On February 17, 2017, the III Championship of the Republic of Bashkortostan in the social interactive game «ZhEKA» was held at the Bashkir Institute of Social Technologies (branch) of the Public Association «Academy of Labor and Social Relations» (Ufa). It was developed by the state corporation – the Foundation for Assistance to Housing and Communal Services Reformation.
The aim of the game is to teach in simple and accessible ways the basics of energy saving and the basics of managing an apartment building, to increase the legal and budgetary literacy of citizens in the sphere of housing and communal services. Participants learn to take care of their apartment, home, district and, in general, of the city – in a word, even those having a traditionally paternalistic consciousness begin to feel themselves the masters of not only their own apartment, but the entire infrastructure. It is no accident that the authors decipher the concept of housing and communal services as «living as a boss». Therefore, the goal of the organizers of the Championship – the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services of the Republic of Bashkortostan, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Bashkortostan and the Bashkir Institute of Social Technologies – is to involve as many citizens of the Republic as possible. And we succeeded. The following figures show the following. In 2015, more than 3000 people (students of grades 5-11, students of colleges and universities, as well as citizens of elderly age) took part in the Championship, in 2016 there were almost a thousand more. In 2017, the number of participants increased to 4,936. This means that almost 5,000 citizens have learned to save resources, and, consequently, the family budget, the budget of the city, republics, and the money saved can be spent on landscaping, healthcare, education and so on.

The game included several stages. The first is a municipal one, in which cities and districts of the Republic took part. Here the game was held at the “Apartment” level, and the participants tried, first of all, to learn how to save their own spendings on housing and communal services. The second stage was “Zonal”, with the winners of the municipal stage participating in it in accordance with the zone (there are 7 in the Republic), to which they are geographically related. They competed on the “House” level and mastered the wisdom of managing an apartment building. And, finally, the “Republic” stage is the final, in which the winners of the zonal stage took part. This year the developers of the game presented a new level – “Quarter”, where each participant acted as the director of the managing organization «ZhEKA» and was supposed to provide comfortable and safe living for citizens, to perform mandatory energy saving measures and reduce the cost of living in houses due to a more efficient use of public services.

As the practice has revealed, «ZhEKA» is appealing for different age categories of citizens, people of different occupations. Ever since the I Championship we invited elderly citizens and realized that we had it right: they are happy to learn, and most importantly – it is an effective way of educating citizens on the sense of ownership.

This year, for the first time in «ZhEKA», employees of the housing and communal services took part. According to their feedback, the game hones the professional skills that they use in the work for the industry and, importantly, present effective technologies to the owners in an accessible form.

Just the other day at a lesson within the educational and scientific laboratory «Housing and Communal Services: Energy Efficiency» of the Bashkir Institute of Social Technologies the Director of the managing company « Smart House» and his deputy got the students acquainted with the «Smart House» system and the living conditions in it. “When your own home understands you, your own apartment is not just about happiness. It’s also about comfort, safety and significant savings in energy resources and money, “- this was the result of the communication. Dialogue with professional workers helped our students in the preparation of schoolchildren and elderly citizens to play at the level of “Quarter”. The training was successful, as evidenced by the number of participants who reached the final stage and gained high scores, measured in millions.

And even though not everyone has become a winner, the most important thing is the knowledge of modern energy-saving technologies received during the preparation for the Championship, which, on one hand, allow to save resources in the housing and communal sector, and on the other – to reduce one’s own expenses for housing and communal services in everyday life within the legal framework.

If we look broadly, the game of «ZhEKA» is the next step towards the increasing level of civil consciousness and civil competence of our society. And the result should be the improvement of the quality of human resources, the reduction of social tension and the security of the state.