Penza, 28 May 2015. PenzaNews. The All-Russia festival- contest of youth social projects “I Choose Life and Health” began at the Penza Lermontov regional library on Thursday, May 28.

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To participate in the final stage of the event, aimed at the development of voluntary initiatives in the field of prevention of smoking, alcohol and drug abuse, the participants from 12 regions of Russia were invited. Each of them brought a presentation of their project.

During the roundtable discussions, the young people had an opportunity to discuss topical issues with experts.

The results of this work were summed up at the expert discussion hosted by the leading Moscow journalist and psychologist Andrei Sorokin.

After the roundtable moderator received letters of appreciation, the participants of the festival started to consider the problematic issues set up during the round tables.

The first speaker was CEO of TRBC “Nash Dom” Tatyana Proshina, who concluded the results of the discussion on the topic “Experience and prospects of implementation of the regional family-oriented information policy.”

“I believe, we need to create a large number of youth programs, where the youth of the same age would speak using the youth language and promoting family values,” she said.

According to Tatyana Proshina, social advertising should be aired at the most authoritative media.

“We must choose some programs, some high-class professionals of the media from the whole mass,” she added.

In his turn, the chief medical officer of the specialized drug treatment clinic “Panacea,” chairman of the Public Chamber of the Penza region for health, demography and childhood Sergei Degtar told the audience about the work of the roundtable discussion “Addiction prevention among young people” that he moderated.

The medical professional shared his opinion on the drug addiction problem and the cult of alcohol being built nowadays. To fight it, Sergei Degtar proposed to create professional institutions of systematic comprehensive prevention based on NGOs.

Then, the expert discussion was continued by journalist Natalya Shumilova. She was a moderator of the round table “Youth Morals: Is It Trendy?” She expressed her views on the consequences of early sexual activity and the institution of living together.

In her opinion, the solution to many problems is the moral education of the younger generation.

Also during the discussion they summarized the results of the round table dedicated to social designing, moderated by head of the center of youth initiative implementation Marina Sivyakova.

She reported that the participants of the discussion suggested ideas on the promotion of volunteer work, one of which was including the volunteering time in the general seniority.

In addition, the festival participants were presented a program developed during the round table “Family values of the youth today. A healthy family is the key to success in life,” moderated by TV journalist, producer, chairman of the regional branch of the Russian Union of Journalists Pavel Prokhorenkov. The proposed program aims at supporting and encouraging the development of communicative platforms for young people, as well as projects involving the whole family.

Festival-contest “I Choose Life and Health” will continue its work on Friday, May 29.

The project presentations of the participants are scheduled for 10.00, and interactive trainings for social designing will start at 13.00.

The event will conclude at 16.00, followed by the festive award ceremony for the authors of the best projects.