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Many Christians who faithfully prayed for the Soviet Union believed the country’s woes had faded with the collapse of communism. No more generations would suffer the effects of that Godless system that now, happily, lay in ruins.

But unfortunately, all has not been “happily ever after” for Russia’s young people.

One in ten of the nation’s children are homeless and three percent exist in under-funded state orphanages. With alcohol abuse soaring and half of the population living below the poverty line, many children flee abusive homes or orphanages for life on the street. Those who stay in orphanages “graduate” from them at age 16 with little or no training in how to function in society.

Russia’s youth account for the high rate of unwed pregnancies as well as much of the rising rates of crime, murder and homelessness. One survey of children in post-Soviet countries registered an alarming number of young people who aspire to a life of crime or prostitution. Russia’s HIV-infection rate is one of the world’s fastest growing, further endangering its young.

While some Christian ministries are helping meet the staggering needs of young Russians, the nation’s churches struggle to discern how to invest their limited resources in youth. When freedom came with the fall of the Soviet regime, the entire social service network collapsed. Churches did not know where to begin ministry in an area that had been closed to them by 70 years of Soviet rule.

Russia’s swelling at-risk population calls for Christians to respond with tangible messages of God’s love and hope. To multiply the fruit of existing outreach efforts, leaders of three Christian ministries—Ron Braund of Mission Specialties, Inc., Peter and Anita Deyneka of Russian Ministries, and Mark Elliott of Beeson Divinity School’s Global Center—joined efforts to form the CoMission for Children at Risk (CCR) in 1999.

“The missions community worldwide has realized that so much more can be accomplished through collaboration,” said Karmen Friesen, CCR’s network coordinator. Formed in this cooperative spirit, CCR is a web-based network for US-based agencies and people working with Russia’s hurting children. The network’s goal is to help ministries tap the potential for collaborative partnerships.

For example, Mission Specialties’ orphanage transition center recently opened in Voronezh, Russia. But it took three years for the plans to become reality. Masha Oswalt saw the need to help older orphans learn how to find and keep jobs, manage money and more, but she didn’t know how to begin. By talking with leaders of other transition homes and observing their social adaptation programs, Oswalt gleaned critical insights. By listening and learning from more experienced ministries in CCR, Masha was able to avoid mistakes and select the best strategies.

CCR gathers research on organizations’ activities and where they work. By electronically sharing this data with others, it helps link ministries and keeps them from blindly building the same projects. Missions and churches can find partners who work in the same area, or experienced organizations that can help them start a new program, Friesen says.

A missionary interested in reaching Russian children, for example, can explore the Web site and learn who’s doing what in adoption assistance, camp programs, child foster care, education, aid/relief, legislative reform, micro-enterprises, orphanage sponsorship, outreach to street children and post-orphanage transition programs. This database has helped save organizations time and money by providing them shared resources and ministry models, an alternative to developing their own materials and programs. In these tight economic times, networking can help ministries both survive and expand their ability to help youth.

At a CCR conference two years ago, New Hope International president Hank Paulson discovered that his staff needed more training to better equip Ukrainian churches’ outreach to children, youth and families. CCR helped Paulson connect with OrphanAge and Buckner International Orphan Care. Using Buckner’s Christian foster care model, New Hope International is helping churches provide families for orphans.

Today about 250 organizations belong to CCR’s network. With no membership fee, joining the CCR network is easy. “Ours is more of a free-market approach to serve neglected children where mission groups determine their own level of involvement,” said Ron Braund, chairman of CCR and president of Missions Specialties, Inc. “The strength of the network as a whole is determined by the effective collaboration of its parts.”

Other CCR services include a twice-monthly e-newsletter to members, and a conference to gather ministry leaders for a face-to-face time of strategic planning and networking. Its next conference is scheduled for November 2004 in the US state of Georgia.

CCR is developing a network-to-network-ministry collaboration with Viva Network, a British group with a similar approach to children’s ministry. The global network will help “children at risk in Russia find eternal hope and life that no traditional social service agency can provide,” Anita Deyneka said.

Wil Triggs serves with Russian Ministries and is director of communications at College Church in Wheaton, Illinois.