The Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social Service organized a trip to Moscow for the inmates of the St. Basil the Great Center of St. Petersburg. During the week-long trip, 18 people — wards of the Center and their escorts — visited the sights of Moscow and the Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra. The program also included a Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Martyrs Florus and Laurus on Zatsep, after which the students of the St. Basil the Great Center talked to Archpriest Mikhail Potokin, acting chairman of the Synodal Department for Charity.
«It was an amazing journey in its intensity, in the warmth and endless hospitality of the people we met during these days, — said Juliana Nikitina, director of the St. Basil the Great Center. —The Liturgy at the Church of the Holy Martyrs Florus and Laurus on Zatsepa and the homely atmosphere of the meeting with Father Michael, caring and very kind, were very memorable. Travels to Lavra to St. Sergius of Radonezh and to Pokrovsky Monastery to Blessed Matrona allowed our students and us adults to touch the shrines. For some children it is a completely new experience»"
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In the course of the trip, the pupils of the St. Basil the Great Center visited the sights of Moscow, including Red Square, the Tretyakov Gallery, and the State Historical Museum. They were given guided tours at the Tsaritsyno »Tsaritsyno» Museum-Reserve, VDNKh, the Museum of Moscow and the Museum of Russian Icons. They also attended an ice show and a performance at the Pushkin Theater.
«All — both adults and children — were drawn into a whirlwind of events, as if they were holding a big kaleidoscope in their hands, — noted Juliana Nikitina. — Almost turn, immediately a new ornament: here we are on Red Square, and here we are already watching a movie in "Illusion", and then Tsaritsyno, Tretyakov Gallery and Marfa-Marina Monastery, a stunning tour of the Museum of Russian Icons and an unforgettable day at VDNKh. Teenagers and staff of the St. Basil the Great Center were sad to leave the holiday, which did not end for a whole week.
Today The St. Basil the Great Center — is the only open non-profit organization in Russia that is an alternative to a correctional colony or closed educational institution for teenagers who have committed crimes. Here, teenagers who are in In 2024, the Center celebrated its 20th anniversary. It was established in 2004 by the parish of the Anastasia Uzoreshitelnitsa church and priest Alexander Stepanov, who had been the rector of the church in the Kolpino juvenile correctional facility for more than ten years.
The organization's work is based on a social rehabilitation program developed by the Center's specialists with the assistance of the judicial community of St. Petersburg. Here teenagers aged from 14 to 19 years old come under a sentence or court order for a period from nine months to three years — district courts of St. Petersburg sentence teenagers without deprivation of liberty with an additional obligation: to undergo a rehabilitation course at the Center of St. Basil the Great. 400 teenagers have undergone a rehabilitation course during the period of work. Of all teenagers participating in the Center's program, more than 85% do not re-offend.
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