In Irkutsk, a new municipal youth program is being prepared, to be shaped openly with input from active residents and public organizations. It will focus on sports, patriotic education, leisure, employment, and prevention of social harms, and continue successful projects like Dance in the Square, the Health Fair, and anti drug and AIDS campaigns. Special attention is given to fighting drug addiction, and the number of teenagers involved in prevention activities has grown noticeably during the program.

Budget funds will be allocated for its implementation. Employees of the Department of Physical Culture, Sports and Youth Policy are confident that the program should be developed openly and, in the end, bring together the most interesting proposals from active youth and public organizations.
The main objectives of the program are the development of physical culture and mass sports in the city, patriotic education, organization of youth leisure, solving employment problems, and prevention of socially negative phenomena.
Among the major new preventive projects already carried out in the city and of interest to young people, the following can be noted:
- Valentine's Day of Safety (traditionally held in Irkutsk on the eve of Valentine's Day);
- a social advertising festival, the best works from which are reproduced throughout the year;
- preventive joint-action campaigns as part of the Day Against Drug Addiction, World AIDS Day, World No Tobacco Day, etc.;
- for the first time in November 2011, the city campaign "Health Fair" was held;
- the project "Dances in the Square" is being implemented (a festival of contemporary dance and a healthy lifestyle).
Special attention is paid to the fight against drug addiction. One of the significant events was the international conference "Confronting Social Epidemics: An Invitation to Dialogue" with the participation of UN representatives, specialists in drug prevention from Moscow and St. Petersburg, the Irkutsk City Police Department, and the regional office of the Federal Drug Control Service. According to the results of work since the start of the program in the territory of Irkutsk, the number of teenagers involved in preventive activities has doubled.
From July to September 2012, the youth information project "Healthy Lifestyle Is Already in Fashion!" is being implemented. It includes the most widespread and active forms of communication: the Internet, shopping and entertainment centers, stores, television, etc. Well-known models, photographers, creative youth, and designers of the city took part in creating the project's image.
In the autumn of 2012, Irkutsk will also host the IV festival of contemporary dance and healthy lifestyle "Dances in the Square" (September 1); the city contest "Youth in Faces" (applications accepted from September 1) and the school of youth public activism. In addition, a competition-review of student dormitories will take place, events will be organized to develop volunteering and volunteerism, games of the Baikal KVN League will be held, etc.
You can offer your ideas and resources for creating a new municipal program at odm@irkadm.ru, 664003 Irkutsk, 40 Gorky St., office 14, Department of Physical Culture, Sports and Youth Policy of the Irkutsk City Administration.
Based on materials from the press service of the Irkutsk City Administration