Placement „Streetwork Fulda / Mobile Youth Work“
„Streetwork Fulda” is a department of the Youth Office („Jugendamt“) of the City of Fulda. It was founded in the
mid of the 90ies according to the go-and-see principle, i.e. to look after juveniles depending on drugs in the inner
city area as well as to have a look after deviant, mostly violence-prone juveniles. Nowadays, however, Streetwork
is not only concerned with the traditional working on the street, i. e. the places where the children and juveniles
stay, but they offer also leisure activities, e.g. running the “Café Panama” with internet access, opportunities for
making music, handicrafts, playing games, organising international youth work, accompanying also problematic
juveniles in some other locations for juveniles in Fulda etc. There is a special focus on working with juvenile
migrants.
The staff consists of two full-time streetworkers, all the other co-workers are working as part-time workers (mostly
students which are paid by the hour) and as students who do a placement as a part of their education to social
workers.
Placement Youth Culture Factory (“Jugendkulturfabrik”)
This is the youth center of the City of Fulda, situated just about 200 meters from “Streetwork Fulda”. The center is
run by full- and part-time staff as well as students in placement. The staff offers to young people several leisuretime activities, e.g. doing legal graffiti, airbrush, drawing mangas, tuition as disk jockeys, composing and playing
music, indoor climbing, producing videos, dancing workshop (breakdance and other dances), yoga etc.
Placement B.O.J.E.
This private welfare organisation accompanies young persons and offers orientation, in particular with regard to
integration in school, vocational training, job and society. They are a part of the Advice Center for Re-settlers
(“Aussiedlerberatung”). Referring to this kind of work they offer services for juvenile migrants. B.O.J.E. is situated
on the “Aschenberg” (a little hill) at the margin of the city of Fulda. The Aschenberg is an area which is known for
its high proportion of re-settlers of German nationality who lived before mostly in Russia respectively states of the
former Soviet Union.
During and after the 2nd World War , in the times of Stalin, people of German origin had been prosecuted and deported to
places like Siberia or Kazakhstan, far away from the places where they had settled down originally. The Federal Republic
of Germany, however, has seen them continuously as having German citizenship by their German origin. This resulted in
hundred thousands of re-settlers, especially in the times after the fall of the iron curtain. Nowadays, the movement to resettle is not as strong as formerly. However, there is still a remarkable number of re-settlers per year.
Integration into German society is often not easy for the re-settlers. On the one hand the guarantee of the German state to
re-settle was and still is not very popular in parts of the German society – in particular in times of economic stillstand after
the very expensive accession of the German Democratic Republic to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990. On the
other hand re-settlers may feel as travellers between two cultural identities, between Russia or some other state of the
former Soviet Union and the new, affluent, but rather individualistic and ‘cold’ Germany, a land of their dreams, but a
society which is not appropriately willing to integrate them. It is said that mainly for these reasons they like it to settle down
in areas where already other relatives and friends had settled down. Certain parts of the “Aschenberg” can be seen as
such areas.
In order to give support for children and juveniles who are confronted with the task to integrate themselves into
German Society, B.O.J.E. offers advice and company for young people aged 12 to 27, e.g. by language courses,
by supporting pupils in their homework and in specific subjects as well as in vocational training, by giving a
training in order to apply better for a job, by offering support as to the personal problems of juvenile migrants.
They run also a self-defence group and a girl’s group. They feel not only responsible for migrants from the former
Soviet Union but also for young migrants in general.