Creation of the national social brand Dobro.ru was announced at the RUSSIA EXPO
The most significant volunteer event in Russia — the grand
opening of the IV annual Dobro.Conference took place at the RUSSIA EXPO. The
conference is organized by the Association of Volunteer Centers with the
support of Rosmolodezh.Dobro. During the event, the merging of the Association
of Volunteer Centers and the Dobro.ru platform into a new unified brand — the
Dobro.ru (Добро.рф, lit. Goodness.ru) social development ecosystem — was
announced.
This year, over two thousand leaders of volunteer movements
and the charitable sector from Russia and CIS countries — Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan — are participating
in the Dobro.Conference. Among them are heads of Dobro.Centres and organizations
involved in social projects, winners of the International #WEARETOGETHER Award,
as well as top users of the Dobro.ru platform, which was launched by the
association in 2017.
The Dobro.Conference is dedicated to the ten-year anniversary of the Association of Volunteer Centres. During the grand opening, an official address from the President of the Russian Federation to the conference participants was delivered. In his message, Vladimir Putin highlighted the role of the Association of Volunteer Centres in the development of the volunteer movement and support in designing and implementing essential, significant initiatives in all regions of Russia: "In this regard, I note the creative, multifaceted activities of your Association. Bringing together volunteer organizations and thousands of #WEARETOGETHER headquarters under its aegis, it makes a significant contribution to the development of the volunteer movement, supports the design and implementation of essential, significant initiatives in all regions of Russia. You work for the benefit of our state, addressing urgent issues in various spheres of life and widely using advanced information and communication technologies. The successes you have achieved convincingly demonstrate an example of fruitful, effective work," emphasized President Vladimir Putin.
Deputy Prime Minister
Dmitry Chernyshenko, addressing the participants, emphasized the important role
of the Association in helping people, participants in the special military
operation and their families: "The Association of Volunteer Centres has
become a reliable partner of the state and society, a conduit of the culture of
mutual assistance. This is especially important now, when Russia is facing
serious challenges. Volunteers actively support our servicemen, participants in
the special military operation and their families. Thousands of #WEARETOGETHER
headquarters regularly send targeted assistance and volunteers on humanitarian
missions to new regions of Russia. I would like to thank everyone involved in
this noble cause. You give the most important thing you have — the only
non-renewable resource — your time."
By order of the President, the Association is developing the
infrastructure to support civic initiatives — a network of Dobro.Centre
community development centres in cities and regions of Russia. Currently, more
than 700 Dobro.Centres have been opened across Russia, helping people implement
their social and civic initiatives. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the
Association, along with the "Volunteers-Medics" movement and ONF (All-Russian
People's Front), organized the national mutual assistance project
#WEARETOGETHER, which provided aid to over 7 million people and continues to do
so during the special military operation. The Association, together with
#WEARETOGETHER headquarters, provides targeted assistance to military families
and sends humanitarian missions to new regions.
Since 2017, the Association has been developing the Dobro.ru platform, which over seven years has become the world's largest social mutual assistance platform. Today, it unites 6.6 million people and nearly 70 thousand organizations. Artyom Metelev, Chairman of the Council of the Association of Volunteer Centres and Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Youth Policy, explained why the decision was made to merge the brands of the Association of Volunteer Centres and Dobro.ru: "One of the main achievements of the Russian volunteer support system over the past 10 years is the Dobro.ru platform, where 4,000 people register every day. Forty-nine percent of Russians are familiar with and trust our brand. With the expansion of the Association's work areas, we have decided to merge the brands of the Association of Volunteer Centres and the Dobro.ru platform into a single brand — the social development ecosystem Dobro.ru".
At the opening ceremony of the conference, Artem Metelev presented the new corporate style of the organization and unveiled the development strategy for Dobro.ru until 2030. According to Metelev, the strategy will focus on the comprehensive development of the country's civil sector, supporting volunteering, charity, mentorship, blood donation, non-profit organizations and social entrepreneurship: "In the next six years, we will develop our ecosystem in all forms of social participation, providing people with opportunities to contribute not only as volunteers but also as mentors, donors and social entrepreneurs. We will launch systematic programs for the development of the non-profit sector and charity, training and preparing personnel for NPOs. A key priority for us will be the active involvement of businesses in partnerships with NPOs and universities, promoting the growth of corporate social programs, and developing international humanitarian initiatives," noted Artem Metelev.
The strategic directions of the Association will include:
developing infrastructure to support the civil sector, fostering a culture of
charity in society, training and preparing personnel, supporting leaders and
their projects, creating formats for mass and direct participation, conducting
research and analytics, and fostering international cooperation.
Official guests at the ceremonial event noted that the
Association has conducted extensive work over the past 10 years. Ksenia
Razuvaeva, head of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs, reminded the event's
attendees that the Association grew from 26 student centres in 2014 to a
community of more than 70,000 organizations. Today, the Association of
Volunteer Centres is the largest structure in Russia's civil non-profit sector.
"I had the honor of becoming part of a large volunteer
team. It has been a long journey from dreaming of volunteering to achieving
real accomplishments. People trust volunteers. This indicates that goodness is
truly a way of life today. Everyone can find the right and useful way to engage
in volunteering. The infrastructure for volunteering is actively developing,
with volunteer centres opening in universities, colleges, technical schools and
secondary schools. We have much to be proud of. But we cannot rest on our laurels.
If 28% of citizens are already volunteers, 55% are potential volunteers who
want to participate but don't know how. Therefore, we still have a lot of work
ahead, particularly on forming the national project 'Youth and Children', of
which the volunteer movement and the creation of conditions will be a
part," said Ksenia Razuvaeva, head of Rosmolodezh, in her congratulatory
speech.
A pleasant surprise for the conference participants was the
premiere of the anthem of the Dobro.ru ecosystem — "Something Good".
The song was performed by co-author Dmitry Averyanov, resident of the Tavrida
Art Cluster, ambassador of Russian Student Teams, finalist of the TV project
"New Star," singer SHEVA and the all-Russian combined choir of the
First.
The Dobro.Conference will run from June 10 to 14. The
business program includes more than 70 events divided into three blocks:
"People and Family", "State" and "Society." The
event is organized by the Association of Volunteer Centres with the support of:
Rosmolodezh.Dobro, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian
Federation, the Committee for Public Relations and Youth Policy of Moscow, the
All-Russian Public-State Movement of Children and Youth "Movement of the
First" and the Russian Society "Knowledge."
