RESULTS OF THE EXHIBITION – A BRIEF REPORT

St. Petersburg’s 300 year anniversary celebrations began with a social exhibition “The city for you, you for the city”.

The exhibition “Social Petersburg: new solutions” took place over the 4th and 5th April under the above slogan. The exhibition was the first and only socially-orientated exhibition within the framework of the city’s official 300-year anniversary celebrations.

“This is already the second time I have opened an exhibition like this”, noted Valentina Matvienko, the region’s presidential representative, at the exhibition’s opening ceremony, “and, every time, I have been thrilled by the sheer scale of work undertaken by social organizations and the serious problems they aim to resolve”. Other than Mrs. Matvienko, taking part in the exhibition’s opening were Aleksey Shishlov, president of the State Parliament Commission for Science and Education, the city’s vice-governor and president of the Labour and Social Protection Committee Vladimir Derbin, and the deputy president of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly Yuri Gladkov.

155 non-commercial organizations took part in the exhibition, presenting their programmes and services over the course of two days. The exhibition area was divided up along the lines of a city’s various social facilities – for instance, a hospital, legal practice, a rehabilitation centre, a school, totaling in all 13 various sections. The layout of the exhibition made it easy for visitors to find organizations coinciding with their needs. The design can be, according to the exhibition’s organizer Elina Chizhevskaya, considered a product of the organisers’ specialist know-how, since nothing of its sort has been undertaken previously.

Around 700 specialists from various spheres visited on the first day – journalists, representatives of government bodies, NGO directors, entrepreneurs and students.

A number of round table sessions were organized for these specialists, together with 4 negotiation areas: “NGOs in St. Petersburg’s drug rehabilitation system: the potential for cooperation”; “Support of the family as a means to prevent orphanhood and child neglect”; “St. Petersburg’s parkland”; “The conception of Social Policy in relation to disabled children”. As part of the preparations for these negotiation areas, experts from both the governmental and non-governmental sectors prepared analytical materials on the current state of affairs in these areas. These materials were published in the form of brochures, with the name of each corresponding to its target negotiation area. These are available on the website of the NGO Development Centre.

On April 5th, when the exhibition was opened to the general public, visitor numbers reached around 3,800 people. Visitors were able to obtain advice from social workers, education specialists, psychologists, doctors, human rights workers and legal experts. In addition, visitors also had the opportunity to visit a highly varied selection of seminars and master-classes, to watch and take part in the entertainment programme for children and adults. Adults were able to familiarize themselves with the programmes of non-commercial organizations, while children took part in competitions, games and quizzes.

The exhibition was visited by 67 journalists, and has already been reported on in more than 36 newspaper articles, television and radio broadcasts. For instance, the nationwide newspaper ‘Izvestiya’ published on April 5th the following article

On the final day of the exhibition, the results of the competition for participants were announced: