On the initiative of the Russian community schools resource centres The “Join us!” Community Schools Campaign was launched on November 16, 2006 to continue through December 12, 2006.

Every year Russian community schools celebrate various international holidays such as the International Day for Tolerance, the International Volunteer Day, the International Day of Disabled Persons, the International Human Rights Day, the World AIDS Day, the International Mother’s Day, the Constitution Day, etc. Over years the celebrating of these days has become the community schools’ good tradition.

The “Join Us!” Campaign has been designed to unite the above-mentioned days and attract attention of the general public to the activities of community schools and their impact in the development of civil society in Russia.

Community schools from over 20 regions have declared their participation in the campaign so far: Altai, Krasnoyarsk, Primorsky territories; Amour, Volgograd, Voronezh, Ivanovo, Irkutsk, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Penza, Samara, Tomsk, Tyumen regions, as well as the Republics of Altai, Buryatia, Tatarstan, Khakassia, Chuvashia and others.

The “Join Us!” Campaign is another step in the development of the community schools movement, strengthening of cooperation and partnerships between community schools, local authorities and business.

The events of the Campaign are covered on the web-site of the community schools movement and other mass media. For Russian-language materials on the web-site of the community schools movement, please, see the “Events”, “Library” and “News” sections. You can join the discussion of the Campaign at the web-site Forum (in Russian).

Krasnoyarsk Centre for Community Partnerships assumes the general coordination of the Campaign. Contacts: Marina Dorofeeva, kccp@kccp.ru, tel. +7 (3912) 553373, 551248.