Our Work

Programmes & Work

ONM operates across two strategic pillars — European defence and democratic resilience, and civic education in Francophone Africa — with a portfolio of programmes that span training, research, and field-grounded practice.

01

Civilian Defence & Resilience

The Problem

European leaders are calling for comprehensive defence, putting them on the right track to eventually discover a key ingredient: unarmed civilian-based defence (UCBD) — collective and organized civilian-led action that wields diffuse power by compromising aggressors’ enablers and means, and protecting civilians from, lessening, and slowing aggression.

But they need our help to get there more quickly. Current government-led offerings in emergency preparedness and resilience strengthening do not yet fully take into account this human dimension of conflict. Yet history, and Ukraine today, show us that ordinary people step up to do extraordinary things to protect freedom and human dignity, even without arms or equipment.

The omission of UCBD training of nonmilitary sectors is a strategic gap — at the very moment when key societal actors need inspiration, reassurance, direction, and actionable planning tools and frameworks.

The Solution

While UCBD lays dormant during peacetime, in wartime humanity rediscovers its innate capacity to collectively protect freedom, dignity, and prosperity — even without military leadership or military means.

If people learn about UCBD in advance, instead of discovering it by accident, they can be more effective at it — and even deter aggression.

ONM is developing the Pinpoints of Resilience project to contextualize UCBD preparedness and education — bringing theoretical frameworks for understanding asymmetrical conflict, case studies worldwide and throughout history, strategic planning tools, practical tools, and scenario development exercises.

This initiative operationalizes democratic and civic resilience, has a short runway, fosters sustainable actions and security autonomy. Our partners will directly shape the future peace and prosperity of Europe.

Pinpoints of Resilience — Active Subprojects
Active

Pinpoints of Resilience: Veterans

Already launched. A co-creation subproject developed with Ukrainian and European veterans, channeling lived wartime experience into actionable civilian resilience frameworks — peer-learning at its most direct.

Active

Pinpoints of Resilience: Workplace Identities

Already launched. Tailored UCBD frameworks for corporate teams and professional organisations — helping companies understand their role in comprehensive defence and build internal civic resilience.

Umbrella Project

Contextualizing UCBD

The overarching Pinpoints of Resilience project complements emergency preparedness guidance recently released by governments across Europe and growing NGO efforts to train populations in UCBD — with deeper strategic and practical frameworks.

ONM Director Amber French-Griette moderating a panel at the Paris Defence and Security Forum 2026
Photo

Paris Defence & Security Forum 2026. ONM Director Amber French-Griette moderates a panel entitled, “The Democracy Arsenal: Ukraine’s Civic Power against Putin, Strategic Insights.”

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Complementing government efforts

The Pinpoints of Resilience umbrella project works alongside emergency preparedness brochures recently released by governments across Europe, as well as increasing NGO efforts to train populations in UCBD — providing deeper theoretical grounding and strategic planning tools.

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Who we work with

Defence ministries, NATO-adjacent bodies, military academies, corporate teams, think tanks, and civil society organisations across Europe and Ukraine.

02

Ukraine Programmes

Ukrainian civilian at a protest holding a sign
"A narrow, dangerous, uncertain — but very real — path towards a better world."Xavier Dorison, graphic novelist, on civil resistance
The Civic Shield

In Europe’s not-so-distant past, and presently in Ukraine, ordinary people are proactively defending their freedom, human dignity, and security — beyond the military ecosystem.

Beneath the very visible armed defence in Ukraine, Ukrainians themselves are also pursuing civil resistance, unarmed societal defence, and civilian-based defence. It is poorly documented, misunderstood, and overshadowed — but very real.

ONM’s Approach

ONM’s Ukraine Programmes engages defenders — armed and unarmed — and European allies from diverse sectors of society.

Our programmes document and analyse a vast area of human endeavor with pragmatism, not ideology. We revisit theory of victory through the lens of Ukraine’s civic shield.

We do not engage Ukrainians on the topic of unarmed civilian-based defence as strategic advice, and our work is not aspirational. It is not for martyrdom — but for wider examination of the unprecedented societal innovation happening in Ukraine since 2022.

Ongoing Ukraine Programmes
Active · Partnership

Pinpoints of Resilience: Workplace Identities

Co-creation with One Philosophy / Resilient Ukraine. Tailored UCBD frameworks for corporate teams and professional organisations in Ukraine and Europe.

Active · Partnership

Pinpoints of Resilience: Veterans

In partnership with ActionAid Denmark, ActionAid Eastern Europe–Kyiv, and Ternopil Pedagogical University. Peer learning between veterans and civilian networks.

Publishing · 2026

Ukrainian Freedom: Collective Agency in National Defence

The inaugural issue of the Across Fault Lines civic journal (n° 1, 2026). Edited by Amber French-Griette, with a foreword by Oleksandra Matviichuk, 2022 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

Culture on the narrative battlefield Civil resistance against hybrid warfare The Resistance–Resilience nexus

Forthcoming in extended book form — Columbia University Press & Ibidem Press, November 1, 2026. Edited by Amber French-Griette.

Across Fault Lines Journal cover — Ukrainian Freedom: Collective Agency in National Defence
Rethinking defence strategy

Astute observers of Ukraine would note that unarmed resistance brings cost-effectiveness and a credible path toward more security autonomy and sustainability in defence.

Ukraine’s civic shield invites Europe to rethink defence strategy from new angles — collective agency, blind spots in comprehensive defence, and how these preparing strategies might make national defence more authentically complete.

Despite today’s uncertainties, freedom and peace will return.
— ONM Ukraine Programmes
03

Francophone Africa

Regional Partnership
as of January 1, 2026

ONM is the regional implementing partner of the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CNCR)'s online course in French — allowing for deeper regional impact across Francophone Africa and beyond.

The course: "The Theoretical and Practical Foundations of Nonviolent Struggle"

Zoom session conclusion — course participants from Francophone Africa, February 7 2025

Course conclusion session — February 7, 2025. Participants from 20 Francophone countries.

Working group session — Alain, Matumu, Fatima

Co-creation working group — course development with Francophone Africa partners.

Small group seminar session

Small group session — working group on course curriculum co-creation.

Applied research session — outdoor working group

Applied research session — co-creation with course participants and scholar-activists.

Comité d'activistes — July 27 2024

Comité d’activistes — July 27, 2024. Course co-creation with civil society leaders from Francophone Africa.

Impact to date
5
Cohorts
completed
120+
Activists
trained
20
Francophone
countries
220+
Waitlisted
applicants
Programme milestones
2024 — Co-creation

International Working Group

ONM Director Amber French-Griette led the co-creation of the course involving 40+ participants from 13 countries — activists and scholar-activists in France, Haiti, and Francophone Africa.

Dec 2024 — Launch

Course Launched, 4 Cohorts Completed

Launched in December 2024. Four successful sessions held; a fifth currently underway. A new course coordination team — all based in Francophone Africa — hired and trained.

2025 — Efficiency

Cost-Effectiveness & Scale

Cohort size more than doubled — from ~30 to 70 participants — while reducing overall cost per cohort by half. Resources freed up to develop a concept note for a Civil Resistance Educational Innovation Fund to support alumni-led local adaptation.

2025 — Alumni network

45 Star Contributors

Of 120+ trained activists, 45 have been identified as "star contributors" — civil society leaders, scholar-activists, and changemakers now driving demand for specialized follow-on courses.

In development

Specialized UCBD Curriculum

A specialized course on unarmed civilian-based defence has been scoped and curriculum work begun — in demand in France, Switzerland, Belgium, and across Africa. Awaiting funding to finalize and launch.

Growing demand

220+ Waitlisted Applicants

By the time we launched our 4th session, 220+ applicants were on the waitlist — indicating strong and exponentially growing demand as alumni recommend the course to others.

Countries reached
DRCGuineaDjiboutiMaliSenegalCameroonHaitiBurkina FasoCôte d'IvoireNigerChadRwandaBeninTogoFranceBelgiumSwitzerland20 countries total
Supporting the course

Help us continue and expand.

ONM received private donations in its first months, allowing it to fully support a 5th course session since December 2024. Those funds are now spent.

We are fundraising to organize more sessions and to develop a Civil Resistance Educational Innovation Fund to support alumni-led projects to adapt the course curriculum to more appropriate formats for local impact.

Donate to support this programme
What your support funds
01
Additional course cohorts
Continuing the 5-session-and-growing programme for activists across 20 Francophone countries.
02
Civil Resistance Innovation Fund
Alumni-led projects to adapt the curriculum to local formats, languages, and contexts.
03
Specialized UCBD curriculum
Finalize and launch the in-demand specialized course on unarmed civilian-based defence — for Africa, France, Belgium, and Switzerland.
04

Research & Training

ONM produces field-grounded research and delivers training that translates civil resistance knowledge into actionable frameworks for defence, policy, and civic practice.

01

Curriculum Development

ONM leads co-creation of training and educational curricula: a veterans training on unarmed civilian-based defence in Ukraine; a teambuilding curriculum on economic and team resilience in Ukraine; a French-language online course curriculum on the theory and practice of nonviolent struggle; and much more in development.

02

Action-Research

Our REACT Research-in-Action collaboration with ActionAid Denmark bridges action to research, bringing human stories and analysis of nonviolent resistance for freedom, human dignity, and security from around the world.

03

Co-Creations

All of our Pinpoints of Resilience subprojects as well as our French-language course curriculum are co-creations, meaning we bring the target communities into the project development phases, instead of presenting them with a fait accompli. This methodology promotes inclusion, and we welcome feedback at any time on how to work more inclusively and horizontally: People have agency and are not just victims or recipients of aid!

04

Publications

ONM Press has published Strategy Briefs and the Across Fault Lines journal, focusing on cutting-edge research on unarmed civilian-based defence in Ukraine. Check out our Publications by navigating to our Knowledge Products menu.

Knowledge Products →
05

Upcoming Events

Ukrainian Civil Society Week

Make Russia Pay campaign
Make Russia Pay campaign · civil society advocacy
Ukrainian vigil in front of the Russian Embassy, Berlin
Ukrainian vigil in front of the Russian Embassy · Berlin
Ukrainian civil society in action
Ukrainian civil society in action
Resistance TV series by Akim Galimov
Resistance TV series by Akim Galimov
Ukrainian women building nets for protection
Ukrainian women building nets for protection
Mural at the Ukrainian Embassy in France
Mural at the Ukrainian Embassy in France
Ukrainian street art in Paris
Ukrainian street art · Paris

From 26 June to 3 July, the Organization for Nonviolent Movements (ONM) and the Paris Centre for Democracy (PADEM) are bringing together researchers, artists, media, government officials, and civil society professionals for a week of events in Paris and online at the intersection of Ukraine, democratic resilience, and solidarity — across a dinner, a cultural evening, a networking reception, and an online deep-dive.

Ukraine’s citizens and civil society are among the most vibrant, resilient forces in the world—and a great source of strength for the country. Yet these grassroots actors remain largely invisible, underrecognized, and underresourced. As Ukraine advances through EU accession (negotiations opened formally in June 2024), civil society alignment beyond government-to-government channels has grown in practical significance. In France, engagement has remained more limited than in comparable EU member states, partly reflecting France’s historically distinct diplomatic posture toward Russia and the sensitivities of its foreign policy in the early stages of the conflict.

Ukraine remains at the centre of the most pressing questions facing European democracies: what does democratic resilience look like under sustained attack? What role does civil society play when institutions are under fire? And how do people wearing different hats—photographers, NGO leaders, engaged journalists, and others—in France, and Europe more broadly, stand in solidarity with a society that is simultaneously fighting a war and defending its democratic foundations?

This month, ONM and PADEM — Paris Centre for Democracy are co-organising Ukrainian Civil Society Week — four events across one week that approach these questions from different angles: the intimate, the artistic, the analytical, and the relational.

Jun26 2026
Democracy Dinner · Paris 20e · French & English, no interpretation

Democracy Dinners #2: Ukrainian Kitchen

An intimate evening of shared food and conversation built around Ukrainian cuisine. The week opens on the evening of 26 June at KOLO Community Space in Paris 20e with the second edition of Democracy Dinners — a small group of practitioners, researchers, artists, journalists, and engaged citizens gathering around a Ukrainian table curated by Kateryna Prunchak.

Featuring video remarks from 2022 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk and award-winning photographer Émeric Lhuisset, with Amber French-Griette, Co-founder and Executive Director of ONM.

KOLO Community Space · Paris 20e · Places are strictly limited

Register →
Jun30 2026
Cultural Evening · Paris 11e · French · Free

Paris–Kyiv: Art, Resistance, and Solidarity

Soirée culturelle en présence d’Eméric Lhuisset, photographe et artiste

A cultural evening at the intersection of art, solidarity, and resistance, co-hosted by ONM and PADEM at Place Network, Paris 11e.

Émeric Lhuisset will be in conversation with Amber French-Griette and Nadiia Bernard-Kovalchuk, tracing his photographic journey through Ukraine: from the Maidan Revolution to his book Ukraine – Hundred Hidden Faces, to his now-iconic photograph From Far Away, I Hear the Cossack Reply. The evening opens with a screening of ARTE’s Ukraine: A War of Symbols and an introductory presentation on Ukrainian cultural heritage during the war by Kateryna Prunchak..

Place Network · Paris 11e · Admission free

Co-organised by ONM, PADEM, and Institut pour la Paix

Register →

Jul1 2026
Online Workshop · English · Free

Deep-Dive — Democratic and Civic Resilience against Hybrid War

The week closes online with a focused workshop on democratic and civic resilience against hybrid war, co-organised by ONM and PADEM. Dr. Oleksandra Keudel, Founding Director of the Center for Democratic Resilience at the Kyiv School of Economics, and Col. (Ret.) Andrii Ordynovych of the Ukrainian Air Force bring together research, frontline military experience, and civil society practice to address the central questions of the week.

Moderated by Amber French-Griette. How did Ukrainian civil society respond to Russian aggression — and what can this teach Europe about civic preparedness, nonmilitary mobilisation, and democratic resilience from the bottom up?

16:30–18:00 CET · Online · Free for ONM members

Register
Ukrainian Civil Society Week Deep-Dive — Democratic and Civic Resilience against Hybrid War, 1 July 2026
Jul2 2026
Networking Reception · Paris · Free

Ukraine–France: A Civil Society Networking Evening

Sociétés civiles en dialogue : soirée de rencontres franco-ukrainiennes

A networking reception at the Ukrainian Cultural Center of Paris, open to Ukrainian diaspora and diaspora organisation representatives, Paris-based NGOs and associations, funders, social investors, media actors, and cultural professionals.

The evening opens with short video portraits of Ukrainian civil society organisations introducing their work to a French audience, followed by a presentation of the ONM–Center for Civil Liberties Twin NGOs initiative — a project pairing French and Ukrainian organisations working in comparable fields, combining symbolic solidarity with concrete collaboration. Attendees will meet representatives of Ukrainian civil society directly and contribute to the design of the Twin NGOs framework before its formal launch.

19:00–21:00 · Ukrainian Cultural Center of Paris · Co-organised by ONM, Center for Civil Liberties (Kyiv, 2022 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate), PADEM, and the Ukrainian Institute of Paris · Under the patronage of the Ukrainian Embassy of France

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Ukrainian Civil Society Week — 1 Week, 4 Ambiances

Taken together, the four events of Ukrainian Civil Society Week offer four different entry points into the same set of questions — through food and conversation, through art and memory, through solidarity and networking, and through research and strategy. We won’t resolve any of it in a week. But we will think about it better together than apart.

Ukrainian Civil Society Week is co-organised by ONM, PADEM, KOLO Community Space, and Place Network.