School of Urban Change

"The School of Urban Change" is an educational project that aims to identify, train and develop urban change leaders. The program has been in operation since January 2017.


The "School of Urban Change" consists of two blocks.

The first one - educational - is to identify, train and support potential local community leaders who, either alone or in partnership with RUSAL, can improve the quality of life in the regions through territorial development projects.

Within this area there are educational courses, modules and seminars aimed at developing key competencies of their participants, which allow them to competently develop and effectively implement social initiatives. The educational block is available in both distance and face-to-face forms. At the end of the training, participants have the opportunity to obtain a certificate of professional development or a certificate of completion of an additional general development program.

The second component of the program - social - provides the organization of negotiation platforms at which active citizens, representatives of the administration, entrepreneurs and experts can discuss the problems relevant to the territory, as well as jointly offer possible solutions. It also includes activities on the development of local communities, the work of clubs of grantees, the involvement of partners in the process of social transformation, the development of strategic directions of development of the territories, as well as assessment of social results of the program.


Areas of "Schools of Urban Change"

  • social entrepreneurship: it relies on technologies and competences that enable the development, implementation and scaling of socially oriented business projects;
  • social design: it is related to the development of projects aimed at solving social problems and developing urban spaces and local communities;
  • volunteering: it is aimed at developing competencies and ways of organizing volunteer activities, development of volunteer values, personal participation in solving social problems of the territory, development of volunteer movement;
  • urban environment: associated with the creation of significant public spaces, the formation and development of urban brands, research of urban spaces, the development of excursion routes, attractive to tourists and citizens.


Programme goals: 

  • to create and develop significant public spaces, to explore urban spaces, to develop excursion routes that are attractive to tourists and citizens:


Program targets: 

  • To prepare active residents and representatives of creative communities in the areas of the Company's presence for the development and effective implementation of initiatives and projects aimed at solving urgent social problems and developing the urban environment:
  • Identification of actual social problems and development points in the towns of the Company's presence;
  • to identify potential leaders of urban changes and motivate them to develop projects that contribute to the development of the territories;
  • transfer to representatives of creative communities (city activists, volunteers, social entrepreneurs) of technologies that allow effective implementation of social initiatives and territorial development projects;
  • assessment of the impact of social initiatives on territorial development;
  • development of communities of city change leaders and a network of partners interested in territorial development.