Five years of #WEARETOGETHER hotline support, hope, and unity

The #WEARETOGETHER hotline united thousands of people during the coronavirus pandemic and became an important symbol of the support that exists in the community by demonstrating the power of sticking together in the face of challenges. The project is now five years old.

The #WEARETOGETHER hotline was launched by the Roscongress Foundation and the People’s Front (then known as the All-Russia People’s Front) in 2020 just as the coronavirus pandemic was beginning. The initiative enjoyed the support of the Association of Volunteer Centres, the Russian Healthcare Volunteers Public Movement, Volunteers of the Constitution, Rostelecom, and the DOBRO.RU platform. The project began by providing support to individuals over 60 years of age, those with mobility challenges, and other categories of vulnerable citizens at greater risk during the pandemic. The hotline provided psychological support and help with deliveries of food and medication, payment for housing and utilities, and appointments to be vaccinated.

The operators of the Roscongress Foundation contact centre can currently be reached on the hotline at 8-800-200-3411 where they provide free help and support with important issues 24/7. The contact centre team works hard every day to ensure the requests they receive are handled promptly and targeted assistance is delivered to residents of every Russian region in the following categories: legal assistance and other forms of aid for conscripts, service members, and their families; the collection and distribution of humanitarian aid to residents of the DPR and LPR; legal support for residents of the new territories, consultations on how to cross the Russian border, information about missing relatives and other issues; the gas infrastructure programme – information, problems, and complaints; school meals – questions from parents, assistance filing complaints.

“When the coronavirus pandemic was just beginning, it was clear that centralized support and advisory services were needed to deal with the pandemic, and the Roscongress Foundation stepped forward to initiate the creation of just such a unified system. It was obvious that we needed to act fast to help the hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens who needed help. We immediately tapped our contact centre, which had previously provided support for the country’s biggest forums, diverting its capacity into a call centre.

“The #WEARETOGETHER project continues to evolve, playing an important role in social inclusion and providing support in the face of modern challenges and uniting the community. It should be noted that millions of people have contacted the hotline since the launch of the project. Our greatest achievement to date is the creation of a vital window of help and support for the citizens of this nation,” Chairman and CEO of the Roscongress Foundation Alexander Stuglev said.

The #WEARETOGETHER hotline is more than just a call centre, it is the power of partner resources working together and a real help centre where operators receive requests over the phone that are then processed by a team of volunteers and other staff.

“The hotline was initially launched in March 2020 as a way for seniors and individuals with mobility challenges to get help during the pandemic. Thanks to a swift and coordinated effort from our partners, we needed just over a day to prepare the operators, train project staff, and handle the technical side of the hotline itself so that it could be launched. On 18 March, we were already receiving our first calls and recording requests.

“#WEARETOGETHER is now an important tool for responding to external challenges. The work of the contact centre is constantly being redirected to where assistance is needed most at a given moment. In 2022, for example, when airports in the south of Russia were closed, we were quick to set up a hotline, as we did later on for families with members fighting in Ukraine. And that’s not all. The hotline continues to develop in response to a constant flow of new challenges,” Deputy CEO and Head of the Roscongress Foundation's Delegate Management Directorate Maria Kiseleva, one of the initiators of the hotline project, said.

The #WEARETOGETHER project is being implemented in conjunction with the People’s Front, which takes an active role in organizing events and assistance. By engaging the community in social initiatives, the project is creating a civil society where people are more aware of the needs of others and prepared to support one another in efforts to overcome social problems.

The #WEARETOGETHER project continues to evolve and is now more than just a hotline, building a network of assistance and uniting people in communities where they can share their experiences, support one another, and solve common problems together. Special activities are organized as part of the project, with information campaigns educating and informing citizens of the resources and types of support available to them. The hotline helps people resolve complex social issues and raises public awareness about these issues. Another important feature of #WEARETOGETHER is its special focus on providing essential information, support, and assistance to vulnerable groups such as senior citizens, low-income families, and people with disabilities.