The 6th anniversary of the St. John of Kronstadt Charity

On August 3, 2017, the St. John of Kronstadt charity, which is engaged in helping addicts, celebrated its 6th anniversary at the Ss Martha and Mary Convent of Charity in Moscow. With the blessing of His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, the Divine Liturgy at the church of the Protecting Veil of the Most Holy Mother of God was presided over by Bishop Panteleimon of Orekhovo-Zuevo, head of the Synodal Department for Charity, and Bishop Methodius of Kamensk and Alapaevsk, head of the Synodal Department for Charity's coordinating center for opposing drug addiction and chairman of the St John of Kronstadt charity board of directors.

After the Divine Liturgy, a thanksgiving was celebrated before the Icon of the Protomartyr and Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, the founder of the Ss Martha and Mary Convent.

On the occasion of the anniversary, Bishop Methodius presented the charity staff member with commemorative awards. The Medal of the Protomartyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth (Degree III) was awarded to Alexander Tukh. Hierarchal citations were awarded to the Alexey Lazarev, coordinator of the system for assistance to drug addicts of the Synodal Department for Charity and of the St John of Kronstadt charity, and to several staff members of the charity.

The St. John of Kronstadt charity was established in August 2011 for financing church initiatives in opposing drug addiction, developing a system of church rehabilitation and helping drug addicts. The founder of the charity is the Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social Service.

Since its foundation, the charity has gained 14 grants and subsidies, Bishop Methoidus noted during his meeting with the staff and guests. 'We received 2-year grants from the Ministry of Economic Development two times in a row, won the Orthodox Initiative contest four times, were given grants from the League of the Health of Nations three times. Literary yesterday we won a Presidential grant of over 6 million roubles. Altogether we have managed to get grants and subsidies worth of over 46,5 million roubles, while the total cost of implemented projects amounted to 84 million roubles including our own funds. For such a small charity as ours it is a fairly high rate', he summarized.

Among the projects completed by the charity is the integration of all the Russian Orthodox Church's rehabilitation centers for drug addiction into a church-wide network and the coordinating, training, systematic and analytical work.

Today, there are over 200 Orthodox structures for help to drug addicts in Russia including over 70 rehabilitation centers for drug addicts, 12 resocialization centers, 9 outpatient centers, 40 counselling stations, 7 motivation centers and 62 self-help groups. Annually we open at least 10 new church structures for help to drug addicts.

From the materials on www.diaconia.ru

Seminars on work with families in crisis

A seminar on 'Mobilization and Development of Resources for Work with Families in Crisis was held on August 16-17, 2017, at Satoris, a state-run center for psychological, pedagogical, medical and social help in Ufa.

It was devoted to the planning of an algorithm of cooperation between parish social services of the Russian Orthodox Church's diocese of Ufa, socially oriented non-commercial organizations and state-run institutions.

The seminar was led by S. Borzov, a psychotherapist of Superior Merit, program director of the Taganka Children's Foundation, Moscow, and an expert in advancing the effectiveness of the measures for preventing social orphanhood and trainer for programs for preventing social orphanhood in Russia.

The seminar attendees considered problems involved in organizational supervision in social work, such as aims and tasks of the work, target groups, basic social problems and expected social effects, hard cases and professional difficulties encountered by those who work with families in the risk group. They also discussed problems of the shortage of resources and services in their work, an algorithm of cooperation with other participants in the work to help vulnerable families.

After the seminar, a round-table conference took place at the Ufa administration under the seminar' theme. It was organized by Syntimir Bayazitov, deputy head of the Ufa municipal administration. The conference was attended by the participants in the seminar, representatives of the diocese of Ufa, leaders of the Satoris center and representatives of the Strategic Initiatives Agency.

From the materials on satoris.ru

On September 18-19, 2017, a seminar on 'Mobilization and Development of Resources for Work with Families in Crisis took place at the Chelyabinsk diocesan administration. It was attended by parish social workers and volunteers, as well as sisters of mercy and staff members of Semya (Family), a regional social protection center.

The seminar was organized by the social department of the ROC diocese of Chelyabinsk. Similar meetings had been held in South Urals in autumn 2015 and 2016.

The participants were greeted by Archpriest Vladimir Voskresensky, head of the social department. The lessons were conducted by S. Borzov, a psychotherapist, program director of the Taganka Children's Fund, Moscow. The participants discussed the cooperation between ecclesial and secular organizations in the work with families in crisis and difficulties arising in parishes and Orthodox volunteer organizations in their work with families of risk group.

After the seminar, on September 20, the Chelyabinsk Regional Ministry of Social Relations (MSR) held a conference at the Semya center on the theme 'Mobilization and Development of Resources for Improving the Situation of Families with Children'. The participants considered the implementation of the pilot project 'Introduction of an Innovative Model of Preventing Family Troubles, supported by the Strategic Initiatives Agency. Participating in the conference were Ms. T.Chirkova, head of the MSR social development department, Ms. I. Okolelova, head of the MSR department for organization of social protection of the family and children, Ms. A. Dyagileva, Semya center director, Ms. N. Ivanova, autonomous non-commercial organization 'Agency of Strategic Initiatives for Promoting New Projects', Dr. S. Borzov, and representatives of the Ministry of Education.

It was noted that a considerable work was carried out in the Chelyabinsk Region to build a childhood protection system. An integrated system has been built to prevent the abandonment of newborns and to keep them in their blood families. An important work is carried out in this sphere by public organizations and foundations. The Chelyabinsk Region is an innovative platform for introducing mechanisms of involving socially oriented non-commercial organizations in helping risk group families. Dr. Borzov pointed to an interesting practice used by the Semya center in its work together with the diocese of Chelyabinsk, in particular, the work of a priest from the Parish of Pechora Icon of the Mother of God and Semya center specialists in the ethical formation of the younger generation. He said that this project deserves to be spread to the Russian national level as an innovative form of work in the social sphere.

The meeting also dealt with pressing problems involved in the efforts to raise the effectiveness of measures for preventing vulnerable families and the need to work out and introduce the algorithms of cooperation between state-run and non-governmental providers of social services.

From materials on www.semya-centr.ru