Russia
RUSSIA is one of the countries in our Central & Eastern European Civic Development Project (CEECD Project), which helps girls, university students, and young professional women in post-communist societies become productive self-governing citizens, with an understanding of their personal responsibility in the social, civic, political, economic, cultural and moral decisions that shape their own lives, the lives of their families, their community, and society. This project gives girls and young women in Central and Eastern Europe the skills, confidence, and education they need to become catalysts in cultivating genuine citizenship, civic involvement, moral character, and personal responsibility as young citizens of their country and as a new generation of Europeans.
Program Title: Central & Eastern European Civic Development Project: Russian program Location: Moscow, Russia Target Groups:
Requested NGO and Partner:
Volga Foundation
Central & Eastern European Civic Development Project: Russian program Program Summary:
To best cultivate civic engagement at the local level, Foundation SCA has partnered with locally-born civic-oriented education, leadership, and character development programs for girls and young women in the region. The Central & Eastern European Civic Development project is designed to help build the local capacity of these organizations without creating long-term dependency. Through the CEECD project, SCA has partnered with three cultural centers: Stowarzyszenie Podnoszenia Kwalifikacji Kobiet (SPKK) in Warsaw, Poland; Vintgar in Ljubljana, Slovenia; and Volga in Moscow, Russia. Each of these centers has a proven track record of success, has commanded local support in the community, and demonstrated extended community impact through their programs.
To best foster a strong sense of personal investment by participants, the CEECD project requires that all participants make a contribution relative to their means as well as give back through service in their communities. To continue Central Europe’s revival and encourage a renaissance of the region’s traditions, rich heritage and cultural identity, CEECD programs focus on promoting creativity and fostering hope, joy, and optimism, and a pro-active approach to the society in which they live. To recuperate lost civic structures and cultivate a vigorous sense of citizenship, the CEECD project engages participants as well as local communities on multiples levels: through intellectual and cultural formation, freedom and anthropological formation, spirit of service and respect for the person.
The CEECD project engages a spirit of service and respect for the person in participants by involving participants in volunteer initiatives related to their training as students, or work as professionals. These initiatives vary based on the skills of those involved. For instance, through the Volga Center in Russia, professional women are involved in civic initiatives related to their area of expertise. Through Volga, a team of professional artists are involved in a movement to promote traditional Russian art, a team of lawyers is working to help regularize private property, while a team of nurses and psychiatrists work with handicapped children who have been abandoned because of their disabilities. Through this work they not only help others in their community, they discover the person behind the patient and they discover how their professional work can make a difference in society.
These concepts are reinforced through one-on-one personal and professional coaching. These programs are unmatched in the region not only for their focus on civic-oriented education, but for their integral approach to communicating with and developing the whole person. The CEECD project is designed to build local capacity without creating dependency.
Building up their local community is expansive growth: their country directly benefits from their commitment to civic involvement and social awareness, and in the long term, so will the greater community of Europe.
Back to Program Map |
