Sozidanie The Sozidanie Foundation was officially registered in Russia on 25 February 2000 by the Foundation for Social Partnership, New Perspectives Foundation, the interregional public organization AYL, and private individuals. Since 2003 the Sozidanie Foundation and the Centre for the Development of Volunteering in Russia have united their efforts and worked in close cooperation, strengthening the management, programme activity and resource stability of both.
The Sozidanie Foundation’s mission is: To support and develop programmes aimed at involving young people actively in community service to ameliorate their local social and economic situation, while respecting Russian historical traditions and learning from best practice world-wide. To be the leading Russian organization supporting and developing youth service programmes. The Foundation’s objectives are to: - provide financial, methodological and informational support to organizations working with and through young volunteers · provide support for initiatives and young volunteers working to improve local community life, recognizing how socially important this work is · research: 1) the most important factors for the development of youth service; 2) the most effective methods of developing socially useful work; 3) the legislative base of youth service policy · facilitate meetings, seminars, conferences, forums and volunteer camps in partnership with volunteers and organizations promoting socially useful volunteering for young people - collaborate with organizations from more than 30 Russian regions in developing information centres. These will serve NGOs, local initiative groups, volunteers, research centres, government and commercial bodies who promote volunteering among young people. The main activity of the centres will be to collect and distribute information about involving young people in socially useful work, promoting voluntary initiatives for young people, and facilitating the creativeness of volunteers, as well as publishing articles on the subject of youth service.
Current Projects
«Youth projects» - a different kind of support for the realization of projects aimed at involving young people in socially useful work «Service and Learning» - designing and introducing a programme to combine the educational process with socially useful work «The Volunteer Sector’s contribution towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals» «Global Youth Service Day in Russia» - co-ordinating annual public education campaigns to develop volunteering in Russia “Creating Local Connections: Young People Online in Russia” - creating a national-level online community within the TakingITGlobal network “School – the territory of law” - promoting civic and human rights education for school students and teachers in the Russian regions, supported by the European Commission “Creating our future together” - support the establishment and development of a youth service policy in Russia The Foundation implements projects and programmes with financial help from: The Delegation of the European Commission, The British Embassy, The Embassy of the Netherlands, The Ford Foundation, The Mott Foundation, ICP, GSI, Microsoft, USAID, Disney Company, Government of Moscow, Russian Civic Chamber, Liga of health of nation, V. Potanin Foundation, Agency of Social Information, Administration of President of Russian Federation Informational Support Sozidanie Foundation holds information about: · Russian NGOs working through volunteers · Russian and international grant-giving organizations supporting young people’s volunteering · Resource centres offering consulting, informational, educational, methodological and other services to the Third Sector in Russia · Literature on the Third Sector: reference books, analytical materials, methodological works, sociological research, legislative documents, conference and seminar reports, audio and video materials on young people volunteering for socially useful work in Russia and abroad. The Foundation researches: - Foreign and Russian experience of young people’s involvement in socially useful work - Educationally acceptable ways of combining theoretical and practical forms of academic education, and the influence of participation in social activities on the progress of students’ studies - Young people’s motivations for participating in community action, and changes in their values and aims - The interrelation of patriotism and young people’s involvement in community service.
Publications: - «The Mosaic of Russian Volunteerism: activities, resources, opinions» , detailing voluntary activity in the Russian regions systematically, and gathering together available resources for the development of voluntary initiatives - « Learning to Serve: voluntary activity in the Russian regions – how to combine the educational process with socially useful activity» - «Social capital» A summary of the experience and technology of funding from private and commercial sources for socially useful work by young volunteers, for use by Russian NGOs Contact information: Postal address: 119019 Moscow, post office box 126 Office address: 121059 Moscow, New Arbat, 11 E-mail: Sozidanie@co.ru http://www.fondsozidanie.ru Elena Zakharova Executive Director, Sozidanie Foundation | 
