On June 20, municipal officials of the region responsible for working with residents graduated from the Initiative Projecting advanced course.

Its purpose is to provide comprehensive assistance to municipal districts of the region, especially remote ones. The topic of the training was initiative budgeting – a mechanism for involving citizens in local self-government. 37 trainees from 21 municipal districts of Saratov Region have been trained.

Professional retraining was carried out at the Institute of Continuing Professional Education as part of the Priority 2030 programme at SSU.

The training started on June 6. The classes were conducted on-site and online. The students learned about the legal regulation, mechanisms, and practices of involving the population in initiative projecting.

The study of municipal employees ended with a panel discussion – an active discussion of the issues of involving citizens to solve local issues with the help of initiative projecting. The officials shared their experience in implementing projects of the population in their municipal districts.

The discussion was opened by Deputy Director for Academic Affairs and Research, the Institute of Continuing Professional Education Gennadii Tashpekov. Acting Head of the Executive Directorate Association, the Council of Municipalities of Saratov Region, Larisa Reznikova wished employees success in implementing new ideas. ‘Today, in this room there are representatives of municipalities who are really interested in systematic work on initiative projecting. It is gratifying that our permanent partners have been developing professional competencies in this field for you throughout the entire training period. Every year, there are more and more citizens who strive to change their lives, therefore, high-quality support of initiative projects is needed from local governments.’

The moderator of the panel discussion was Anna Grebennikova, Associate Professor of the Department of State and Municipal Administration, the Stolypin Institute of Management.

Head of the Administration of Krasnopartizanskii municipal district Natalia Bezgubova shared her impressions on the training. ‘It was very interesting for me to pass the first module, the theoretical part. Previously, we implemented projects intuitively. Thanks to the advanced training programme, I have learned a lot of peculiarities that will be useful in our work, and realised that it is absolutely necessary to update the theory and apply new knowledge.’

At the end of the panel discussion, all municipal officials who have been trained received certificates of advanced training.