In December 2004 Natalia Vodianova hosts her first charity event in New York to benefit the newly established Naked Heart Foundation Inc. Supported by Diane von Furstenberg, Calvin Klein, Helena Christensen, Eva Mendez, Zac Posen, Ashley Olsen and many other friends, she raises money to launch her charity’s programmes and make her homeland a better place for children. Natalia strongly believed that play is not a luxury but a necessity, and that every child should be provided with a secure and stimulating environment in which to play.
The first programme Naked Heart Foundation USA introduced was designed to give children access to colourful and stimulating outdoor playgrounds. Having grown up with a sister with cerebral palsy, with nowhere safe to take her for daily walks, Natalia had quickly realised that kids all over the world could benefit from her idea of inclusive play; she was determined to provide facilities that would cater for children of all abilities, ages and backgrounds. The first park was opened in Natalia's hometown of Nizhny Novgorod in 2006.
After relocating to London in 2007, Natalia expanded her charitable initiatives and established Naked Heart Foundation UK to help children with special needs in former Soviet states and continue the charitable work she had started 3 years earlier. By 2010 Natalia and her team had already built 40 playgrounds in Russia and same year the first fundraiser was held in London - the charity's signature Love Ball. Hosted by Naked Heart Foundation UK trustee Lucy Yeomans, the event raised £1,2 milion for the building of more playgrounds, including 3 in Britain.
Initially building inclusive children’s playgrounds, the Foundation later expanded its scope of activities to include support services for families raising children and young adults with conditions such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, Down’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, learning disabilities and other special needs. In 2011 "Every child deserves a family" programme was launched with the first Family Support Centre in Nizhny Novgorod at its heart.
To ensure families raising children with special needs have the most modern and effective support programmes, we carry out an extensive educational scheme for childcare specialists, giving them access to the latest evidence-based methods of supporting people with disabilities. In 2012 annual international “Every child deserves a family” forum was launched in Moscow, which gives hundreds of parents and specialists from former Soviet states a platform to discuss their work and experience helping children with mental, physical and sensory disabilities.
In 2013 Naked Heart Foundation UK and its related parties launched a unique training project for teachers and other specialists who work with children with autism. The project proved hugely successful and provided access to education for hundreds of children who had previously been considered ‘unteachable’ and not accepted even to special schools. Since then the charity has become a pioneer in the field of inclusive education in Russia, and now drives evidence-based technologies and practices amongst teachers community across the country and its neighbour states.
In 2016 Early Intervention project was introduced for young children with special needs and their carers. It enables children with autism, cerebral palsy and other developmental disabilities to attend nurseries and learn essential life skills including communication and basic education, and later gain access to state schools alongside their typically developing peers. It also helps parents and carers to better understand how to help the development needs of their children. Currently available in 26 centres across five cities with two main hubs in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod.
The Foundation's goal has always been to ensure all children with special needs in Russia and beyond can get access to the essential support they need, and in order to make the charity's programmes available to a greater amount of families, a special digital resource was launched in 2019, a great milestone for the Foundation! Naked Heart Online: An online platform for professionals and parents raising children with disabilities, which makes international evidence-based practices available to the Russian-speaking audience totally free of charge, like all other charity's programmes.
In December 2021 Natalia Vodianova and her team celebrated 17 years of charity work, having helped more than 16,000 children and young adults with special needs and their families, as well as creating over 210 inclusive play facilities in more than 150 towns, including 3 play parks in the UK. Naked Heart Foundation is the most prominent organisation supporting and advocating on behalf of people with mental, physical and sensory disabilities across post-Soviet environment.