Challenges for social work in modern Russia: problems and future prospects. Towards the 20th anniversary of social work in Russia

Abstract

This article began working on the exchange of research papers with the Kazan State University. The collaboration with the Chair of Intercultural Education in the Faculty of Education, University of Bologna, was launched on March 2010 with the visit of Professor Liliya Yagudina. We hope that this cooperation will continue developing on the issues of relations between ethnic minorities, the evaluation of university systems, the problems inherent to social services and welfare. The purpose of this article is to attract attention to modern social work in Russia and to create a body of knowledge of its development for the comparative follow-on research. The article has six sections: 1. Social work as a synthetic, integrative, interdepartmental profession; 2. Main characteristics of Russian social services network; 3. Large families as an object of social work; 4. The teenager-mothers’ support centers: prevention and rehabilitation; 5. Social work problems which need a solution; 6. Some directions for the actions needed to solve Russia’s social work problems.