The heads of Russian municipalities were told about the current priorities of youth policy

The head of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh), Ksenia Razuvaeva, held an overview seminar for the heads of Russian municipalities on Thursday. She spoke about the current priorities of the youth policy, one of which is focus on the regions, and explained to the mayors what principles they should adhere to when organizing relevant work. The meeting was also attended by young participants of the forum “Territory of Meanings”, who presented their intellectual developments to the municipalities.

The seminar was held in the Senezh management workshop near Moscow at the height of the Territory of Meanings educational forum. The interest of young participants was kindled by the opportunity to present their intellectual projects to the heads of Russian cities. The municipalities, on the other hand, could be well motivated by the grant fund of Rosmolodezh allocated for the relevant programs. About 50 mayors attended the lecture “live”, remotely – another 48,300. mixing audiences of officials and young activists.

The head of the agency reminded the audience that youth policy is especially important in the context of the current tough information and psychological confrontation with the West: “This is a war for a generation … Hence the prioritization, and given at the presidential level to this (youth policy.— “b”) great attention. Globally, work with youth has two goals: to give young people the opportunity to increase their cultural and historical heritage, and also to create conditions for self-realization, followed from the speech of the head of the agency.

There are three priorities in this work, Ms. Razuvaeva explained: dissemination of practices to local levels, distribution of functions (it is important for the agency that it is not only the agency that deals with youth) and regularity.

“It is important to build a full cycle of work, when we are in constant, stable communication with young people,” the speaker emphasized. In conclusion, she called on the municipal heads to be active in relevant work and, if possible, communicate directly with young people.

The block of questions was opened by Alexander Mudrov, the head of the administration of the Gorodetsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region. They came to the conclusion that “the salary is not the most important thing for young people to stay” in the field, and the built environment is more important. “It is of decisive importance,” Ksenia Razuvaeva agreed. “What should it be like? Open to youth. The official explained that what is important in the infrastructure is filling, that is, workers who are ready to receive and guide young people. The mayors were also interested in projects for rural youth, the potential for promoting youth tourism and the participation of municipalities in its development, the introduction of entrepreneurial and creative initiatives. From Ms. Razuvaeva’s answers, it turned out that Rosmolodezh has both projects and budgets for literally all initiatives and ideas from the field.

“There is both a grant system and a system for supporting infrastructure and youth policy in the regions, which is actually aimed at municipalities today,” Ms. Razuvaeva later told Kommersant.

Infrastructural youth centers, according to her, are also now being created in large numbers at the level of municipalities. Finally, those projects for which young people receive grants are also mostly implemented at the local level, the head of the agency noted. The work on the ground, according to her plan, should close the “youth policy ecosystem” as a whole: “The system is being built consistently, but it will not be completed if we do not have effective work at the municipal level. Real changes take place on the ground, it is this level of power that feels the real needs of people, and the image of power is also formed by people through interaction at the level of municipalities.”

The young people were also given a chance to speak at the seminar. With the very first question, the activists took the topic to the political plane, complaining about “apolitical youth” not participating in the elections. “Are there any projects planned for this (political education.— “b”)?” – asked the participant of the forum Anastasia. In response, Ksenia Razuvaeva noted that the interest in the topic among young people is growing every year: “Our task is to create an engaging environment. Elections are an opportunity to come and influence, but for this you must have an environment where you believe that you can influence and are ready for action, and elections are also action.” You need to go to the elections, because “either you change the world, and everyone integrates into the world that you create, or there will be someone who will change, and you will need to integrate,” summed up the head of Rosmolodezh.

Grigory Leiba