Inna Sergiyenko: How She Built “Child with Future” and Advanced Autism Support in Ukraine
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Vocal.Media
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2026/04
By Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Iryna Sergiyenko (Translation, Ukrainian-English)
Inna Sergiyenko is a Ukrainian autism advocate, educator, and founder connected with Child with Future, a Kyiv-based initiative supporting children with developmental disabilities and their families. Motivated by her son’s autism diagnosis in Israel, she helped establish a preschool model integrating education, developmental services, and specialist support in one setting. Her work expanded over many years into broader advocacy for autism awareness, disability rights, parent support, and improved professional training and service coordination across Ukraine.
In this interview, Scott Douglas Jacobsen speaks with Inna Sergiyenko about how her son’s autism diagnosis led her to help build Child with Future in Ukraine. Inna Sergiyenko describes creating a preschool that combined education, developmental support, and specialist services under one roof. She also explains how the project grew into a broader foundation focused on autism awareness, parent support, disability rights, professional training, and more coordinated services for Ukrainian families.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: My first question is, how did you originally become interested in working with children with special needs?
Inna Sergiyenko: Like many people, my involvement began when it affected my own family. My son was diagnosed with autism in Israel in 2009, when he was about two and a half years old. That experience forced me to learn quickly and to search for proper support.
When I began looking for services in Ukraine, I saw how limited and fragmented they were. Families often had to travel across the city from one specialist to another, without any unified system of support. I had seen a more structured model abroad, so I began thinking about how to create something similar in Ukraine.
I wanted to build a preschool for autistic children where everything would be in one place: education, developmental support, and the work of specialists. It needed to function as a genuine kindergarten, so that children could develop in a stable environment and, where possible, move more easily into mainstream education later on.
In 2009, together with Inna Markovich, founder of the Kyiv educational institution Perlyna, we established the kindergarten Child with Future for children with developmental disabilities. Rabbi Yonattan Markovich was also part of the broader educational context around Perlyna, which had already been operating in Kyiv since 2001.
That kindergarten became one of the foundational projects of Child with Future, which grew into a major platform for autism advocacy, parent support, and the protection of disability rights in Ukraine.
The kindergarten was conceived as a proper preschool, using Ministry-authorized educational programs alongside specialized corrective methods.
Jacobsen: How did you go about designing and building the preschool itself, and how did the project evolve from a single institution into a broader foundation?
Sergiyenko: The space’s design was developed with the help of a friend who worked as an interior designer. However, the core concept was mine. I wanted a structure that included many small rooms for individual sessions, as well as larger spaces for group activities.
Friends from the business community also supported the project. For example, the Ukrainian pharmacy network Dobroho Dnia contributed to the construction of the playground.
From the beginning, we aimed to provide high-quality services. I relied on the model I had encountered in Israel, where my son was diagnosed, and adapted those approaches to the Ukrainian context.
At that time, there were very few trained specialists in Ukraine. Instead of sending our staff abroad for training, we decided to invite international experts to Kyiv to train our team directly. This allowed us to build capacity more efficiently and ensure consistency in methods.
We invited specialists from the United States, including Dr. Ginny Bass, as well as experts from other countries, including Russia, at a time when professional collaboration was still possible. Over time, we developed our own team of specialists, many of whom now train new professionals.
As the project grew, we realized that maintaining high-quality services was expensive and that a single preschool could only serve a limited number of children. At the same time, many more families needed support.
This led us to expand beyond the preschool model and develop a broader initiative through the Child with Future Foundation. We began working not only in education, but also in advocacy for the rights of children with autism and their families.
At the time, public awareness of autism in Ukraine was very low. While many people were familiar with illnesses such as cancer and were willing to support those causes, autism was not widely understood or discussed. Raising awareness became one of our priorities.
Jacobsen: Thank you very much for the opportunity and your time, Inna.
Last updated May 3, 2025. These terms govern all In Sight Publishing content—past, present, and future—and supersede any prior notices. In Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons BY‑NC‑ND 4.0; © In Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen 2012–Present. All trademarks, performances, databases & branding are owned by their rights holders; no use without permission. Unauthorized copying, modification, framing or public communication is prohibited. External links are not endorsed. Cookies & tracking require consent, and data processing complies with PIPEDA & GDPR; no data from children < 13 (COPPA). Content meets WCAG 2.1 AA under the Accessible Canada Act & is preserved in open archival formats with backups. Excerpts & links require full credit & hyperlink; limited quoting under fair-dealing & fair-use. All content is informational; no liability for errors or omissions: Feedback welcome, and verified errors corrected promptly. For permissions or DMCA notices, email: scott.jacobsen2025@gmail.com. Site use is governed by BC laws; content is “as‑is,” liability limited, users indemnify us; moral, performers’ & database sui generis rights reserved.
In-Sight Publishing 