Students become mentors: Mykolaiv Lyceum №55 promotes mental health among teenagers

Pupils at Mykolaiv Lyceum No. 55 are holding a session on mental health. Photo courtesy of the organisers of the «Impulse» programme

At Mykolaiv Lyceum №55, high school students are holding meetings for their peers on mental health. This is part of the «Impulse» programme, under which teenagers from various frontline regions become support ambassadors and help to talk about emotions in schools.

A correspondent from NikVesti reports on this.

Programme coordinator Lesia Kravchuk explains that before launching the initiative, the team researched international experience in working with children’s mental health.

«We studied international experience and various approaches to supporting the mental health of teenagers. In September 2025, we launched the programme and, through an open competition, received 126 applications from teams across eight regions of Ukraine,» she told NikVesti.

Pupils from Mykolaiv Lyceum №55 hold a meeting on mental health. Photo: NikVesti

Following the selection process, the participants, together with their mentors, attended a four-day training camp near Lviv. There, the teenagers prepared to take on the role of mental health ambassadors in their schools. Upon returning to their schools, the student teams first assessed the needs of their peers.

«We wanted the activities to be meaningful, not random. So the students conducted surveys and focus groups and analysed exactly which topics were of concern to their classmates,» explains the coordinator.

Pupils from Mykolaiv Lyceum No. 55 hold a meeting on mental health. Photo courtesy of the organisers of the ‘Impulse’ programme

Pupils at Mykolaiv Lyceum No. 55 hold a meeting on mental health. Photo courtesy of the organisers of the ‘Impulse’ programme

Pupils at Mykolaiv Lyceum No. 55 hold a meeting on mental health. Photo courtesy of the organisers of the ‘Impulse’ programme

After this, the teenagers began organising various events: discussion sessions, film screenings with discussions, art workshops and other interactive formats. Viktoria, an 11th-year student at Lyceum №55 and an ambassador for the programme, says that the team of students organises these events independently.

«We don’t have a division of roles — everyone is equal and everyone is a mental health ambassador. We simply share the responsibilities among ourselves. We’ve already held about ten events. Analysing the participants’ responses, we can see that they really are listening and using the materials we explain to them,» says Viktoria.

According to the student, over time the participants have become more open and interact better with one another. Most often, pupils from Years 9–11 attend the meetings, but younger pupils also get involved.

«Compared to how things were in the autumn, the difference is clear now — the students have become more united and work better as a team,» she adds.

Pupils from Mykolaiv Lyceum No. 55 hold a meeting on mental health. Photo courtesy of the organisers of the ‘Impulse’ programme

Overall, the initiative is being implemented in eight regions of Ukraine: Mykolaiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia.

The programme is being implemented in eight regions of Ukraine. Screenshot from the ‘Teach for Ukraine’ presentation 


As a reminder, the Voznesensk City Council will appeal to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine requesting the allocation of over 22 million hryvnias from the state budget to increase salaries for teaching and social workers. Deputies will consider the relevant appeal at the session meeting.

The city council explains that at the end of 2025, the government adopted resolutions to increase the basic salaries of teachers and staff providing social and rehabilitation services. However, there are no funds available to implement these decisions. It is noted that the budget of the Voznesensk community for 2026 has already been approved, so the new expenditure could place an additional financial burden on the local treasury.