by Liudmyla Svetska, Researcher and Consultant, Future Development Agency

Introduction

When discussing Ukraine today, conversations often focus on destruction, humanitarian needs, and recovery. Yet beneath these narratives, another transformation is taking place.

Across the country, social enterprises, community initiatives, veteran-led businesses, and organizations working with people with disabilities are developing new ways of responding to uncertainty. They are not only helping people survive crisis conditions. Increasingly, they are helping communities rebuild trust, participation, and social connections.

This raises an important question: are we witnessing the emergence of a new role for social entrepreneurship in Ukraine?

Perhaps the most interesting development is that social enterprises are becoming more than providers of employment or social services. They are increasingly acting as mechanisms of social regeneration.

Social Economy Under Conditions of Permanent Uncertainty

Ukraine continues to operate under conditions of prolonged instability.

Attacks on cities and critical infrastructure continue. New waves of internal displacement emerge as frontline communities face intensified threats. Businesses operate under conditions of uncertainty, energy insecurity, workforce shortages, and disrupted supply chains.

Last winter demonstrated how vulnerable economic activity remains to attacks on energy infrastructure. For many enterprises, maintaining operations required adaptation, improvisation, and significant additional costs.

In this environment, social economy organizations have become important actors of resilience. They often respond more quickly than formal systems, combining economic activity with community support, humanitarian action, and local problem-solving.

From Vulnerability to Social Agency

One of the most significant changes concerns the role of vulnerable groups themselves.

Traditionally, discussions around disability, displacement, or social exclusion focus on support needs. While these needs remain critical, Ukraine increasingly provides examples of vulnerable groups becoming active contributors to solutions.

The social enterprise Good Bread from Good People illustrates this shift. Originally established to provide employment opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities, the initiative expanded its role during the war and became part of humanitarian response efforts, producing bread for vulnerable communities with support from international partners.

Another example is the museum Third After Midnight, where blind guides conduct sensory experiences. As the number of people losing sight due to war-related injuries increases, the expertise developed within the organization has gained new relevance for rehabilitation and social adaptation.

These examples demonstrate an important principle: people who experience exclusion often possess unique knowledge about unmet needs. Under the right conditions, they can become powerful agents of social innovation and support.

Veteran Entrepreneurship as a Pathway to Reintegration

Perhaps no group illustrates the future challenges facing Ukraine more clearly than veterans.

Ukraine already counts more than one million veterans, and this number will continue to grow significantly in the coming years. Many veterans return to civilian life with disabilities, psychological trauma, or disrupted professional trajectories.

In this context, entrepreneurship is emerging as an important pathway for reintegration.

Veteran-led businesses are not only generating income. They frequently provide opportunities to rebuild identity, regain agency, create new social roles, and reconnect with civilian communities.

Many veteran entrepreneurs intentionally hire other veterans, creating work environments where military experience is understood rather than misunderstood. In doing so, these businesses become informal ecosystems of reintegration.

This suggests that veteran entrepreneurship should not be viewed solely through an economic lens. It is equally a social and community-building process.

Lessons from Practice: A Holistic Approach

The experience of Future Development Agency’s “Living Towards” program offers further insights.

Over the past several years, the program has supported veteran entrepreneurs through a combination of business development, mentorship, peer support, networking, and psychosocial accompaniment.

One of the key lessons emerging from this work is that reintegration cannot be reduced to employment alone.

Economic participation matters, but so do confidence, belonging, social connections, and the ability to imagine a future beyond military service.

Research conducted with program participants suggests that resilience, adaptability, and renewed agency may be among the most important outcomes of entrepreneurship support.

This challenges conventional approaches to measuring success. In conditions of prolonged uncertainty, resilience itself becomes an outcome.

Towards a Regenerative Social Economy

Looking across these developments, it becomes possible to identify a broader trend.

Many Ukrainian social enterprises are no longer focused solely on addressing immediate needs. Increasingly, they are helping restore social relationships, rebuild community capacity, and strengthen local resilience.

This aligns closely with ideas emerging from discussions on regenerative economy.

Rather than simply minimizing harm, regenerative approaches seek to restore and strengthen the systems that sustain social life. They focus on relationships, participation, trust, and the capacity of communities to adapt and thrive.

Viewed through this lens, social entrepreneurship in Ukraine is evolving beyond support functions. It is becoming part of a wider process of social regeneration.

Looking Forward

Ukraine’s experience remains shaped by uncertainty. Yet it also offers important lessons for Europe.

As societies across the continent confront growing challenges related to resilience, social cohesion, demographic change, and crisis preparedness, Ukraine provides a unique perspective on how communities adapt under pressure.

The country’s social economy is not only helping people survive difficult conditions. It is generating new practices of solidarity, participation, and recovery.

Perhaps the most important lesson is this:

Ukraine is not only rebuilding what was lost.

It is also creating new forms of social connection, resilience, and collective action that may help shape the future of social economy in Europe.