The Interregional Conference "Volunteering in Government Institutions and Families" was held in St. Petersburg on October 13, 2026.: collaboration to support children and adults with mental disorders."
The forum was organized by the St. Petersburg Charitable Organization Perspektivy and the Alliance of Organizations The Value of Everyone. The full—time conference was attended by more than 190 people from St. Petersburg, Kirov, Moscow, Pskov, Perm, Samara, Ufa, Vologda, Nizhny Novgorod, Novgorod, Moscow, Leningrad regions, Karelia, Krasnodar Territory, as well as more than 300 online participants.
Archpriest Mikhail Potokin, Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social Service, spoke about the meanings of volunteer service and the Church's help to people in boarding schools. "There are words in the Holy Scriptures that what people value may have no meaning before God (Luke 16:15)," said Archpriest Mikhail Potokin. — What people value in life — career, well-being, power, talents that are given to us — may not really matter before God. Something else is important to Him. Antoine de Saint-Exupery has this phrase: "There is only one true value — it is the connection between man and man." Man is made for a meeting. When we come to this world, there is an encounter with God, with people."
Helping other people is more important for those who provide this assistance, said the chairman of the Synodal Department for Charity.: "When we come to people, when they welcome us, when they respond with the force with which people with disabilities respond in these institutions, we get the most out of it."
Archpriest Mikhail Potokin also spoke about his experience of serving in neuropsychiatric boarding schools and about the experience of church care for people with disabilities. According to the chairman of the synodal department, church volunteers help in various volunteer projects and social service homes.
The Church participates in the creation of assisted living projects. Archpriest Mikhail Potokin told about one of the examples of such a project — "House on the outside". This assisted living home for people with severe multiple developmental disabilities appeared in the village of Razdolye in the Priozersky district of the Leningrad Region as a joint project of the Perspektivy charity organization and the parish of the Church of the Royal Passion-Bearers. This project has become an alternative to neuropsychiatric boarding schools. Today it houses 10 people.
The conference sections were attended by employees of the Synodal department — Veronika Leontieva, head of the department of assistance to people with disabilities, and Natalia Starinova, head of the legal Service.
The conference was also attended by Svetlana Agapitova, Commissioner for Human Rights in St. Petersburg, Anna Bitova, Chairman of the Board of the Value for Everyone Alliance and the Board of the Center for Curative Pedagogy charity organization, representatives of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation, the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, employees of non-profit organizations, state social service institutions, and representatives of regional authorities. and volunteer movements.
The participants discussed successful practices of cooperation between inpatient social service organizations and NGOs, attracting and selecting volunteers, ensuring the effectiveness of their activities and the safety of their wards, legal aspects of volunteering in inpatient organizations, as well as volunteering in schools, families and assisted living. They noted the importance of uniting the efforts of the Church, the state and society in supporting people with mental disabilities and their families.
There were three thematic areas during the conference: the effectiveness of the work of volunteers, the prevention of admission to boarding schools, and volunteers in boarding schools. The issue of the openness of boarding schools for NGOs and volunteers was discussed separately.