SIBUR develops inclusivity as one of the targets of its social investments

12 april 2022

We are committed to nurturing a culture of equal opportunities for all and to creating an accessible environment. As part of this drive, the company has adopted a diversity and inclusion policy that was made one of the components of its Sustainable Development Strategy. Since 2016, we have sponsored over 150 initiatives brought forward by inclusive communities in the cities where SIBUR operates using the mechanism of grant contests. Inclusivity, as one of the focus area of the Formula for Good Deeds is a natural next step and a new stage in the program’s evolution, Elena Snezhko, Chief Expert and Head of the Formula for Good Deeds social investment program, noted

As part of its efforts to develop inclusivity, the company has developed its guidelines on applying the principles of diversity and inclusion. SIBUR takes these guidelines into account when planning and implementing its Formula for Good Deeds’ projects and makes an effort to disseminate such practices among its grantees, volunteers, and company partners when it comes to implementing socially or otherwise important projects within the program. As a result, unified matches have been held within the framework of the inter-regional Basketball School project where young athletes with and without disabilities are brought together to play for a unified team. SIBUR is a sponsor of the Oka Parafest culture and sports festival organized in Dzerzhinsk for people with disabilities.

2022 will see the launch of the Formula for Good Deeds’ first ever interregional inclusivity project titled You can do anything! that will feature a series of motivational get-togethers for inclusive communities in the cities where SIBUR has a presence, a blog called The City of Opportunities, and a specialized training course on how to work on social networks.

In 2022, motivational meetings with celebrities with disabilities will be held in Voronezh, Nizhnevartovsk, Tobolsk, and Dzerzhinsk. These events will be especially useful for those who recently became disabled, and all those who want to discover new opportunities for personal development and make their lives richer and more active.

The City of Opportunities will be posting training materials on how to represent disability on social media, share best practices on implementing inclusive projects, stories by members of the community, and notices about upcoming events. Subscribers to the City of Opportunities will be able to take in part monthly contests with valuable prizes. The most active members of the community will be able to take part in an all-expenses-paid inclusive blog tour that will take place in 2022.

You can do anything! project will include as its important component a training course for people with disabilities and inclusive communities on how to work on social media. From April to June, the project’s inclusivity team will be explaining why a contemporary person with disability should maintain a blog and how to be interesting, useful and unique for other users. Course participants will be learning the rules of interacting with one’s audience and how to promote oneself on social networks. The course will emphasize the importance of maintaining communities and personal profiles on VKontakte. The course is intended to benefit both organizations and individual authors.-

VKontakte has become the number one social network in the country, and the popularity of the Telegram messenger is also growing. Many entities are updating their presence on social networks and are in the process of creating new project groups and chats. Many new writers are coming to the platform, including people with disabilities. Our course will help them adapt as quickly as possible to a variety of different platforms without wasting one’s precious time while using all the tools these platforms have got to offer, Alexey Trantsev, development director of the Interregional Inclusive Resource Center, and an eight-time winner of presidential grant contests, noted.

To take part in the training course, pre-registration will be required at the following link: https://proekt-ty-mozhesh-vse.timepad.ru/event/1975620/. There is no cap on the number of participants!

The City of Opportunities blog will be moderated by the authors of the national-level Limbless Keepers blog, an information community focusing on present-day inclusivity in Russia:

1.     Alexey Trantsev, developer of programs and public practices in the field of full-fledged inclusion of people with various forms of disability into social processes since 2013, the winner of the My Project – My Country! Award of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation (he suffers from first-degree disability caused by an amputation of both arms);

2.     Olga Lifanova, trainer of inclusive programs and projects, speaker at various federal and regional social fora, entrepreneur (visually impaired, first degree of disability);

3.     Daria Suloyeva, producer of the Limbless Keeprs blog, a social media content specialist with fifteen years of experience behind her belt (not disabled).