#17. Veronë Perçuku. The story about dialogue, mental health & building community webs. Kosovo 🇽🇰

Veronë Perçuku is a Psychologist and Curriculum Developer from Kosovo 🇽🇰, whose daily work blends education, emotional growth, and community care. Based in Prishtina, she supports mentors, designs programs for children, and creates safe spaces for parents to engage, always with the community at the core.

What inspired me most in Veronë’s story is how she sees community not as a side role, but as the essence of everything she does. From tender mental health initiatives to transformative programs like the Dialogue Academy for Young Women, her work demonstrates that communities can be spaces of resilience, healing, and even discomfort, yet remain full of connection.

Veronë joined The Community Media project as one of the voices from 42 European countries sharing their journeys in community building. Through her story, I had the chance to “visit” Kosovo and see how mentors, children, and parents come together in ways that are both challenging and deeply inspiring.

Catch the full story below!

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Alla Zhdan: Hi Verone! I'm so happy to e-meet you and discuss your community management experience. Please introduce yourself briefly: your current role, where you are from and where you live. ;)

Veronë Perçuku: Hi! I’m Verona, a Psychologist and Curriculum Developer currently based in Prishtina, Kosovë. I come from a small town called Vushtrri, but my studies and work eventually pulled me here. I work at a non-formal learning center where I support mentors, develop programs for children, and hold space for emotional growth in both kids and adults. My days often shift between educational design, emotional check-ins, and community conversations, which I love, even when it gets a bit chaotic.

Alla Zhdan: Tell a bit about your Community management experience: what role do community programs play in your work life? You are now an Educational Psychologist and curriculum developer. How does it match with the Community Manager role? Are mentors, children, or parents the main community you are working with? Or one of them you are more focused on the others?

Veronë Perçuku: In many ways, my role is a community role even if it’s not officially labelled that way. Every curriculum I design, every child I observe, and every mentor I support is part of a community web I’m trying to hold together with care. Community programs aren’t something I do on the side; they are the core of my work.

Mentors are one of my closest communities because I work directly with them to shape the learning experience. But children are at the centre of everything, and I’m in constant dialogue with parents to build trust and understanding. What connects all three is the emotional and relational labour it takes to help people feel safe and seen. That’s where the psychology background helps; not to diagnose or fix, but to hold space and build capacity in others.

Photo credit: Veronë Perçuku

Alla Zhdan: Could you tell me a bit about the Dialogue Academy for Young Women? What kind of Community is this, and what role do you have in it? 

Veronë Perçuku: Dialogue Academy was one of the most beautiful and quietly transformative experiences I’ve had. It brings together young women from Kosovo and Serbia, often for the first time, to learn, reflect, and build trust across deep historical and political divides. I joined as a participant, but it felt more like joining a living community. It reminded me that community doesn’t always mean comfort. Sometimes it means sitting with discomfort, listening with your whole body, and still choosing connection.

Alla Zhdan: Within your career, you've been managing and developing mental health-enhancing programs. Were you also building communities around them? If yes, what was particular about the communities you have worked with?

Veronë Perçuku: Community work is often invisible and messy. But it also holds some of the most profound forms of learning and healing. Find your community and keep on creating them for others around you.

Veronë Perçuku: Yes. In many ways, these programs wouldn’t work without community. Whether I was developing mental health awareness activities for youth or creative tools for emotion education, the goal was always to make people feel less alone.

The communities I’ve worked with are often navigating silence, whether due to stigma, cultural expectations, or lack of space. So what’s particular about them is that they’re tender. You don’t come in loudly. You come in curious, slow, and open. And once the safety is built, it’s incredible what people are willing to share.

Alla Zhdan: How do your Marketing and Media experiences help you shape and do better in your current role? I mean, what skills gained within those organisations and companies help you to do your community-related responsibilities better?

Veronë Perçuku: Marketing taught me how to speak to people, and that’s something I bring into everything. Whether I’m writing a blog post, designing a parent guide, or creating a mentor toolkit, I’m always asking: How would this land emotionally? It also gave me an eye for pacing and visual clarity, which really helps when creating mental health or educational materials that are more accessible. 

Alla Zhdan: What do your community management-related responsibilities look like? 

Veronë Perçuku: They look like they're noticing when a mentor seems off and asking if they’re okay. Like helping a child re-regulate during class. Like rewriting a lesson plan because it doesn’t meet the emotional needs of the group. Like building bridges between parents and mentors. Sometimes it’s systemic, and at other times, it’s deeply relational and intuitive. I want to ensure that every member of the learning space feels respected, engaged, and emotionally safe.

Photo credit: Veronë Perçuku

Alla Zhdan: What are the core specifics of the community domain you are working with? What should you consider to engage and reach your target audience? (in your case, I'm not mistaken, mentors, children, parents). 

Veronë Perçuku: For children, it would be curiosity, rhythm, movement, and safety; for mentors: clarity, reflection, and voice; and for parents: trust and transparency. The key is not to expect them to all engage in the same way. I have to shift lenses and adapt my communication constantly.

Alla Zhdan: What interesting things can you tell about communities in your country? What are their specifics and peculiarities?

Veronë Perçuku: Kosovo is prosperous in community, yet also full of contradictions. There’s a deep collective memory of resilience, care, and informal support systems. People show up for each other, whether for a wedding or a heartbreak. At the same time, some topics, particularly mental health, remain shrouded in silence. So working with communities here often means holding both pride and pain, but that’s also what makes every slight shift here feel revolutionary.

Alla Zhdan: Why are “community interventions” (which are mentioned in your LinkedIn profile) so vital to you, and what do they mean to you?

Veronë Perçuku: Because not everything needs to happen inside a clinic. Community interventions are about meeting people where they are, whether it’s in schools, in creative spaces, or in conversations with their peers. They’re about prevention, access, and dignity.

Veronë Perçuku: Community is at the core of everything I do.

Alla Zhdan: What is your favourite place in the country where you live that helps you recharge batteries and get your inspiration? I mean the location. 

Veronë Perçuku: It’s not one of the “beautiful spots” people usually mention, but honestly, my room in Vushtrri. It’s where I grew up, where most of my thinking started, and where I still return to slow down. My desk at work has become a space of focus and productivity. It’s where I write, design, and pause. Somehow, these two spaces hold very different parts of me, but both give me something grounding.

Alla Zhdan: Amazing! Thank you for sharing your story, Verona!

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It’s been wonderful to balance between written stories and podcast episodes within the Community Managers’ Stories project. After sharing Oana’s article, I also had the chance to release new conversations in audio format. Both episodes highlight how diverse community journeys can be, and I’m excited to keep mixing voices and text to bring you the full picture of Community Management across Europe:

Learn more about my Community Managers' Strories project to gather insights from Community people from 42 European countries here. 

Do you have a story, and I haven't "visited" your country yet [check the map of countries here]? Drop me a line on LinkedIn, then!