Maria Lvova-Belova announced the launch of the Centres of New Opportunities 2025 competition
Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova announced the launch of the Centres of New Opportunities 2025 competition, aimed at establishing and expanding crisis family centres and day care facilities for children with disabilities in Russian regions.
At a news conference dedicated to the competition, Maria Lvova-Belova said that the total grant fund for the competition is 100 million rubles. The grant amount varies by category: up to two million rubles for day care centres for children with disabilities, and up to three million rubles for crisis family centres. Applications for the competition can be submitted until March 25, 2025, and the results will be announced by June 1, 2025.
According to the children’s rights commissioner, supporting parents of children with disabilities and families in challenging life circumstances is a key part of efforts to prevent social orphanhood and implement a family-centred approach across Russian regions.
Speaking about the competition, Maria Lvova-Belova highlighted that the commissioner’s office carries out this work as part of strategic programmes such as Support through Life and Children in the Family. Crisis centres that provide comprehensive support to families, ensuring that parents stay with their children, are particularly in demand today. The primary goal of these facilities is to help keep children within their families. Their services can vary, ranging from offering temporary shelter to pregnant women, fire victims, or others in need, to providing assistance to parents struggling with addiction.
State and municipal institutions, non-profit organisations, public associations, and state-public organisations are invited to participate in the competition. The competition is organised by the Country for Children charitable foundation in collaboration with its partners: the charitable foundation for supporting social and cultural projects Tsargrad and the Andrei Melnichenko Charitable Foundation.
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The Centres of New Opportunities grant competition was held for the first time in 2024, with 262 organisations from 73 regions of the country submitting applications. Of these, 15 organisations were selected as winners. Additionally, five regions received support from the Fund for Children in Difficult Life Situations. The total amount of grants awarded was 35 million rubles. The services provided by the centres have already benefited more than 3,500 families with children.