Cultura Connector
Where Cultural Identity, Storytelling, and Healing Come Together to Create Lasting Impact.
GRIT
Games for Resilience and Interactive Transformation
In partnership with Royal Caribbean
Cultural Enrichment Program
Help Heal, Rebuild, and Empower
Join GRIT in bringing play-based healing and resilience-building to Ukrainian refugee and displaced communities.
At Cultura Connector, we believe in the power of transformative play to help individuals and communities heal, connect, and grow. That’s why we created GRIT (Games for Resilience and Interactive Transformation), a trauma-informed program that uses live-action role-play (LARP), guided storytelling, and facilitated reflection to help young people reconnect, build resilience, and imagine a future shaped by their own choices.
We’re now launching our first GRIT pilot: a 12-week program preparing Ukrainian facilitators to lead sessions with Ukrainian young people living in Poland.
GRIT operates across three key verticals:
- Cultural Bridge-Building: Fostering connection, empathy, and collaboration across displaced populations and host communities.
- Therapeutic Games: Helping individuals process trauma, grief, and crisis through role-play and storytelling.
- Educational Games: Building skills in resilience, problem-solving, and creativity for sustainable futures.
Ukraine’s war has driven millions of children and families from their homes. 1.5 million children are at risk of PTSD and depression, over 2,500 have been killed or injured, and one in five adults is expected to experience a war-related mental health disorder. Nearly 1.2 million children are missing out on full-time, in-person education.
Even after reaching safety, the ground can still feel unsteady. Parents are trying to build a life in a new country while carrying concern for the one they left. Children and teenagers are learning how to belong again, often while the adults around them are still trying to catch their breath.
GRIT offers a new way to heal.
Unlike traditional therapy, GRIT uses the power of play to engage participants in shared storytelling, helping them process difficult emotions naturally and effectively. Therapists using this model have reported remarkable breakthroughs, achieving in weeks what might otherwise take years.
Read our UN Policy Brief to learn how transformative games like GRIT are shaping trauma recovery and global development.
Photo 1 by UNICEF
Photo 2 by Oscar Bartlett
Photo 3 by arty
Why Fund GRIT Ukraine?
Our first pilot is fully mapped out, and every dollar has a clear purpose:
- Adapt GRIT with Ukrainian cultural advisors so the program reflects Ukrainian identity, language, and lived experience
- Recruit and train Ukrainian facilitators in trauma-informed facilitation, safety, and adventure design
- Run 12 weekly sessions for Ukrainian young people in Poland, each combining guided storytelling with a structured debrief
- Document what we learn to build the evidence base for future expansion
A Global Collaboration for Change
GRIT is powered by a global alliance of mission-driven organizations and cultural experts, each bringing deep regional knowledge and lived experience. For the Ukraine pilot, this includes:
- Europe4Youth – E4Y (Poland), a youth organization with strong ties to Ukrainian communities
- Ukrainian Cultural Advisors (Ukraine)
- Guardian Adventures (USA)
- Evocative Games (Sweden)
Our work is further guided by an extraordinary panel of advisors from leading institutions in education, storytelling, and mental health innovation:
- Sesame Street
- Harvard Graduate School of Education
- Disney
- LEGO
- Accenture
- Discord
- Uppsala University
Be Part of This Life-Changing Mission
List & Get Hired
Change the misrepresentation of your lived experience by being an advisor.
In Media and Entertainment:
59%
of ethnic and racial minorities
&
49%
of all participants prefer to engage with brands who represent and include different groups in society.
48%
of ethnic and racial minorities
&
38%
of all participants would stop using a brand they felt was not representing and being inclusive of different groups in society
52%
of ethnic and racial minorities
&
40%
of all participants tend to recommend brands that they feel represent and are inclusive of different groups in society
Source: Benchmarking Diversity and Inclusion in Media and Entertainment: The Audience Representation Index
Why build a network of Cultural Advisors?
No. 1
Make it easier for right representation: Organizations need access to cultural advisors who can speak to their own lived experience
No. 2
Revisit history from more than one perspective: Educators need primary sources of information for all parties involved
No. 3
Preserve cultures and languages: Reporters, authors, researchers, and documentarians can help bring awareness to the challenges facing disappearing cultures
Cultura Connector is a proud supporter of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages
Cultura Connector is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. All donations are deductible to the full extent allowed by law.
