Roscongress Foundation’s Social Platform to Help Create Environmental Responsibility among Younger Generation

The ‘Arctic: Territory of Dialogue’ 5th International Arctic Forum is being held in St. Petersburg on 9–10 April. As part of the Forum, the Roscongress Foundation’s Social Platform has co-organized an exhibition of children’s drawings for the Green Paintbrush national social project designed to provide schoolchildren with early vocational guidance.

Roscongress Foundation Deputy CEO and Director for the Socio-Economic Agenda Elena Marinina said: “Our country is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of natural resources, but overall we need to instil a caring attitude towards nature and the importance of environmental activities from an early age. We decided to support the Green Paintbrush national social project for early vocational guidance since its main goal is to create a responsible attitude with respect to nature and the culture of environmental safety and motivate children and adolescents to protect the environment”.

“The Arctic is a strategically important region for Russia and the world, and its environmental problems require special attention”, Green Paintbrush Foundation President Vera Kuzubov said. “We want to make a contribution to generating environmental awareness among the younger generation so that the people who will be making decisions 10, 20, and 30 years down the road have a clear awareness of the region’s importance and their responsibility for its preservation”.

The artwork contest is one of the stages of the project. The exhibition at the ‘Arctic: Territory of Dialogue’ 5th International Arctic Forum is comprised of drawings by the Green Paintbrush project participants. The works are devoted to the beauty of Russian nature, environmental protection, and pertinent environmental problems of the North.

The social platform is a strategic initiative of the Roscongress Foundation that aims to promote socially significant projects and help build a dialogue between the parties involved in the social ecosystem: the government, business, society, and representatives of the non-profit sector and the media.

The Green Paintbrush project aims to lay the groundwork for training future environmental engineers, geologists, and occupational safety specialists. The project creates environmental awareness and a culture of safety among the younger generation and motivates children and adolescents to protect the environment and ensure the safety of their own lives as well as the lives of others. Green Paintbrush provides children and teenagers, including those from low-income and large families as well as families with disabled children, with the opportunity for a social elevator. It offers motivation for growth and ways to realize this motivation by learning about the most in-demand professions of the future.