Russian Orphan Opportunity Fund

In 2023, roof's largest project continued to be the pskov post-orphanage education centre in the city of pskov (the fr pavel adelgeim centre for post-orphanage support). In addition to providing basic educational programmes, our centre also helps orphanage graduates with questions of obtaining housing, keeping necessary personal documents up to date, and finding and maintaining jobs. The centre also serves the equally important goal of providing a "family and support group for these young people who find themselves alone in the city at the age of 16+, after growing up in rural orphanages. At the close of 2023, our programs were serving around 250 orphanage graduates in the pskov area. In addition to educational assistance, roof provides a great deal of legal aid, helping orphanage leavers to secure housing; despite being guaranteed a right to housing upon leaving the orphanage, very few of these young adults manage to enact their rights without one or more formal court cases. We work closely with municipal and regional social services personnel, so as to best serve our target group. In 2023, our main educational efforts were in basic life skills (budgeting, cooking, paying bills, etc. ), and cognitive skills development. Most of this work is one-on-one or in small groups.