Community-Led Development in Practice: Humanising Institutions for Children and Older People in Russia

Proposes a family-type institutional model of an inter-generational living arrangement as a socially-oriented response to the personal, social, and psychological hazards faced by children and the elderly in Russian state-run institutions. The dire circumstances of many in these two generations point to a serious failure in social policy since Russia's comprehensive transition started in 1991. The model depends on community involvement, with retired adults, the older children in orphanages and the community at large taking on the decision making. The goal is that the participation of elderly citizens in the daily routine of orphanages should play a major positive role in the psychological health of orphaned children. Considers the situation of orphans in Russia as part of their work with the University of Kentucky's USAID-funded partnership programme with Khabarovsk in Russia. Ideas are informed by the theoretical constructs of 'mentalite' in the context of Wallerstein's world system theory. (Quotes from original text)