Volunteering with People with Disabilities in the Context of Two Systems: NGOs and the State System of Closed Institutions in St. Petersburg

This paper analyzes the meanings of volunteers and social curators of their activities who work with disabled people under the guidance of a charity organization. Volunteers and curators carry out their activities in closed institutions for the residential care of people with physical and mental disabilities. Both of these systems have one goal - care for residents, but the ways to achieve it are polar opposite. In connection with this situation, the volunteer is in an ambivalent position in the context of two systems, which affects his activity and its sense-making. In the process of activity, the volunteer is faced with a sense-making points (events), which reveal the meaning of such positions. The study was conducted using a qualitative analysis of the data, 15 semi-structured in-depth interviews were collected and the participant observation (from August 2019 - May 2020) was conducted as a volunteer.