regions of Ukraine.
An April 2024 organizational update reported that the community had reached 100 public and charitable organizations. The League’s current community webpage lists 98 participating public organizations, indicating that membership may change as organizations join, withdraw, or modify their participation.
The network model allows national advocacy to be informed by the experiences of organizations working directly with people with different disabilities and support needs in local communities.
Mission and Purpose
A Dignified Life for Every Person with a Disability
The League’s mission is to unite nongovernmental organizations for the decent life of every person with a disability.
This mission has two connected dimensions. The first is strengthening individual member organizations and generating collective institutional influence. The second is improving the conditions in which people with disabilities live, exercise their rights, make decisions, study, work, travel, access services, and participate in society.
The League promotes an understanding of disability as a natural part of human diversity rather than a deviation, tragedy, or reason for exclusion.
Protecting Rights and Equal Opportunities
The association advocates for equal rights and opportunities in areas such as:
- Employment and livelihoods
- Education and vocational training
- Healthcare and rehabilitation
- Social protection
- Independent and supported living
- Political and public participation
- Legal capacity
- Accessible transportation
- Housing and public infrastructure
- Information and communication
- Humanitarian assistance
- Community-based social services
Its approach is based on the principle that people with disabilities should be involved in decisions that affect their lives.
Strengthening Disability Organizations
A central purpose of the League is to increase the institutional capacity of organizations working for and with people with disabilities.
Community members can receive advocacy support, training, professional advice, information, mentorship, partnership opportunities, and access to collaborative projects. The network also enables organizations to exchange services and participate in joint initiatives that may be beyond the capacity of one local organization.
Membership is intended for transparent, politically independent organizations or other legal entities that are genuinely committed to disability rights and inclusion.
Creating Systemic Change
The League distinguishes between temporary assistance and systemic change. Humanitarian aid may resolve an immediate need, but legislation, public services, government financing, accessible infrastructure, employment practices, and social attitudes determine whether people with disabilities can live independently over the longer term.
The organization therefore combines direct assistance with:
- Legislative analysis
- Government consultation
- National research
- Policy recommendations
- Public advocacy
- Accessibility monitoring
- Capacity building
- Strategic communication
- International representation
Disability-Inclusive Recovery and European Integration
Ukraine’s reconstruction and European integration are increasingly important areas of the League’s mission.
The organization advocates for rebuilding homes, transport systems, healthcare facilities, shelters, public buildings, digital services, and community infrastructure according to accessibility and universal-design principles.
It also examines whether Ukrainian legislation, public policy, and institutional practices align with international disability-rights standards and European approaches to inclusion.
Governance and Structure
Membership-Based Governance
The League of the Strong operates as a public union whose institutional legitimacy comes from its member organizations rather than from private ownership or commercial investment.
The association has stated that important decisions are made with the consent of its full members. This structure is intended to ensure that participating disability organizations influence the League’s policy positions, partnerships, strategy, and institutional development.
This governance model is fundamentally different from an enterprise foundation, where a foundation may own a company and use commercial dividends to finance philanthropic activities.
Board of the League of the Strong
As of July 2026, the Board is chaired by Uliana Pcholkina.
Other Board members listed by the organization are:
- Daria Yushko
- Yulia Resenchuk
- Kateryna Daineko
- Tatiana Shapovalova
- Olesia Yaskevych
- Vitalii Pcholkin
The Board provides organizational oversight, represents the interests of member organizations, and helps guide the League’s strategic direction.
Executive Leadership
Daria Kukurika serves as Executive Director of the League of the Strong.
The Executive Director is responsible for managing the organization’s operations, implementing strategy, coordinating departments, maintaining partnerships, supervising projects, and supporting Board and membership decisions.
The League’s professional structure includes specialized teams responsible for:
- Program management
- Partnership development and fundraising
- Grant management
- Monitoring and evaluation
- Finance and accounting
- Legal affairs
- Advocacy
- Accessibility and inclusion
- Communications
- Procurement
- Organizational quality and security
- Membership and community development
This structure reflects the League’s development from a small association into a multi-program national organization.
Advocacy and Legal Team
The advocacy department monitors legislation, prepares policy recommendations, contributes to government working groups, and campaigns for disability-inclusive laws and reforms.
Current advocacy priorities include legal capacity, guardianship, employment, deinstitutionalization, community-based services, accessibility, public financing, and Ukraine’s integration into European policy frameworks.
The organization also operates a legal-assistance hotline and provides consultations involving disability rights, social protection, internally displaced persons, veterans, access to services, and war-related legal issues.
Transparency and Reporting
The League publishes annual reports, project results, research, policy analysis, news, and information about its Board and staff.
Its reporting page contains institutional reports and accumulated impact data. The organization’s 2025 report disclosed its overall budget, spending proportions, research activities, humanitarian support, training, and subgranting.
The publication of program and financial information supports donor accountability, public transparency, and trust among member organizations.
Funding and Grants
How the League of the Strong Is Funded
The League’s activities are financed through a combination of:
- Institutional and project grants
- International humanitarian funding
- Foundation support
- Government-donor funding
- Partnerships with international organizations
- Charitable donations
- Corporate and individual fundraising
- Project-specific contributions
- Subgrant-management arrangements
The organization has a dedicated partnership-development and fundraising department, including specialists in grants, resource mobilization, corporate partnerships, and strategic partnerships.
Unlike an enterprise foundation, the League is not financed through the ownership of a commercial business. Its resources are primarily linked to donor-supported programs, humanitarian partnerships, fundraising, and charitable contributions.
2025 Budget and Expenditure
The League reported a total 2025 budget of UAH 44,070,295.
The organization also reported that four projects received microgrants of £10,000 each during 2025.
This allocation indicates that most organizational resources were directed toward program delivery, services, advocacy, research, training, and assistance rather than administration.
International Funding Partners
The League has implemented projects with support from organizations and donors including:
- Christian Blind Mission, or CBM
- European Disability Forum
- German Federal Foreign Office
- International Renaissance Foundation
- UN Women
- Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund
- International and Ukrainian humanitarian organizations
- Government-supported assistance programs
The exact financing structure differs by project. Some donors provide funding through international lead organizations, which then work with the League as a national implementation or coordination partner.
For example, the Empower Ukraine initiative has been supported through cooperation involving CBM, the European Disability Forum, and German government humanitarian financing. A CBM announcement reported an additional project-wide investment of €2.1 million to continue disability-inclusive work in Ukraine through the end of 2025. This amount related to the wider initiative and should not be interpreted as funding awarded exclusively to the League.
Subgrants for Ukrainian Organizations
The League sometimes acts as an intermediary or subgrant manager for local nonprofit organizations.
In 2025, 5% of its reported budget was allocated to subgrants, including four microgrants of £10,000.
In May 2026, the League coordinated a disability-focused lot within a wider grant competition implemented with several Ukrainian charitable partners. Eligible nonprofit organizations could request:
- Up to $25,000 for projects reaching at least 300 unique beneficiaries
- Up to $50,000 for projects reaching at least 450 unique beneficiaries
Projects could address inclusive community services, psychosocial assistance, legal support, accessibility, employment, economic inclusion, advocacy, policy change, equipment, outreach teams, and individual service navigation. The application deadlines were in May 2026, so this particular competition is now closed.
Is the League a Regular Grantmaking Foundation?
The League is not a permanently open grantmaking foundation. Grant competitions depend on available donor funding, project agreements, geographic priorities, and program objectives.
Organizations should not assume that unrestricted grants are available throughout the year. Calls normally specify:
- Eligible organizations
- Target regions
- Priority beneficiaries
- Funding limits
- Required reach
- Project duration
- Application templates
- Registration documents
- Budget requirements
- Monitoring and reporting obligations
Interested organizations should monitor the League’s official news and project pages for new funding opportunities.
Research Grants and Basic Research Funding
The League conducts and commissions research, but it is not primarily a provider of unrestricted basic research funding.
Research activities generally support practical objectives such as:
- Disability-rights advocacy
- Labor-market inclusion
- Social-service reform
- Deinstitutionalization
- Accessibility planning
- Humanitarian response
- Public-attitude analysis
- Policy and legislative reform
Universities, researchers, consultants, and research organizations may participate through partnerships, commissioned studies, project contracts, or grant-funded collaboration. However, the League does not operate like a national science foundation offering broad investigator-led research grants across multiple academic disciplines.
Major Programs and Initiatives
Empower Ukraine: Disability Rights
Empower Ukraine: Disability Rights is a major humanitarian and inclusion initiative implemented with support from the European Disability Forum and Christian Blind Mission.
The project seeks to improve conditions for people with disabilities, internally displaced persons, veterans, older people, returnees, and other vulnerable populations affected by the war.
The League has implemented activities in the Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, and Cherkasy regions. Support includes:
- Cash assistance and vouchers
- Assistive technologies
- Transportation to medical facilities
- Referrals to inclusive services
- Mental-health and psychosocial support
- Training for medical and social-service staff
- Community accessibility
- Disability-inclusive decision-making
- Advocacy for inclusive reconstruction
The wider Empower Ukraine response has combined humanitarian assistance with efforts to strengthen organizations of people with disabilities and ensure that recovery programs include disability perspectives.
Humanitarian Assistance and Referral Services
The League provides or coordinates direct support for people affected by war.
Assistance may include financial aid, legal information, transportation, assistive devices, rehabilitation referrals, psychological support, temporary accommodation, and help accessing public or humanitarian services.
Rather than attempting to deliver every service independently, the League also operates referral mechanisms that connect individuals with qualified organizations, public institutions, health facilities, and local providers.
HOME—Deinstitutionalization Is Possible
The HOME—Deinstitutionalization Is Possible project focuses on reforming systems that place people with disabilities in large residential institutions.
Supported by the International Renaissance Foundation, the initiative promotes supported and community-based living as an alternative to long-term institutional care.
During 2025, the League conducted two nationwide studies on supported living and public attitudes toward it. The quantitative component involved 2,113 respondents, while the qualitative research included 13 expert interviews and ten focus groups involving 55 people.
The project also involved legislative analysis, engagement with interagency working groups, recommendations for public policy, and contributions to strategic documents on deinstitutionalization.
Inclusive Future and Employment Research
The Inclusive Future initiative examines access to employment, livelihoods, and financial security for people with disabilities during wartime.
The League’s national research involved:
- 1,019 people with disabilities
- 621 employers
The organization reported that only 15–18% of people with disabilities in Ukraine were employed and that employment was particularly low among people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities.
The findings were used in advocacy, humanitarian-cluster discussions, organizational-policy reviews, training, and recommendations for more disability-inclusive employment and livelihoods programs.
Step Toward Accessibility
The Step Toward Accessibility initiative helps local communities move from general commitments to practical accessibility planning.
Activities include cooperation agreements with local authorities, accessibility workshops, technical inspections, recommendations for adapting facilities, and support for local policy development.
During 2025, the League signed cooperation memoranda with Irpin and Pustomyty, conducted an accessibility workshop, and completed technical inspections of two facilities.
Advocacy and Legislative Reform
The League monitors draft laws and public policies that affect people with disabilities.
Advocacy priorities include:
- Legal capacity and supported decision-making
- Guardianship reform
- Medical consent
- Family and inheritance rights
- Deinstitutionalization
- Employment
- Public-service accessibility
- Social-service financing
- Inclusive humanitarian assistance
- Barrier-free reconstruction
In 2026, the organization publicly raised concerns about provisions in a proposed new Civil Code that could preserve discriminatory approaches to legal incapacity, institutional care, guardianship, and decision-making. It also sought engagement from Ukrainian and European institutions.
Community and Organizational Development
The League provides its member organizations with training, mentorship, advocacy opportunities, information, professional advice, and access to partnerships.
Its community model is designed to help smaller organizations strengthen governance, fundraising, project management, communication, service quality, monitoring, and advocacy capacity.
Participation also enables member organizations to identify potential partners for joint applications and national campaigns.
Training for Civil Society and Public Institutions
Training programs are provided for:
- Civil-society organizations
- Local government officials
- Humanitarian workers
- Medical personnel
- Social workers
- Rehabilitation specialists
- Educators
- Communications professionals
Topics include disability-inclusive humanitarian assistance, accessible communication, rehabilitation, mental-health services, inclusive public policy, accessibility, social services, and ethical representation of people with disabilities.
During 2025, the League reported delivering 14 training sessions for civil-society organizations involving 458 participants, three sessions for local governments involving 75 participants, and ten rehabilitation trainings involving 315 participants.
Information and Public-Awareness Campaigns
The League works to change how disability is represented in media, fundraising, public policy, and everyday communication.
Its campaigns encourage organizations to portray people with disabilities as rights holders, professionals, family members, leaders, creators, workers, and active community participants rather than exclusively as passive recipients of charity.
In 2026, the League joined a civil-society statement opposing the use of vulnerable or undignified photographs of adults and children with disabilities in fundraising and public reporting. The statement emphasized privacy, informed consent, personal dignity, and ethical communication.
International Representation
The League represents Ukrainian disability organizations in discussions with international networks, humanitarian agencies, donors, and European institutions.
This international engagement helps bring Ukrainian experience into global disability-rights discussions while connecting local organizations with technical knowledge, advocacy platforms, and funding partnerships.
Assistive Technologies
Assistive devices can include mobility equipment and other technologies needed for communication, independence, rehabilitation, personal care, and participation in community life.
Under the Empower Ukraine initiative, the League reported providing assistive technologies alongside financial assistance, transportation, legal guidance, and inclusive-service referrals.
In 2025 alone, 612 people reportedly received assistive devices through the organization’s programs.
Supporting Local Organizations Through Grants
The League’s subgranting activities strengthen organizations that already understand local needs and maintain direct relationships with people with disabilities.
In 2025, four projects received microgrants of £10,000 each. In 2026, the organization coordinated a larger competition offering project awards of up to $25,000 or $50,000.
Potentially funded activities included:
- Accessible community spaces
- Mobile service teams
- Psychosocial support
- Employment assistance
- Legal counseling
- Individual case management
- Inclusive education and social services
- Equipment for service delivery
- Accessibility improvements
- Local advocacy
This approach allows the League to expand geographic coverage without replacing community-based organizations.
Research Influencing Public Policy
The organization’s research is intended to generate policy change rather than remain purely academic.
Its supported-living studies contributed to work on national deinstitutionalization policy. Its employment research was presented publicly, discussed with humanitarian-sector actors, and used to create recommendations for livelihoods programming.
Research therefore acts as a bridge between lived experience, civil-society advocacy, program design, and government decision-making.
Accessibility Improvements
Through accessibility inspections and local-government cooperation, the League helps communities identify practical barriers within buildings, streets, transportation, shelters, housing, and public services.
The organization’s recommendations can inform infrastructure adaptation, local accessibility programs, procurement, public budgeting, and reconstruction planning.
These interventions are particularly important in Ukraine because reconstruction decisions made during and after the war may determine accessibility for decades.
Organizational Capacity Building
The League’s impact also includes improvements within its member organizations.
Training, mentorship, subgrants, partnership opportunities, and shared advocacy can help participating organizations strengthen:
- Internal governance
- Financial management
- Donor compliance
- Service quality
- Safeguarding
- Communications
- Monitoring and evaluation
- Legal analysis
- Fundraising
- Strategic planning
The long-term impact is not limited to one project’s beneficiaries. Stronger local disability organizations can continue providing services and advocating for rights after individual grants end.
Changing Public Perceptions
In 2025, the League reported that its informational materials reached 168,671 users. It produced 88 materials, published 13 success stories, and conducted five public events under one of its projects.
Communications work aims to replace narratives based on pity or dependency with messages emphasizing rights, independence, capability, choice, and equal participation.
Limits of Impact Attribution
Many of the reported outcomes are based on the League’s own institutional reporting. They provide useful evidence of reach and activity, but broader changes in disability rights, employment, accessibility, humanitarian inclusion, and public policy involve many government, civil-society, donor, and international actors.
The League’s distinctive contribution is its ability to connect local disability organizations, national advocacy, humanitarian services, research, and international partnerships within one coordinated platform.
Conclusion
The League of the Strong is an important Ukrainian civil-society association working at the intersection of disability rights, humanitarian response, social services, research, advocacy, accessibility, and inclusive reconstruction.
Its origins date to a 2019 advocacy coalition of six organizations. It was formally established as a civil association on 24 December 2021 and subsequently expanded into a national network of approximately 100 organizations.
The League is not a privately owned company, enterprise foundation, or traditional endowed philanthropic institution. It is a membership-based public union governed by participating organizations, a Board, and an executive team.
Its funding comes primarily from grants, international partnerships, humanitarian programs, donations, fundraising, and project agreements. In 2025, it reported a budget of more than UAH 44 million, of which 85.5% was directed toward program activities.
The organization is both an implementing partner and, when donor funding permits, a subgrant provider. Its grants support local organizations delivering inclusive services, legal assistance, psychosocial support, accessibility, employment programs, humanitarian assistance, and advocacy.
For researchers, the League offers opportunities for applied policy research rather than unrestricted basic research funding. Its studies focus on practical challenges such as employment, institutional care, supported living, accessibility, humanitarian inclusion, and disability-related public policy.
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