The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America () or UCCA () is a non-partisan non-profit national umbrella organization uniting 30 national Ukrainian American organizations in advocating for over 1,000,000 Americans of Ukrainian descent. Its membership is composed of fraternal, educational, veterans, religious, cultural, social, business, political and humanitarian organizations, as well as individuals. Established in 1940, UCCA maintains local volunteer chapters across the United States, with a national office based in New York City, as well as a Washington, D.C., news bureau, the Ukrainian National Information Service. The humanitarian aid committee, the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee, is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
UCCA is a founding member of the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC), the international assembly of nearly all Ukrainian public organizations in the worldwide Ukrainian diaspora of over 20 million people. In the United States, UCCA is a member organization of the Central and East European Coalition (CEEC), which coordinates the efforts of national ethnic organizations representing 20 million Americans, whose members continue to maintain strong cultural, economic, political, and religious ties to the countries of Central and East Europe.
UCCA convenes a "Congress of Ukrainians in America" quadrennially (from 1940 to 1969, triennially), composed of delegates representing registered national organizations, UCCA member organizations and local UCCA chapters. The most recent Congress convened in the North Penn Valley region of Pennsylvania in October 2025.
Organizational structure
During the periods between each quadrennial Congress of Ukrainians in America, elected committees carry out the directives of the previous Congress under the guidance of a National Executive Board, appointed at the previous Congress. The National Executive Board, in turn, executes the plans and directives of UCCA's National Council, the highest ruling body of the UCCA.
UCCA's National Council meets biannually, and is composed of delegates representing Ukrainian churches and religious associations, Ukrainian educational institutions, national or central member organizations, and local UCCA chapters.
Current member organizations of the National Council include: Center for US-Ukrainian Relations (CUSUR) Council on Aid to Ukrainians (RODU) Educational Council of UCCA Federation of Ukrainian Student Organizations of America (SUSTA) Heritage Foundation Of First Security Federal Savings Bank ("Спадщина") Manor College New Ukrainian Wave Organization for Defense of Four Freedoms for Ukraine (ODFFU) Organization for Defense of Lemkivshchyna (OOL) Organization for the Rebirth of Ukraine (ODWU) Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization – USA Providence Association of Ukrainian Catholics in America "Self-Reliance" Association of American Ukrainians ("Самопоміч") Society of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) The Ukrainian Quarterly Ukrainian American Bar Association (UABA) Ukrainian American Freedom Foundation (UAFF) Ukrainian American Veterans (UAV) Ukrainian American Youth Association (UAYA/SUMA/CYM) Ukrainian Catholic Metropolitan of Philadelphia Ukrainian Free University Foundation Ukrainian Human Rights Committee Ukrainian Medical Association of North America (UMANA/УЛТПА) Ukrainian National Association (UNA) Ukrainian National Credit Union Association (UNCUA/ЦУКА) Ukrainian National Information Service (UNIS) Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA United Ukrainian American Relief Committee (UUARC) Women's Association for the Defense of Four Freedoms for Ukraine
Local chapters are spread over the United States, with the most active in the following cities: Atlanta, GA, Binghamton, NY, Boston, MA, Buffalo, NY, Charlotte, NC, Chicago, IL, Cleveland, OH, Hartford, CT, Honolulu, HI, Long Island, NY, New York City, North Port, FL, Passaic, NJ, Philadelphia, PA, Riverhead, NY, Syracuse, NY, and Yonkers, NY.
United Ukrainian American Relief Committee The United Ukrainian American Relief Committee (UUARC) was established at the Second Congress of Americans of Ukrainian Descent in 1944. Organized to coordinate humanitarian aid for Ukrainian war victims and refugees, its mandate also focuses on educational and sustainable land programs overseas, and immigrant assistance programs in the U.S. The UUARC is headquartered in Philadelphia, PA.
Educational Council of UCCA The Educational Council of UCCA was founded in 1953 to centralize and coordinate the activities of dozens of Saturday School Programs of Ukrainian Studies which had already existed in the United States since the start of the 20th century. The council is responsible for regularly organizing teachers’ workshops, publishing and distributing textbooks, as well as regularly checking in with the state of Schools of Ukrainian across the United States.
Ukrainian National Information Service The Ukrainian National Information Service (UNIS) is the UCCA's permanent Washington, D.C.-based bureau. Founded in 1977 to strengthen the work of the Ukrainian American community in American governmental circles, UNIS originally operated out of offices leased from The Heritage Foundation prior to the purchase of a permanent home in 2000. When engaged with members of the United States Congress, the UNIS cooperates with the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus and the Senate Ukraine Caucus.
Formation and gatherings Prior to the gathering of the "First Ukrainian American Congress" which established the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America on May 24, 1940, there were numerous attempts by pre-war émigrés from Ukraine to unite. The first convention of the Ukrainian National Association (UNA) in 1894, which attracted 17 delegates from among the nearly 10,000 "Rusyn-Ukrainian" Greek Catholic immigrants in Eastern Pennsylvania, is often referred to as a seminal formative event. Following the Russian Imperial forces marching into Lviv during the early stages of World War I in August 1914, a Ukrainian People's Rada (Українська народна рада) was established in New York City on September 10, 1914, by several local Ukrainian American associations, with the goal of fundraising under the banner of a "War Fund for the Native Land" (Боєвий Фонд Рідного Краю {sic}), and led to voices calling for a distinct Ukrainian republic to be featured in Ukrainian American publications. Bishop Soter Ortynsky, among the most influential Ukrainian religious leaders in the United States, convened a similar gathering of mostly Greek-Catholic clerics and lay leaders on December 8, 1914, in Philadelphia. This led to the formation of an "American Ukrainian People's Rada" (Американська Українська Народна Рада) which also worked during the war providing assistance to injured Ukrainians in Galicia and Transcarpathia.
The nascent nationalist populism generated by these war-relief efforts led directly to calls for a national convention of like-minded individuals promoting Ukrainian statehood and Ukrainian self-identity. Two such conventions were organized during the period of the Great War: the "First Ukrainian Soim in America" (Перший Український Сойм в Америці) convened 295 delegates representing 457 constituencies in New York City on October 30–31, 1915. At this event, a Federation of Ukrainians in the United States (Федерація Українців у Злучених Державах) was established, which went on to organize protests and advocacy campaigns within the United States, collected money for charitable purposes and political actions within Ukraine, and published brochures and pamphlets through the war years. Under its leadership, a Ukrainian Information Bureau was established in Washington, D.C., for the first time, in coordination with Congressman James A. Hamill. following the Armistice of 11 November 1918, political alliances began to shift in the United States. Throughout the war years, several community organizations broke away from supporting the Federation, and formed their own "Ukrainian Alliance of America" (Український Альянс Америки), mainly due to disagreements with the influential Socialist voices within the Federation's leadership. With the cessation of hostilities in Europe, the Alliance quickly reformed itself into the Ukrainian National Committee (Український Національний Комітет) and called for a national convention before the Paris Peace Conference. On 16-17 January 1919, a convention was assembled in New York City, while representatives of the committee also traveled to Paris with Rep. Hamill. At the New York Convention, it was resolved that Ukrainian Americans would voice their support for US postwar plans to restore the peace, appealed to President Woodrow Wilson to appear at the Paris Peace Conference as a "defender of the rights of the Ukrainian people" according to his Fourteen Points, and to financially assist official representatives the Ukrainian People's Republic and West Ukrainian People's Republic to participate at the peace conference.
United Ukrainian Organizations of the United States
On October 26–27, 1922, a Ukrainian National Congress convened in Philadelphia for the purpose of creating a new Ukrainian American umbrella organization, the United Ukrainian Organizations of the United States (Обєднаннє {sic} Українських Організацій в Америці). Between 1923 and 1939, the Obyednannye would organize 7 additional national conventions, referred to as "Congresses of Ukrainians in America." During its existence, Ukraine would fall victim to Stalin's Holodomor. In response, the Obyednannye raised nearly 250,000 dollars to help Ukrainian organizations in Western Europe and in Western Ukraine and organized protest campaigns against the Famine-Genocide in Soviet Ukraine.
As with the invasion of Lviv by Russian forces in 1914, the joint invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in September 1939 once again shifted political alliances in the United States, and stirred the Ukrainian American community to do more for their ancestral homeland. At the final Congress of Ukrainians in America organized by the Obyednannye, which gathered at the Hotel Imperial in New York City on December 2, 1939, delegates voted overwhelmingly to dissolve the current confederation and call for the convening of an "All-Ukrainian National Congress" in 1940 for the purpose of creating a Supreme Representative Body of American Ukrainians.
By February 1940, the four largest national [fraternal organizations had taken over the initiative of convoking an All-Ukrainian National Congress, namely the Ukrainian National Association (UNA), the Providence Association of Ukrainian Catholics in America, the Ukrainian Workingmen's Association, and the Ukrainian National Aid Association.
First Ukrainian American Congress
804 delegates from 168 different localities, as well as over 200 invited guests, gathered at the historic Washington Hotel in Washington, D.C., on May 24, 1940. In addition to those representing the large fraternal organizations who initiated the gathering, delegates in attendance represented the Organization for the Rebirth of Ukraine (ODWU), the Ukrainian National Women's League of America, the Association of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, Ukrainian American Veterans, Ukrainian Catholic parishes and brotherhoods, Ukrainian Orthodox parishes and brotherhoods, the Association of Greek-Catholic Ruthenian Brotherhoods, political associations, various Ukrainian American Clubs, National Homes, political clubs, choir associations, dance and drama clubs, and others. Delegates travelled from the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and California.