Supporting Ukrainian Displaced youth Through Trauma-Informed And Participatory Research: Heartwarmingly Role At the "YoU Decide" Project

We are proud to announce that Heartwarmingly Research Consultancy is a partner in the EU-funded project YoU Decide – Supporting Youth of Ukraine Making Informed Decisions. This important initiative, led by Missing Children Europe in collaboration with Terre des Hommes Hungary, OPU – Organisation for Aid to Refugees (Czechia), and Fundacja ITAKA (Poland), aims to empower displaced Ukrainian youth aged 15–24 to navigate the challenges of forced migration and the transition to adulthood.

While many services exist for young people in host countries, they are often fragmented or hard to access. YoU Decide addresses this gap by placing youth voices at the heart of decision-making and designing evidence-based and youth-friendly tools for practitioners and young displaced people, including through Miniila App with information on legal rights, healthcare, education, and more.

Heartwarmingly’s Role in the Project

Across Heartwarmingly leads the trauma-informed and participatory research component of YoU Decide. Our team brings deep expertise in trauma-informed, intersectional, and participatory research practices with displaced populations, especially migrant children and youth.

We are responsible for:

– Designing inclusive facilitation tools with and for young displaced people from Ukraine. in Warsaw, Budapest, and Prague.

– Ensuring ethical and trauma-informed data collection through focus groups and surveys, and service mapping, conducted by local partners

– Engaging directly with the project’s Youth Advisory Board, to co-create tools and interpret finding

– Producing a high-quality, policy-relevant research report that will inform advocacy, App content, and stakeholder dialogues.

We officially kicked off our work at the Budapest partner meeting in June 2025, where we joined consortium discussions on research design, ethical compliance, and how best to involve Ukrainian youth meaningfully throughout the process. The energy, insights, and collaborative spirit shared there set a strong foundation for the work ahead.

Meet Our Research Team

In Heartwarmingly is led by the founder, Lina Vosyliute, an expert in EU migration and asylum policy, with a decade of experience coordinating participatory research across Europe. She is also a Senior Associate Researcher at the Brussels School of Governance (BSoG VUB). She is joined by:

Dr. Jennifer Allsopp, a renowned ethics and methodology expert with a focus on youth on the move and their transitions to adulthood.

Viktoriia Palahniuk, a Ukrainian legal expert and youth engagement facilitator with lived experience of displacement and multilingual facilitation skills.

Helena Wacko, a gender and intersectionality researcher with a background in feminist research ethics and migrant integration.

Together, we bring not just technical expertise, but a participatory, youth-centered and trauma-informed approach—ensuring that the voices and perspectives of displaced young people are heard, respected, and drive real change. Moreover, we aim to empower these young people, participating at the YoU Decide Youth Advisory Board to become the co-producers of our research tools and to validate the results.

What’s Next?

In the coming months, Heartwarmingly together with the YoU Decide Youth Advisory Board and partners will co-develop survey and focus group tools, trauma-informed research guidelines, and research ethics training for facilitator and youth-co-facilitators. During the debriefings with the local research teams we will translate the insights into concrete recommendations. As the project unfolds, we look forward to sharing stories, findings, and learnings that can inform better support systems for displaced youth across Europe.

Because young people don’t just deserve a seat at the table—they are the ones to shape it! ❤️

Stay tuned for updates from our YoU Decide research and Youth Advisory Board collaborations.

Additional information:

YoU Decide (Supporting Youth of Ukraine Making Informed Decisions) is an EU-funded initiative led by Missing Children Europe, in collaboration with Terre des Hommes Hungary, OPU – Organisation for Aid to Refugees in the Czech Republic, Fundacja ITAKA in Poland and the Heartwarmingly Research Team.

Disclaimer:

This project was co-funded by the European Union (ESF+ SI+ ). Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s ) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Social Fund Agency. Neither the European Union nor the Granting Authority can be held responsible for them.