Our Family was originally set up in May 1996 as a joint initiative between The Russian Federation, The Moscow City Government and Christian Solidarity International [CSI].  This project was largely conceived as a response to a report compiled by the President of the UK branch of CSI, Baroness Cox, at the request of some members of the Russian Government.  The report was entitled: "Trajectories of Despair: misdiagnosis and maltreatment Soviet orphans".

Under the directorship of Maria Ternovskaya, Our Family is a pioneering foster care project that provides a home for around 35 children who either have no family, or whose families are not able to look after them. Within this caring and secure environment, the Our Family residential home prepares the children for foster placement within the community and over the past 10 years, has successfully placed over 1000 Moscow children with foster families.

Since 1996 The Our Family Training Centre has trained over 500 childcare professionals from other regions and has developed and published new training resources that have been widely disseminated throughout Russia. As a result the Our Family project has helped to support over 10,000 Russian children from a total of 29 regions. In 1999, UNICEF published an evaluation report that identified Our Family as a "Trajectory of Hope" for Russian orphans.

The 2007 ARC grant will fund the visit of some professional child-support experts from Dudley Social Services Department and from the Department of Education in London, UK.