On 12 September 2022, the
Roscongress Foundation and the St. Petersburg State-Financed Institution ‘City
Centre for Social Programmes and Prevention of Asocial Youth Disorders CONTACT’
(CONTACT Centre) signed an agreement on the joint implementation of the socially-oriented
School Friend project. Alexander Stuglev, CEO of the Roscongress Foundation,
and Pavel Goryunov, Director of the CONTACT Centre, signed the agreement.
The agreement is aimed at
developing the School Friend project, created by the Roscongress Foundation in
2021 to support school education for children and teenagers in difficult life
situations. The initiative promotes social adaptation and successful mastering
of the school curriculum with subsequent preparation for the Unified State Exam
(USE) and Single State Exam (SSE). During the existence of the School Friend
project, volunteers have conducted more than 3,000 hours of classes, and the
geography of the project has gone far beyond St. Petersburg and the north-west
of the Russian Federation. Since August 2022, a hotline has been in operation
to provide detailed information on the opportunities offered by the School
Friend project.
As part of the signed
agreement, the Roscongress Foundation will engage volunteers – students of
higher education institutions – to organize and conduct classes with the
children of the CONTACT Centre in the main subjects on the school curriculum.
Working together on the project will contribute to the city’s initiatives to
prevent juvenile delinquency and protect the rights of minors. The set of
project activities will give children and young people support in difficult
situations and help them to acquire education and adaptation skills to social
life.
“This agreement is of a
consolidating nature, which will allow us to join forces in solving the problem
of the adaptation of teenagers with deviant behaviour in St. Petersburg. It is
important that our School Friend project gained attention and now the work is
being embedded together with interested organizations, which will help us to
achieve better results,” says Maria Kiseleva, Deputy CEO of the Roscongress
Foundation, Head of the Participant Directorate.
“Under this agreement,
together with the Roscongress Foundation, we will help the students of our
centre to master the school curriculum and work on their grades and prepare for
the USE and SSE. They are a prerequisite for further education, and therefore
for effective interaction with society. The children who find themselves in
difficult circumstances need the support and assistance of volunteers to help
them get an education and understand their place in life,” said Pavel Goryunov,
Director of the CONTACT Centre.
