Tasks and fields of work > Assistance and support
Child and youth work
Child and youth work in Germany reaches back more than 100 years. It is enshrined in legislation (e.g., Book 8 of the Social Code).
The aim of child and youth work is subject formation and democratic development: children and young people are to be assisted in acquiring autonomy, developing an ability to help choose and shape child and youth work activities, and becoming independent members of society and their communities.
It follows that child and youth work is voluntary, open to all young people, corresponds to their specific interests, and invites the participation of its target groups.
The child and youth work field includes open child and youth work and child and youth association work and extends to other areas such as international youth work and mobile and cultural youth work. It also incorporates organisations offering games, sports, nature/environmental activities, health activities, etc.
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Notes
Article 11 of Book 8 of the Social Code (SGB VIII) stipulates that young people must be offered youth work activities that are necessary to promote their development. These activities should respond to the interests of young people, be chosen and designed with their involvement, enable them to achieve autonomy, and encourage them to exercise social responsibility and citizenship. Youth work activities are to be made accessible to young people with a disability.
The following overview shows the intended impacts and objectives of child and youth work in line with Article 11 and the respective underlying concepts.
| Intended impact | Objective | Underlying concepts |
|---|---|---|
Children’s and adolescents’ autonomy | To provide activities that are accessible to all children and adolescents and that correspond with their interests | Subject orientation, self-education |
Children’s and adolescents’ social responsibility and citizenship | To enable autonomy and participation | Participation and democratic education, inclusion |
The expectation that child and youth work should “offer activities” to its target groups reflects the voluntary nature of this field of work. Child and youth work is not about implementing preventive, controlling or instructional measures. The educational philosophy behind it reflects the conviction that the subject in question undergoes a developmental process; the fundamental idea behind it is that of self-education. Youth work is seen as empowering children and young people to find their own path in life and place in the world.
In a social context, autonomy is interpreted as democratic participation: young people work together to select and design activities in line with their interests; over and beyond this, they exercise social responsibility and play an active role as citizens in a democratic society. They hence become “subjects” while learning what it means to live in a democracy.
Besides the general structure of open child and youth work and youth association work, Article 11 of Book 8 of the Social Code references several other priority areas:
- Extracurricular youth education of a general kind as well as in the fields of politics, society, culture, natural sciences and technology,
- Youth work in the form of sports and games and in social settings,
- Youth work in professional, school and family contexts,
- International youth work,
- Child and youth holidays,
- Youth counselling.
Facts and figures
In 2019, youth welfare offices, churches, charities and other independent providers across Germany organised around 156,700 publicly funded youth work activities for over 8.5 million young people. In 105,864 cases (67%) these were projects or (large-scale) events such as holiday camps, training courses, concerts, festivals or sports events. Around 26,500 (17%) of them were activities for groups, such as regular group sessions offered by youth associations, and around 24,300 (16%) were walk-in activities such as those in youth clubs.
Most walk-in activities were offered by public-sector providers (approx. 10,000) followed by non-statutory welfare organisations (approx. 5,700), other providers (approx. 4,800) and youth associations and youth councils (approx. 3,900).
Group activities, too, were most frequently offered by public-sector providers (approx. 7,700), again followed by non-statutory welfare organisations (approx. 7,300), youth associations and youth councils (approx. 6,100) and other providers (approx. 5,350).
As for events and projects, most activities were offered by youth associations and youth councils (approx. 43,000), followed by public-sector providers (approx. 31,750), non-statutory welfare organisations (approx. 17,400) and other providers (approx. 13,750).
According to child and youth welfare statistics, at the end of 2018, 32,132 workers were active in child and youth services. This number includes 19,067 (59.3%) individuals working in the walk-in recreational youth work field.
The 2014 AID:A study found that at the time, 31% of the 12- to 25-year-olds questioned had attended a walk-in child or youth activity. More than a quarter of school-age minors above the age of 12 attended walk-in child or youth activities. 67% of all 12- to 25-year-olds made use of activities offered by youth associations and clubs (including sports clubs).
In a 2016 survey by the German Youth Institution, just under 60% of youth centres stated that they were also attended by children and adolescents with a disability, owing to the presence of specially qualified staff, suitable concepts and partnerships with disability groups and facilities.
However, given a general lack of suitable activities and the fact that social services are provided separately for disabled and non-disabled young people (Book 8 vs. Book 9 of the Social Code), recent decades have seen parallel structures develop, to some extent with inclusive services, but also exclusive recreational activities specifically for children and adolescents with disabilities by integration organisations and/or disability community organisations. The Act to Strengthen Children and Youth (Kinder- und Jugendstärkungsgesetz/KJSG) of 2021 explicitly requires that child and youth services under Article 11 of Book 8 be designed in an inclusive manner, so an increase in the number of suitable inclusive activities is anticipated.
Further reading
- Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Kinder- und Jugendhilfe (2019): Inklusion in der Jugendarbeit. 10 Jahre UN-BRK – ein Blick auf die Entwicklungen in der und Erwartungen an die Jugendarbeit. Discussion paper (last accessed: 31 May 2021).
- Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (Hrsg.) (2017): 15. Kinder- und Jugendbericht. Bericht über die Lebenssituation junger Menschen und die Leistungen der Kinder- und Jugendhilfe in Deutschland. Berlin (last accessed: 31 May 2021).
- Destatis: Basisdaten zur Statistik zu den Angeboten der Jugendarbeit (22531). Access via the GENESIS-Online database (last accessed: 31 May 2021).
- Deutsches Jugendinstitut – DJI: Aufwachsen in Deutschland: Alltagswelten – AID:A (last accessed: 31 May 2021).
- Pothmann, Jens/Deinet, Ulrich (2021): Offene Kinder- und Jugendarbeit im Wandel. In: Deinet, U., Sturzenhecker, B., von Schwanenflügel, L., Schwerthelm, M. (eds.): Handbuch Offene Kinder- und Jugendarbeit. Wiesbaden.
- Schwerthelm, Moritz/Sturzenhecker, Benedikt: Die Kinder- und Jugendarbeit nach § 11 SGB VIII. Erfahrungsraum für Subjekt- und Demokratiebildung (last accessed: 31 May 2021).
- Seckinger, Mike/Pluto, Liane/Peucker, Christian; van Santen, Eric (2016): Einrichtungen der offenen Kinder- und Jugendarbeit. Eine empirische Bestandsaufnahme. Reihe: Beiträge zur Kinder- und Jugendhilfeforschung. Weinheim and Basel: Beltz Juventa.