Nornickel invests 1 billion rubles in 1,000 social projects

The contest between social projects is an important element of the World of New Opportunities charity program. The contest has been held since 2014, with funding provided for nearly a thousand projects (967).

Contest organizers have constantly redefined the selection criteria, to expand the range of applicants and foster new project management implementation approaches. The quality of projects has been steadily improving, too, with business ideas becoming increasingly interesting and useful. This cooperation helps to underpin sustainable development in regions where Nornickel operates.

This year’s trends:

• the quality of applications and the level of elaboration has improved,
• the number of partner projects has increased,
• the range of social services has expanded.

The number of first time participants has grown. They include both experienced startup owners and people who have embarked on the journey from idea generation to implementation for the first time. Contest organizers believe that the more diverse ideas and projects are, the better they will contribute to social landscape development of cities.

The 2023 contest participants included non-profit organizations from Norilsk and the Taimyr Dolgano-Nenets district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Monchegorsk and its subordinate territory, the Pechenga municipal district and the rural settlement of Lovozero in the Lovozero district of the Murmansk region, Chita and the Gazimuro-Zavodsky district of the Trans-Baikal Territory.

Murmansk region. The rural settlement of Lovozero in the Murmansk region entered the contest for the first time this year. Applications from the settlements of Lovozero and Krasnoshchelye demonstrated a high level of project culture and detailed elaboration. The authors of four projects were among the winners. These included a project proposed by the staff of the Krasnoshchelye secondary school, aiming to educate youths from 7 to 17 years old about the culture and life of the Komi people, and includes an advanced Komi-Izhem language learning program.

The community of the indigenous Sami people based in the settlement of Lovozero plan to create a museum-workshop to preserve the culture of the Sami, Komi and Nenets peoples. The Lovozero public organization “The Cultural Code” proposed a winning project to preserve the Sami oral language. The target audience of the project is the indigenous population of the village and especially the younger generation. Another project targeting children is the Literary Quilt proposed by teachers of the Lovozero secondary school, who came up with an ingenuous way to promote reading to youngsters.

Monchegorsk and the Pechenga district have focused on education and fostering creative development in local residents, irrespective of age. Their projects include:

• a series of informative and natural sciences classes in astronomy and space for preschoolers,
• a media studio for would-be bloggers,
• a robotics club,
• leisure and educational activities for the older generation on library premises,
• designing a creative space for fostering creativity in residents over the age of 35.

In Chita and the Gazimuro-Zavodsky district, many projects focus on the socialization of children with disabilities. Chita’s other socially significant projects to be awarded funding include:

• the preservation of the Buryat language,
• improving the city park Beryozka,
• building a nature trail in the specially protected natural area “Krasnaya Gorka”.

In Taimyr, the project “In the Bighorn’s Footsteps” has received funding from “The World of New Opportunities” charity program. The project aims to build several trails on the Putorana Plateau, home to rare animals – bighorns, or bighorn sheep.

The nominations “The Pole of the Future”, ”The Pole of Revival” and “The Pole of Energy” received the largest number of applications. The winning projects focus on all aspects of public life in the regions, such as:

• an animation school for schoolchildren,
• nature islands in urban areas,
• a digital competence center,
• skateboarding, snowboarding and snowscooting parks.

The list of winners has been posted on the website of the World of New Opportunities charity program.