“Homelessness is not a sentence” – how the Moscow “Overnight” works

"Homelessness is not a sentence" - how the Moscow "Overnight" works

At the end of July, the consulting service of the Overchka, a charitable organization, which has been helping homeless people in St.

Petersburg, has been opened in Moscow.

Due to the epidemiological situation, only the consulting service is working, where visitors can receive assistance of lawyers and social workers about the restoration of documents, challenging fraudulent transactions with real estate, searching for work and other issues, academic for homeless people.

In the near future it is planned to launch a shelter.

Earlier in the summer, another project “Overnight” – “Night Bus”, delivering hot food, clothing and hygiene items for those in need, began its work.

In 2018, the first attempt to come to Moscow was made in 2018 with the Cultural Laundry project, but the initiative group of residents of the Savelovsky district, where it was supposed to rent the premises, forced the organizers to abandon this idea.

The reason for the discontent of the townspeople was the stereotypes about homeless people and the unwillingness to understand the problem – it is not for nothing that one of his most important missions “The Owner” considers it precisely the educational work among the population, which helps to remove the stigma from homelessness.

In this project, noticeable social advertising and painstaking work with public opinion helps.

Today, the Moscow Overnight settled in paper passage: social workers and lawyers accept in a cozy freshly renovated building, you can use sanitizers, outlets and Wi-Fi, there are free water, tea, coffee and medical masks.

For residents of the future shelter, shower, laundry and library are provided.

What does the Moscow branch “Overnight” look like The path to the “night” The post that the “night” is looking for the director of the Moscow branch, I saw on Facebook with Grisha Sverdlin (director of the “night”.

– DEEPLA Trenda) and sent a resume.

At the first meeting, he said that the Friends Foundation, about which I have already heard a lot about this moment, supports the “night” and takes on the salary of the director of the Moscow branch for two years.

Therefore, one of the stages of interviews was a meeting with the Friends Foundation.

All these two years “friends” were nearby: we held strategic sessions together, thought about possible partners, and looked for options for solving complex problems.

“Friends” for me is a feeling of rear and confidence that there are people nearby, to whom I can come for help or advice at any time.

Working in the “night” is a job with which I was incredibly lucky.

For me, there is no sacrifice or asceticism in this, but there is a call to myself to solve a complex social problem and work with a topic that few people usually want to work (which it seems to me especially unfair), a drive from working with super professional colleagues, many of whom have become During this time, close friends, the opportunity to study and do what was not yet in Moscow is to open a consulting service and rehabilitation shelter, launch a “night bus” and see the results of their work – hundreds of people who receive help.

Social economy 39 charity funds in Russia: a list of proven NGOs Am I getting tired? Highly.

It has never been so difficult for me to work.

But it has never been so interesting.

About the Friends Foundation The Friends charity foundation in 2015 founded three friends: Gore Nakhapetyan, Yan Yanovsky and Dmitry Yampolsky.

Later, Ivan Urgant joined the “Friends”, heading the Board of Trustees of the Fund.

The task of the fund is to help charity in Russia become a professional industry.

For many years, supporting various non -profit organizations and individuals, the founders came to the conclusion that the industries are needed systemic changes.

The Friends Foundation became the Foundation of Funds, the aggregator of opportunities, knowledge, resources and experience.

Helping the charity industry becomes more effective, the fund develops three software areas-the IT platform of intellectual volunteering ProCharity, an additional education program for the leaders of social projects “Moscow School of Professional Philanthropy” and an accelerator for the NPO “Team of Professional”.

“Overnight” is a participant in the program “Team of Professionals”.

As part of the program in 2018-20, the Friends Foundation provided training, conducted trainings and strategic sessions for employees of the organization, strengthened the management team “Overnight” and helped with the search for premises for the Knight Consulting Center in Moscow.

“Overnight” in the pandemic During the pandemic, we launched projects that helped people just get such a simple humanitarian aid.

We were forced to close some projects for quarantine, for example, the consulting service in St.

Petersburg.

For some projects, the format of work has changed.

For example, in the “cultural laundry”, which works in St.

Petersburg, one could only give things to the duty officer, and then return for them – and earlier there was an opportunity to spend time in the waiting room, while things were erased and dried – to read the book, watch the TV.

In some projects, we refused the help of volunteers.

The “night bus” continued to work, because homeless people were in the pandemic in the most vulnerable position, because nothing was done at the state level.

For example, in other countries, the state forces were rented in empty hotels, offices, fire units so that homeless people could also be isolated.

After all, these are mainly elderly people or people with weakened immunity, because life on the street does not contribute to physical health.

Nothing of the same was undertaken in Russia, so our humanitarian projects continued to work, but only the employees of the Overnight went on flights, and the volunteers did not attract volunteers.

Experience exchange We advise organizations and volunteers, write methodological manuals, shoot training in the construction of projects, conduct trainings and seminars throughout the country, arrange internships for colleagues from other regions in the “overnight stay”.

And we also developed and share for free the online system for escorting the ISS customers (the multifunctional cabinet of the social worker), we launched a site with step-by-step instructions for restoring the documents “what to do”.

Every year we will organize a large international conference so that professionals and beginners, employees of charitable and state organizations can share experience, discuss the problems of homelessness and ways to solve them.

For example, in 2019 we held 297 consultations for 151 organizations in 53 cities, organized a two -day conference for 142 participants, and held four internships.

Many organizations filled out applications and took advantage of our program.

How “overnight” works with society, state and business Financial model “Overnight” Overnight is a public charitable organization and works for the money that she collects.

We advocate the maximum transparency of our expenses and financial statements.

This is very important to build trusting relationships with the donors and show people that their means really go to a good deed, change life for the better.

Photo: Archive “Overnight” We have four main sources of income: Private donations – the money that people sacrifice the “overnight” on our website, transfer to a bank account, bring cash to the accountant or put them in our piggy banks.

They make up 52% of all donations.

Grants from Russian and foreign charitable foundations – money that can be won by competition to solve specific problems at different points in the planet.

To get that kind of money, we submit to the funds an application for their requirements similar to a detailed business plan: we justify our expenses and promise specific results by the end of the project.

That is, we take obligations and report to the charity funds for each ruble transferred to us – what exactly he went to, and how it helped the needy people who addressed us.

This is 20% of all donations.

Corporate donations – money that commercial companies donate to the “night”.

These are mainly medium and small businesses, domestic companies and Russian offices of foreign firms.

Such donations make up 17% of the budget.

Finally, 11% of the budget are subsidies or grants from the regional and federal budgets.

The state gives this money to work “nights”.

As in the case of charity facilities, we receive them if our applications win special competitions for the distribution of budget funds.

These are the same analogues of business plans with the justification of the amount that we ask for our work, and specific results in the help of the people that we promise.

And obligatory strict reports for each ruble spent and for the results.

More information about all our sources of financing can be read on our website.

In 2019, the budget of the nightshaws increased to 104 million rubles, and for the first time in the history of the organization, private donations amounted to more than half of the total budget.

Now 4,128 people have been signed for regular donations, this is the basis of stability, which allows us to support existing projects and plan new ones with confidence.

Therefore, the most effective way to help the “night” is to subscribe to regular donations for any amount.

We plan a budget for at least a year in advance and try to strictly follow the financial plan in terms of expenses.

We form a pillow of safety for ourselves without spending all the donated money at once.

If ten years ago there was a situation in which money remained for two weeks of work, now the remains in the accounts are enough for many months ahead.

Relations with business Intangible donations from brands – food, building materials, legal advice – play a rather large role in our work.

For example, the Aurora Group company made all the engineering documentation for the repair of the consulting service for free, Leroy Merlin presented almost all the building materials that were needed for repairs, Mosplitka handed over tiles, a network of laundries Prachka.

com – washing and drying machines, Thermex – water heaters, Luis+mounted a video surveillance system for free, the “kitchen in the area” prepares soup for two days a week, which we distribute in the “night bus”, Eka provides gasoline.

You can continue and continue.

All this has saved and saves us several million rubles, and we are very grateful to all our corporate partners for the help and support of our projects.

Social economy Oysters and values: how business works with charity funds In relations with business, it is important for us that in the process of interaction, everyone acquires something useful for himself.

We are responsible for the most efficient use of the resources that the companies trust us and share those that we have: we are happy to talk about our friends on social networks and the media, together we participate in conferences and forums, we post the logos of our partners Inside the consulting service and on the “night bus”.

We rejoice when we see that the audience is exchanged, the brand begins to be associated with social responsibility, the willingness to take on unpopular, but important topics.

In a word, everyone wins.

We always thank our partners, keep them aware of the latest news, invite you to visit and generally maintain friendly relations.

Work with Stigma Homelessness The term of residence in the St.

Petersburg shelter usually depends on the complexity of the situation of a particular person and the escort plan that we developed with him.

Help can occupy from several weeks to several years, but on average people live in a shelter for four months.

While our customers live in a shelter, they do what we all do at home usually.

We have a library, a rest room, sometimes volunteers come who conduct English courses for free or teach how to undergo interviews, arrange film screenings, lectures and concerts.

Photo: Archive “Overnight” A homeless person is not necessarily a person who physically lives on the street, sleeps under the bridge or in the waiting room.

This can be a person who, for example, has lost his job a week ago.

The main reason for homelessness in Russia is labor migration.

These are people who came from small cities, depressed regions of our country, to work in Moscow, St.

Petersburg or other large cities.

And then someone develops, someone does not add up.

Especially if people enter the category of risk: they live from salaries to salaries, many significant part of their earnings are sent home to parents, families.

Therefore, it seems to me that the main work with Stigma is to show that homeless people are very different.

It can be men and women, elderly and young, it can be people with higher education, with several higher education, but people can be without education.

And therefore, in order to help a person get out of the street, it is very important to look at his personal story and help everyone differently based on what situation he got into.

Also subscribe to the TELEGRAM channel of DEEPLA trends and be aware of current trends and forecasts about the future of technology, eco-nominal, education and innovation.

HELPFUL LINKS:


• Green Trend of this article: “Homelessness is not a sentence” – how the Moscow “Overnight” works;
• DEEPLA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deeplaeu/;

• DEEPLA Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DEEEPLAEU/;

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/DeeplaEu;

• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.it/deeplaeu;

• Email to: info@deepla.eu.


DEEPLA Staff thanks you a lot for reading us. About our project…


In DEEPLA we talk about Green Trends that are changing our lives.


The Green Economy project is based on the need to protect national interests while strengthening global technological trends. Why we talk about GreenEconomy? Because human activity causes irreparable damage to the environment. Until recently, people lived according to the principle "after us, even a flood." Fortunately, today the trend is changing. The development of a green economy is a direct proof of this. And in DEEPLA we are committed.