On December 4, the All-Russian Forum for Camp Counselors "Hearts of the Young" (Serdtsa Molodykh) was launched at the Russian Ministry of Education. The opening ceremony was attended by Deputy Chairperson of the State Duma Irina Yarovaya and Russian Minister of Education Sergey Kravtsov. During the plenary session, Kravtsov spoke about a unified system for training and supporting camp counselors.
The plenary session was opened by Deputy Chairperson of the State Duma Irina Yarovaya, the author of laws on quality and safe children's recreation and unified educational programs for children's camps. Under Irina Yarovaya's leadership, a handbook for camp counselors with a specific calendar plan for educational work with children is currently being developed.
"For many years, our country has had traditions of organizing children's recreation. You, counselors, are the continuers of those traditions formed by generations before you. Summer is that wonderful time when children are in free interaction, and there is an opportunity to give them new knowledge in an accessible and interesting form, allowing them to feel even more connected to each other and to our country. Therefore, children's recreation is of colossal importance today", noted Irina Yarovaya.
In 2025, over 88,000 counselors worked in 40,000 children's camps during the summer. Six million children participated in the summer recreational campaign.
"Following the instruction of the President of Russia and with the support of colleagues from the State Duma, we are paying great attention to updating the infrastructure of children's recreation and health organizations. But no children's camp is conceivable without counselors, such creative, active young people as you. I want to thank you for instilling core values in children and helping shape their worldview. Children's recreation is a crucial part of the educational process. And our key task is for schools, children's centers, and families to exist in a unified educational space. We place special emphasis on creating conditions for the development of personal qualities and professional competencies of counselors and strive to ensure a unified and high-quality approach to training counselor personnel across the country", said Sergey Kravtsov.
The work of creating a positive image for counselors is reinforced by the Interdepartmental Set of Measures to Enhance the Status of the Counselor for 2024–2026, approved by the Russian Government.
The Minister noted the important role of professional training for future personnel. For this purpose, together with the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the Russian Student Brigades (Rossiyskie Studencheskie Otryady), the Movement of the First (Dvizheniye Pervykh), and other organizations, a system for high-quality training of specialists in the field of children's recreation is being created. Thanks to it, thousands of young people become counselors annually and undergo special training. Standardizing this training will give future counselors confidence in any work situation, ensuring the safety and comfort of children in camps.
Sergey Kravtsov also emphasized that in 2025, important legislative innovations appeared, including a mandatory Federal Educational Work Program for all camps. The success of this initiative was achieved thanks to the participation of State Duma deputies. It is especially symbolic that the program was launched in the Year of the Defender of the Fatherland, which united the country around the idea of raising children and youth in the spirit of patriotism.
In 2026, the Moscow Pedagogical State University (MPGU) will become the unified coordination center for training and supporting counselor personnel in the country. It will create a registry of organizations that train counselors based on recommendations from the Ministry of Education and will monitor training programs in the regions.
The event was also attended by First Deputy Minister of Education of the Russian Federation Alexander Bugaev and Director of the Department of State Policy in the Sphere of Upbringing, Additional Education and Children's Recreation of the Russian Ministry of Education, Hero of the Russian Federation Igor Yurgin.
The forum brought together over 150 participants: counselors from federal children's centers, representatives of pedagogical universities, leaders of counselor teams from regional children's camps, and leading experts in the field of upbringing. Delegates will consider issues of forming a unified system for counselor training, improving the mechanism for implementing the educational work program in children's recreation and health organizations, and proposals for enhancing the status of counselors.
During the plenary session, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Youth Policy, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the All-Russian Youth Public Organization "Russian Student Brigades," Mikhail Kiselyov, spoke about the importance of the counselor's role in the educational process and training counselors to work with children with disabilities and special needs within the project "A Counselor for Everyone."
In his speech, Chairman of the Board of the All-Russian Public-State Movement of Children and Youth "Movement of the First," Hero of Russia Arthur Orlov, presented information on the Movement's values, the movement module used in the educational work program, and other areas of the association's work.
Director of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution "Rosdetcenter," Alexander Kudryashov, reported on the professional skills competition for counselors "League of Counselors" (Liga Vozhatykh), the competition for the counselor badge "Best Counselor in Russia" (Luchshiy Vozhatyy Rossii), and the shift for activists of secondary vocational education "Ogonyok."
The All-Russian Forum for Camp Counselors "Hearts of the Young" is organized by the Russian Ministry of Education together with the State University of Education. The goal of the event is to mobilize the resource and personal potential of specialists in the field of children's summer recreation and health improvement to implement systematic measures strengthening the social and professional status of educators ready to raise the younger generation in accordance with traditional spiritual and moral values, taking into account the features of the transformation of the educational space.
Earlier, the Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, stated that before the start of camp sessions for teenagers' adaptation, the entire pedagogical staff undergoes mandatory training at the Moscow State University of Psychology and Education (MSUPE) under a program for accompanying children with traumatic experiences. Psychologists conduct group training and individual consultations to help overcome the fear of loss, self-acceptance in the search for life's meaning, and building relationships with others. Counselors who have undergone special training help children learn to be open and sincere.