4. Summary of communication activities

The reception to the project was mostly very positive. Communication of project activities was based on addressing messages regarding the database and forms to design offices and directly to people from Ukraine who matched the project assumptions – to those potentially seeking employment. Sub-sites dedicated to the initiative recorded over 33,500 page views. A supplementary activity entailed the presentation of selected stories of people who found employment thanks to the “Designers for Ukraine” project. So far, three profiles have been presented: Alyona Davydova, Yuliia Krylova and Oleksandr Ruban. The reach of this series was 17,500 recipients. The total reach of all social media posts related to the project exceeded the number of 108,000 recipients. The reach of publications in traditional and online media amounted to over 256,000 recipients, according to data provided by the Institute of Media Monitoring.

5. Stories of persons employed

Alyona Davydova works at EPR Architects. This is her story:

I left Gostomel, a town near Kiev; we had a house there. I used to work mainly in Kiev. I was hired to work at the EPR Architects studio in Wrocław right after I sent in my CV. I had an interview in English on Friday, and I went to work on Monday. I like the studio. The conditions here are good, the office is comfortable. They do large-scale projects. Everyone is very friendly and helpful, and I feel part of the team. I am very grateful for the help. It was very important for me to find a job where I would design interiors, and everything that goes with it. Now, thanks to you, I have this opportunity.

You can see Alyona’s work at: https://www.behance.net/ alyona_davydova

Oleksandr Ruban, who works at Vivid Vision:

I work at Vivid vision. I am still going through a trial period at work, and the process of formalizing the documents. I am waiting for the PESEL (personal identification number), but the case is delayed because I did not cross the Ukrainian-Polish border directly. The job is interesting, I do the things that I like doing. The team is very nice; I think it’s also easier for me because there are other Ukrainians and Belarusians on the team. The owners of the company speak English well, so we share a common language.

You can see Oleksandr’s work at: https://www.behance.net/ rubanalexsandr

I come from Bucza. When the war started, I was already in Wrocław. I was looking for a job after graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts here. I had tickets to go back home for March 12th. But I stayed, and the question of finding a job became urgent. Thanks to the “Designers for Ukraine” program, recruitment has accelerated. 10 days after sending out my CV, I started working at the Maćków Pracownia Projektowa office. I signed the contract, I did my medical examinations, and I took out insurance. It turned out that I already knew the work of this office. They create the face of modern Wrocław. The employment process itself was non-standard. The conversation was less formal than usual, the decision quicker than usual. And so here I am in the office, a colleague greets me with a Ukrainian “hello”, I publish reports from art classes with Ukrainian children on the company’s Skype, we eat Polish tomato soup with homemade noodles. Getting into the workflow is easy; I received a few small tasks, thanks to which I get to know the style of the studio.

When initiating the “Designers for Ukraine” project, we did not expect it to be so popular – during the first four months, almost 2,282 jobseekers applied, and 321 companies from Poland and abroad declared their willingness to employ Ukrainians affected by the invasion of their country by Russia. We were not sure how long it would last, either. The highest intensification of submissions from both jobseekers and employers was observed in March and April. Over time, there were fewer and fewer job offers, and the need for support in finding employment also decreased significantly.

As part of the project, by the end of June 2022, we managed to arrange employment for 151 people – some of them were redirected to specific offices by NIAiU or project partners, some found work through the database of job offers available on the Institute’s website. However, due to such great interest, we were not able to provide each jobseeker with individually profiled assistance. There were also a large number of questions related to the formal employment of persons from Ukraine, which, due to dynamic legislative changes in Poland, often could not be answered unequivocally on an on-going basis, at the given time.

Forms that were filled in both by the employers offering employment, and by jobseekers, although initially they were helpful in quickly creating a database, ultimately did not prove fully practical with the view to the great interest that the project generated. We encountered many incorrectly completed forms, whereas typos in phone numbers or e-mail addresses often prevented getting in touch with particular persons. In most cases, communication with jobseekers was best done through the Telegram messenger, which is less popular in Ukraine. Employers, on the other hand, sometimes reported that they received applications inappropriate to the profile of their company’s activity, and that the portfolio, which should have been attached by the applicants, was missing.

The database of offices offering employment was one of the first initiatives of this type both in Poland and abroad. “Designers for Ukraine” has also inspired other projects – including an informal association of Ukrainian women architects in Warsaw, supported by Inna Przestrzeń (The Other Space) Foundation and the Centrum Wsparcia Komunikacji Warszawa (Warsaw Contact Centre).