World of New Opportunities

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The World of New Opportunities, a charity programme, seeks to create propitious conditions and opportunities for sustainable development across the Company’s footprint.

The programme is designed to:

support and promote public initiatives;
develop social partnerships;
promote new social technologies;
foster social competencies among local communities.

The programme covers the Krasnoyarsk Territory (Norilsk,Taimyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky Municipal District) and the Murmansk Region (Monchegorsk and the Pechengsky District).

The programme reflects the following priorities:

partnership — interaction among the Company, authorities and local community in solving social issues of the regions;
development — social investments in the regional development;
innovations — contribution to the development of human capital in the regions.

In its charity work, the Company is guided by the following principles:

focus on the local context — supporting projects and initiatives aimed at the social and economic development of the regions where the Company operates;
social partnership and public activity — supporting and promoting technology for inter-industry collaborations and social partnerships in the local community;
competitive approach — leveraging competitive bidding procedures in allocating charitable funds to back the best organisations, ideas and project teams;
openness, transparency and accountability — being open for dialogue and cooperation with all stakeholders, ensuring visibility of decision-making processes, reporting on the use of donations;
efficiency — assessing programmes and projects by how useful they are in solving social issues and creating more favourable social and economic environment across the Company’s footprint.

Partnership Development Innovations

Goal: to support public initiatives, impart new skills to the participants, and develop local expertise

Academy for social partnership and development

A series of workshops, master classes and training sessions on social project development, assessment and review of projects/programmes, and social entrepreneurship. The Academy offers trainings run in the course of a year on a voluntary and free of charge basis.

Socially Responsible Initiatives Competition

Supporting public initiatives and facilitating sustainable development across the Company’s geographies.

The Competition focuses on:

developing volunteer movements and support for socially vulnerable groups: elderly people, people with disabilities, orphans and children without parental care;
implementing new methods and technologies in engaging children, teenagers, young people: promoting social competencies, encouraging R&D creativity, running vocational counselling;
improving urban environment, developing and redeveloping public spaces, landmarks and courtyards;
conserving and restoring cultural heritage, unlocking creative potential and multiple forms of art, and offering new leisure activities;
promoting healthy lifestyle, creating conditions to encourage physical culture and mass sports, and new formats of sports activities and hobbies for children and adults;
nurturing environmental awareness and responsible behaviour in terms of environment and its protection, creating a practical platform for children and youth, running streetscaping and beautification initiatives;
furthering environmental outreach efforts and educational Arctic tourism services, conducting research in specially protected natural areas (SPNAs), carrying out activities to monitor and conserve rare and endangered animal species;
promoting organisational development of NGOs to enhance the quality of their services; expanding the offering, providing advanced training and internship opportunities, etc.;
developing leadership skills and social responsibility in children and teenagers.

We Are the City social technologies forum

A city event to bring together representatives of local communities, government authorities, business and mass media to discuss technologies and mechanisms of addressing social issues of the local communities, impart trends and best practices in charity and volunteer initiatives, demonstrate successful resolution of social issues.

We Are the City social engineering workshop

A three-day learning event that takes participants all the way through from idea generation to project implementation.

Day 1 — Creators. Brainstorming, getting to know participants, establishing contacts and partnerships.

Day 2 — Idea enablers. Learning to translate ideas into actionable projects, with a final picture of the initiative/event available by the end of the day.

Day 3 — Change makers. Going outside as urban designers and implementing volunteer initiatives turning them into a true city celebration.

We Are the City PicNick

The PicNick event is a festival “for a good cause” organised by local activists, participants of the World of New Opportunities programme (winners of the Socially Responsible Initiatives Competition, social entrepreneurs and FabLab employees) and Plant of Goodness corporate volunteer programme.

It is a street festival with a projects fair, workshops, master classes, etc.

Goal: to engage active citizens and business community in addressing social issues of the local communities through business projects.

Social entrepreneurship is a new format of social investments enjoying active development both in Russia and globally. Social entrepreneurship offers multiple benefits, including the return of funds allocated for solving social issues in the regions. Also, the new format allows to attract small and medium businesses to tackle social issues.

Social Entrepreneurship Course

The course includes theory of social entrepreneurship, business planning, practical skills in drafting organisational and financial plans, investment analysis, and motivational meetings with successful social entrepreneurs, businessmen and potential investors.

Practical entrepreneurial skills are taught by dedicated mentors. The Institute of Mentoring is a community of seasoned entrepreneurs with a track record of success stories wishing to share their experience and provide consulting services to burgeoning entrepreneurs. The would-be entrepreneurs are also trained in the best ways to organise their operations and specific training.

The course deliverables come in the form of a business plan for implementing a social entrepreneurial project.

Investment Session

At the investment session, the best projects developed by the participants of the Social Entrepreneurship course are presented to the public. The Expert Council decides on supporting projects by extending two-year interest-free loans for business development.

The session is attended by the representatives of commercial banks, investment and venture funds, and private investors. For them, this is an opportunity to spot innovation and high-quality projects for investment purposes.

Social entrepreneur clubs

A social entrepreneur club is a place for informal meetings of NPOs involved in entrepreneurship, alongside social entrepreneurs and social start-up participants. The club aims at developing social entrepreneurship, enhancing professional competencies of social entrepreneurs, promoting technologies and practices to tackle local social issues through business projects.

Goal: to facilitate the implementation of advanced technologies, foster R&D potential and encourage innovation in engineering.

FabLab, R&D creativity laboratories

FabLab is a public space where everyone can bring their ideas to life using equipment and professional software for digital manufacturing. With the diverse capabilities of available equipment, FabLab makes a perfect spot to launch innovative commercial projects.

The cutting-edge equipment of FabLab’s R&D creative laboratory supports a wide range of activities such as 3D modelling, prototyping and digital manufacturing. It is a place where anyone can give life to their creative and technical ideas, create a pilot sample or even start a new business.

Arctic.PRO R&D marathon

Arctic.PRO is an R&D marathon aiming to encourage R&D creativity and thirst for knowledge in children and youth, and to nurture engineering innovation.

The marathon is a 3-stage programme consisting of:

an online quiz testing the ability to solve engineering problems, quick thinking and understanding of physical and chemical phenomena;
Polar Technodrome, a competition celebrating the best ideas that could be developed into personal inventions, and a role play followed by abilities assessment;
an exciting trip to the world of science, technology and creative work with the R&D Winter School featuring meetups with gifted young scientists, workshops and master classes, educational trips and science shows.

Arctic Wave festival of R&D discoveries

This city event aims to promote R&D among young people, support school students in their engineering creativity and innovative thinking, and showcase the latest scientific achievements. Over 20 interactive sites host science battles and intellectual team games, quests and contests, experiments and tests, lectures by young scientists and educational R&D shows.

School of Urban Competencies

This project focuses on social competences and is designed for schoolchildren as the next generation of citizens. By participating in the classes, Our City festival, and Field Academy for Project Management summer school, students make their first steps towards financial awareness and learn things about information security and social projects. There are also advanced training courses available for school teachers. The most active children can join the volunteer team. The project is co-implemented with Alexei Kudrin’s Committee of Civil Initiatives.