Supporting families of addicted persons in church communities (experience by participants of the social project “Sodeistvie / assistance”)

The paper presents the results of a research phase within sociological monitoring on the efficiency of the supporting system for families of addicted persons in church communities conducted by the Smolensk State University’s sociological laboratory during the project “Sodeistvie / Assistance”, which was initiated by the Smolensk State University in collaboration with the Smolensk Orthodox Seminary and the Smolensk Eparchy supported by the International grant competition "Orthodox Initiative". Monitoring included methods of qualitative and quantitative assessment: expert survey, questionnaires for participants of further education courses and qualitative (in-depth) interviews. The latter were conducted with clericals and diocesan employees who possess rich experience working with families of addicts to obtain information on the effectiveness of efforts to develop a supporting system for families of addicted persons in church communities. After the field work the audio recordings of interviews were transformed into texts, the answers of the interviewees were grouped into a chart, which allowed comparing their views. During the research sociological information was received on the experience of the interviewees with families of addicted persons in church communities, reasons prompted them to help families of addicts, difficulties and successes in providing this help, its necessity, along with the help provided by medical institutions and social services, on the reaction of families of addicts and community members on this assistance, as well as approaches to develop a supporting system for families of addicted persons in church communities. The obtained results have a clearly practical use, their implementation will allow to develop a diocesan system of supporting families of addicted persons more effectively, to introduce new forms of social partnership, to create and enhance a professional community ready to develop this supporting system and to provide scientific and methodological assistance for activities in this field.