Vasily Anokhin: It is important that Smolensk families are confident in support and know that they can get help if needed

Smolensk region is one of the twenty regions of Russia, where, on behalf of President Vladimir Putin, branches of the All-Russian public-state organization “Children’s Defense Fund” are opened. The new department will be located in the building of the Smolensk Multidisciplinary Center for Assistance to Family and Children Phoenix on Rylenkova Street. Its activities will focus on the introduction of modern approaches to support, where the priority will be to keep the child in the family through assistance to parents in crisis situations, which will avoid placing children in inpatient institutions.

The opening of the regional office is intended to strengthen the existing assistance system. At the moment, there are two specialized crisis centers in the region that provide comprehensive support to families in difficult life situations: “Second Breath” on the basis of the Phoenix Center and “There is a way out” on the basis of the Cherry Rehabilitation and Habilitation Center.

The Governor of the Smolensk region Vasily Anokhin stressed that it is extremely important that local families feel confident in support and know where they can get help if necessary. He also noted that work in this direction is carried out systematically, and support measures are constantly being improved. So, from 2026, within the framework of the national project “Family”, new types of payments have been launched in the region, including 300 thousand rubles at the birth of a third or subsequent child in a young family, 250 thousand rubles for students when registering for pregnancy, as well as compensation for 50% of the cost of education for children from large families in SPO organizations and universities.