Restart Foundation Annual Report 2025: Building on Solid Ground
We are proud to share our second Annual Report, covering Restart Foundation’s work from 1 January to 31 December 2025. This was our second full year of operations, and it was a year of turning our first foundations into sustained, growing programmes — while keeping our focus firmly on a positive future for Ukraine that starts with good mental health.
From Pilot to Sustained Delivery
Having proven the Safe Space model in our first year, 2025 was about scaling it responsibly and building the governance, funding and professional network needed to support that growth.
This report details how, over the year, we:
- Delivered the Safe Space programme in five Kyiv kindergartens, reaching 348 recipients across 405 psychosocial interventions
- Ran Safe Space in two kindergartens concurrently for the first time, with continuous, uninterrupted delivery
- Certified 12 psychologists as Safe Space trainers, expanding future programme capacity
- Completed development of an original veterans programme, led by veterans psychologist Dr Lesia Sak, ready to launch
- Raised £55,768 from six major grants and launched our Founders’ Circle of long-term supporters
Key Highlights
- ✅ £55,768 raised, from seven main donors and a growing base of individual supporters
- ✅ £33,487 spent — £17,583 on direct charitable activity, the rest invested in building sustainable fundraising
- ✅ 348 people supported through Safe Space across five Kyiv kindergartens, via 405 psychosocial interventions
- ✅ 12 psychologists certified as Safe Space trainers for preschool institutions
- ✅ Founders’ Circle launched, with five founding members committing three-year support
- ✅ £22,991 in unrestricted reserves at year end — above our three-to-six-month target
- ✅ House of Lords launch event, plus appearances at the CEO Club Global Vision Conference and the BEARR Trust Annual Conference
Spotlight: Safe Space Programme
Our core project, the Safe Space Programme, is co-designed by one of Ukraine’s leading psychologists, Oksana Zaleska PhD, and has been used in conflict zones in eastern Ukraine since 2015. Delivered in kindergartens across Kyiv, it brings together children, teachers and parents in trauma-informed group sessions that rebuild trust, expression and resilience.
In 2025, the programme:
- Ran in five Kyiv kindergartens — La Malyuk, Happiness Kids, Mandryk, I-School and Mriydiy Rybalsky
- Reached 348 recipients, including 119 children, 174 parents and 35 teachers
- Delivered 405 psychosocial interventions, supported for the first time by continuous, concurrent delivery in two kindergartens
- Certified 12 psychologists as new Safe Space trainers, ready to run the programme in more preschools
What’s Next
In 2026, we plan to:
- Expand Safe Space to a target of 10 Kyiv kindergartens and 700 beneficiaries
- Launch our new veterans programme under the supervision of Dr Lesia Sak
- Introduce a leading international mental health programme in Ukrainian through a new partnership
- Grow our Founders’ Circle and build a sustainable, predictable funding base
- Develop supporter networks in Scotland and the USA and, as funding allows, explore an office in Kyiv
Download the 2025 Annual Report (PDF)
We are deeply grateful to every trust, foundation, company, individual donor, Founders’ Circle member and partner who supported Restart Foundation in 2025 — and to our Patron, Lord Banner KC, for hosting our House of Lords launch. With your help, we’re building long-term systems of healing for Ukraine’s future.
