Center for Citizen Initiatives

The nika thayer "angels" program - (angels), creates computer laboratories and pays for daily training to teach computer technology to st. petersburg orphans. The purpose is to give the orphans computer skills to help them find jobs and transition from orphanages when they leave at age 17. The angels program supports five orphanages with approximately 250 teenagers with the short term goal to expand to ten orphanages offering classes from computer basics and touch typing all the way to excel and computer graphics,preparing them for solid employment in the work world.

Book project - is a non-fiction book covering all citizen-initiated activities to reduce tensions between us-soviet-russia relations, as an educational tool for the public sector.

Blog project- (ropv), is to provide a blogspace for different interpretations of what is happening in russia and in us-russia relations today. Multiple points of view are respected without getting into arguments about who or which view is right or wrong.

Productivity enhancement program - (pep)which is modeled after the marshall plan, is the leader in business management training for russia, benefiting both countries. Pep is instrumental in developing the middle class in russia and stablizing the overall economy. Pep allows for a better understanding of russian culture and contributes to international goodwill between the two countries. Pep goals are 1)transfer u.s. business management practices to russia's small and medium-sized business owners; 2) strengthen russia's regional economy, epsecially outside of moscow; 3) encourage the mechanics of civil society throughout russia; and 4) create regional associations of entrepreneurs to push for adequate legislation and anti-corruption measures to benefit local business. Pep was discontinued and the expenses in 2009 was to close out the program.